


To Seek Asylum

by MiyabiDreams



Category: Homestuck
Genre: All The Ships, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Smut, Heavy Angst, Horrorterrors - Freeform, Interspecies Relationship(s), Multi, Post-Game(s), Sex Toys, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 22:36:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 597,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1281328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyabiDreams/pseuds/MiyabiDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone needs somewhere to go after their session goes wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> We are very sorry to have to officially announce it, but To Seek Asylum is on hiatus until further notice due to circumstances beyond our control. We do wish for your continued patience, and thank you all for your readership. Y'all mean a lot to us.

Dave had only been back home once that summer. He'd opted to keep the apartment that he'd been set up with at the beginning of the last semester, and stick with the job he'd gotten. He didn't want to have to deal with the bullshit of finding a new one of either of those things, and frankly, he'd gotten used to the freedom of being on his own. It wasn't that he didn't like being home, honestly, but he figured that now that he was out on his own, he'd let his Bro enjoy that freedom, too. He had finally settled into a major that he didn't think he'd change out of this time around - a film major was pretty easy and it interested him, no matter how impractical it was - and he liked the courses and their schedules. No classes before ten in the morning, and the coursework wasn't so hellish that it would kill him midway through the semester.

And to top it off, he had prospective roommates this year. Once he was off work, he'd have a few coming over to look at the place that day. He wasn't excited, per se, but he definitely liked the idea of having someone else around. It'd keep him from going too off the walls. Some gravity was something he needed. He'd had a roommate once before, but that had ended up being only a temporary agreement.

He was working on an order when he looked up at the door as the bell chimed to alert him of a new customer. It was a fairly overcast day, so wearing his sunglasses made it slightly harder to see features. He could tell it was a troll, but beyond that...enh. He'd see the guy once he came up to order. He finished off pressing the espresso, stuck it into the machine and flipped the switch in a second-nature move that he'd figured out how to absentmindedly time and still get a perfect brew. It'd be turned into a cappuccino in about a minute and handed off to Sweet Hot Something over there in the ponytail, but for now, it needed just the right touch.

After the door had fallen closed behind him, the troll shrugged a massive, rather elderly bag up on his shoulder before it could slip back off. He was fairly nondescript as far as trolls went, keeping his head down and one hand in the pocket of his jeans as as he weaved between tables and people to set his things down a little further back from the window. He looked somewhat haggard, especially when he sat back and tipped his head against the wall.

After a couple of minutes of scowling up at the ceiling, he left his things on the loveseat he'd more or less claimed as his own, approaching the counter and its single barista, arching an eyebrow at the slim blonde as the creeping feeling of deja vu seeped into his brainstem.

"Hey. Spice latte? If you're not too busy spacing out there," he growled.

Dave looked over at the troll once he'd gotten over to the counter and handed the cappuccino off to the other customer once she'd paid. He was used to sass from trolls; it was just how they were, some more than others. But this one in particular made him arch his brow. He was certain he'd seen this guy around before, some... long time ago or something. He got to work as he mulled it over.

"You haven't been in here before. New to campus?" He had a container of the spice mixture so he wouldn't have to spend five minutes making the damn drink - he'd learned to keep that shit on tap during the fall season and made the mixture in the morning so he didn't have to keep customers waiting during peak hours. He put the spice in with the steamed milk, blended it in well with a movement of the spigot and cup, and then added the coffee and handed the drink over. "That'll be $4.75."

Taking the coffee, the troll moved aside so that if someone else came up for an order he wouldn't be in the way. He glanced back at his things then nodded. "Yeah, new to campus, new to town kind of. I swear every time I get off the fucking bus there's some new bullshit I have to step around." Handing his mastercard over he took a chance to try and find a nametag somewhere, trying to quell the intensifying curiosity. He'd met this guy before. He had to have; it would be pretty fucking hard to forget someone with such shitty taste in eyewear.

"I hear you on that one, dude. Gotta stick around or that shit'll pile up and you've gotta 4-wheel through all the idiocy and dumb douchebags and that just gets messy and no fun for anyone," Dave said, his tone flat and mellow, strung together with a thread of condescension. "You looking for something, man?" He asked as he finished up the next order fairly quickly just to get the person out of his hair.

Okay, there was definitely something going on here. He recognized this guy. "Wait," he said, glad that the last customer he sent on his way was the end of the line for the time being. "Okay, this is going to be fucking trippy as shit if I'm right, but is your name Karkat?" He furrowed his brows behind the mirrored shades. "You just... look like a Karkat to me. Fuckin' don't ask me why."

The troll narrowed his eyes, lips parting to bare his teeth for a moment. "Yeah... Karkat Vantas..." He leaned over the counter, one hand flat on the surface as the other reached toward Dave's shades, knowing he'd probably decked for doing it but shrugging that off in favor of getting a look at the other's face. "And you look like a fucking Strider."

"Yeah." That was about as much as he got before he leaned back to avoid getting his glasses taken off, staying away from punching paying customers for the moment. "Okay. Well, trippy freakass time is just about over, but before we get back to reality, how is it that..." He honestly didn't know where to begin with that train of thought. "Know what? Nevermind. It's weird. Yet another page in the pile of fucked up shit that's happened in my life." He shrugged it off and pushed his glasses back up after giving a pointed look at Karkat over the rim of them. "Stick around. I'm going to need to figure some shit out when I'm not busy as hell with the wage making. My shift's over in about half an hour."

Shrugging a shoulder Karkat lifted up his drink then thumbed back over his shoulder at the seat on which he'd intended to camp until the crowd thinned out and it was time for an afternoon lecture. "I didn't exactly intend to move for a while anyway so just do your coffee-and-flirting-with-chicks thing and I'll just. You know. Judge you from over there." With that he turned and stepped around a tiny girl in a tight dress and platform sandals, just barely avoiding tripping over her as he went back to his claimed seat. He settled down into the overstuffed cushion and pulled his bag toward him, pulling one of the larger books out of the satchel and opening it up to where he knew the required reading was bound to start.

"Man, I can't help that they mack on me constantly. It's a heavy burden, but someone has to be the sexual fantasy of dozens. I'll take one for the team there." Dave gave a lopsided, toothy smile, before going back to work.

While he finished off his shift, he kept thinking about how they could possibly know each other. For some reason, he just kept coming back to a vague 'the internet', though he was certain that if he'd known this guy, he would've recognized him from a photo. He would've remembered that immediately and it wouldn't make him mentally flip several shits. Once he counted out his register and punched out and the other barista came in to fill that spot, he slipped behind the counter one last time to make himself an italian cream soda and then plopped himself in the cozy armchair next to the loveseat. "I'm guessing the internet. Got any better ideas as to why we know each other?"

Looking up from his book, Karkat arched an eyebrow at him in that condescending way that made it apparent that he thought the suggestion as well as the suggester was stupid. His latte was sitting in the space between his knees almost completely drained. He finished it off before turning back to Dave, keeping his finger in the spot he'd left off reading.

"Trust me Strider, I'm pretty fucking sure I'd know if I'd met you anywhere else-" he paused, then narrowed his eyes again and looked Dave straight in the face. "What's your major..."

"Film. Used to be a few other things before I realized that being some sort of hump for the man wasn't my idea of a long term goal that I'd want to achieve." He shrugged and looked blankly over at Karkat. "Not that it fucking matters, since you already told me you're new to school." His memory triggered and he got an odd look before huffing half a chuckle. "Fruity rumpus asshole factory mean fuckall to you?"

"For some reason I expected it to be music... But whatever." Reclining back against the arm of the loveseat, he stared hard at Dave. "I haven't fucking heard that since I was six- ...Fourteen." He was frowning deeply, searching the other's face then looking down at himself, trying to figure out why he'd slipped like that. Trolls hadn't used that particular measurement for their ages in...How long? He couldn't even remember anymore. Was it even a thing? He decided it wasn't and instead focused on the original topic. "That was a message board thing I was on with a bunch of friends. Mostly we just fucking argued."

"Yeah, with shitty clipart as a banner. Clearly high art at work there. 'Rezi made it." Dave paused and then looked at him with an expression of disbelief. "That message board didn't exist. Neither did she. Um. I'm gonna..." He started getting up from the seat and realized that if he walked off, it'd probably look flaky as shit, but this was the first time he had confirmation that something had happened from the time he was told he'd been sick. "Yeah, I'm gonna probably need a minute here, I'm about to lose my lunch." The way he said it was just as calm and mellow as the rest of it, and he showed no signs of actually being sick to his stomach.

This was fucked up, was what it was. There was no goddamn possible way that this Karkat guy knew him, or what had happened, because it _didn't_ happen.

Karkat stiffened, his brow furrowing as he kept a close eye on Dave, staring him down as he scooted closer to him on the loveseat.

"Terezi does so fucking exist, Strider... So does Sollux. And Gamzee. And every fucking one of us..."

"Bullshit," came the kneejerk response. Especially about Gamzee, though no demented mind could possibly come up with someone as fucked up as that guy, he figured. He sighed and rubbed his face. "Okay, so if you guys exist, which, okay, apparently you do, there's... Why do I remember you." It wasn't a question. "It's... we couldn't have fucking done what I think we did, because that? That? Is fucking nuts." He couldn't even put into words what they'd done. Played a computer game was the simple way of putting things, he figured, but he didn't want to seem like some fucking weirdo by saying that he'd played a game that created realities, or, even what he'd been led to believe - that the game he'd played had fucked with him somehow and made him go into a coma for a while, where all the shit he knew had happened was just a dream.

He needed a cigarette, he decided just then, and he looked over onto the patio, glad that it was relatively empty. He could freak out unwatched. "Yeah, nicotine," Dave grumbled, as he stood up and started to the door, slow enough that if Karkat wanted to tag along, he could. It wasn't like Karkat hadn't seen minor cool-losing like this before.

Pushing himself up to follow, Karkat pulled his bag back onto his shoulder and huffed quietly. Strider losing his cool was something he couldn't remember happening. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but then he wasn't entirely sure how all of this connected anyway. Words had just spilled out. The mention of his ex-matesprit had triggered a sudden spasm, names dropping easily. He caught up to Dave and stopped beside him, keeping upwind of him to keep from breathing the smoke himself, dragging a hand through his hair then letting it flop back down over his forehead.

"Look...I don't know what's going on, alright? I don't... There's a huge fucking hole in my memory. I lost a chunk of my life." He gripped hard onto the hand railing around the patio, glaring up at the human with his teeth bared. "I don't know who the fuck you are but I do know who you are and I want to fucking know why, Strider."

The fact that they'd both dated Terezi in one way or another was something that Dave hadn't forgotten - it had come straight back up in his mind once he'd brought her up to begin with - and then it came falling back into place. Karkat and he were friends. Best friends, once. Well, at least his memories told him as much as he tried to sort through what he knew and what was happening just then. They were both in the same damn crazy boat.

"Look, you know about as much as I do, dude," Dave explained as he took a long drag from his cigarette, trying to stay as calm as possible. "So here's all I can really tell you without sounding like a complete lunatic. When I was a kid, I played a game called Sburb, and that's when and where we met. The rest is too goddamn unbelievable to be real, and I was told that it didn't happen - that I'd had a seizure and fell into a coma - so for all intents and purposes, I act like it didn't, because I don't want to seem like a class A whackjob." He leaned back against the railing and looked over at Karkat.

"Even if the entire fucking freakshow exists, and that means it happened, but what's that change? Pretty much fucking nothing, so I try not to dwell on it." He bowed his head and took another bitter drag of his cigarette and sighed the smoke through his nose. "What's your living situation, man? Dorms?"

"Living with my lusus, actually," Karkat sighed, leaning his elbows on the railing as he rubbed his fingers into his eyes. His stomach had plummeted sickly as he'd listened and he wanted nothing more than to go home and shut himself in his bl- ...his room, put on a movie and forget he'd ever fucking run into Dave Strider.

Except he didn't want to forget. There was already an enormous blank space taking up years of his life, and then another couple of years that was spent in a blur of different offices, a hundred different faces of doctors, therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists, and medication, so much medication. He'd spent so much time, effort and money trying to find that blank spot in his memories, and all he really had to show for it was remembering names of friends that he hadn't seen since the blank spot had given way to what he perceived as his reality. He shriveled some on the spot, almost wishing that he smoked as well so that he could grab Dave's cigarette and take a drag himself.

"Strider, can I ask you something?" He said quietly after a minute trying to reorganize his thoughts, standing back up with his hands clamped tight on the rail. Dave turned to face him again at the question and gave a silent nod. Everything was so fucking weird right then that it didn't matter. There was absolutely nothing Karkat could ask that would make things more weird. The look on his face was borderline desperate though as he stepped closer.

"If you can remember this shit, why can't I?"

Dave's heart strings were caught and yanked at that expression on Karkat's face. That shit tugged hard enough to make his stoic expression break momentarily into a small frown. He took a final drag of his cigarette and ground it out on the rail. "Man, look at me, I don't even fuckin' know if what I remember is real or made up dream shit, okay? If you can't remember, maybe it's for the best. Maybe it ain't, fuck if I know. All I do know is that it's a bunch of bullshit. I mean, if you want, I can help you fill in the blanks, maybe that'll give me some closure on the situation, my own damn self, but dude, why would you want that in your head?" He honestly wished that he could say that he had a normal childhood, one that didn't involve ostensibly fictitious reality-destroying cherubs and repeated deaths.

He lowered his voice a little and muttered, "I've gotta get to my pad, people are coming to look at the place soon." He looked at Karkat's heavy looking, ancient bag, and huffed a wry chuckle. "Fuck dude, that shit's gonna fall apart if I look at it wrong. C'mon, my place isn't too far away, we can talk lunatic shit there."

Karkat stared at him for a moment at the offer, looking down at his bag and the seam that was starting to pull apart. At one point, he'd thought about going out and getting a new one, but if he could potentially get one for free, all the better. He shrugged a shoulder and straightened up some, rubbing his hand over his face once more. He was tired, that much was obvious. Maybe he could just skip the lecture that day and get the assignment off the school's website. They posted all of that shit online these days, it would be easy enough.

"Yeah... Yeah, I can live with that."

Dave nodded and slipped away from the rail to lead the way. "Man, and here I thought today would be a pretty normal day. Go to work, meet some jackoffs that might be good roomies, maybe go out and take a few pictures, but nah, gotta run into a figment of my imagination instead." He said it in a slightly amused tone, though. He was dealing pretty well with the situation, all things considered. 

"Yeah, fucking imaginary friend appears to fuck up your world."

Karkat followed Dave until they'd hit the apartments, climbing the stairs with a few muttered complaints. The apartments were only the next block over, and the place was a two bedroom about five stories up, overlooking downtown and being a generally picturesque, fairly new place. He unlocked the door and let Karkat in first. "Excuse the mess, I was planning on getting shit clean before the people started filing in." He set to cleaning pretty much immediately. The place wasn't a disaster, but there were still dirty clothes and pizza boxes strewn around, along with papers of doodles and a whole shitload of photo proofs set on any available flat surface. Karkat stepped in and to one side of the door as he watched Dave start to clean the place, rolling his eyes some. If he wanted to attract someone to potentially live here with him shouldn't he have thought of that sooner? He'd begun to wander within the apartment, looking at the proofs until Dave spoke up again.

"So what do you remember? It'll be easier to start from what you know and build from there than to go backwards."

"Uh...Not a whole lot. Something fucked up and everything from when I was like thirteen up until a while after I turned sixteen is a huge fucking blank. Like... Ok, I remember blood. A lot of blood. All over the fucking walls because of...of Gamzee." He trailed off and rubbed a hand over his forehead, the other clamped tight around the strap of his bag to keep it from shaking. "He's in a fucking mental institution now, did you know that?"

"Jesus, that's a lot of shit to go over man, you're gonna be here a while." Dave shrugged though as he went to the kitchen to get a trash bag, and started wandering around to toss garbage into it as he talked. "Well, for you guys, you played a version of the game that we played, and wound up creating the reality in which we lived," he started, and went through a fair amount of what he remembered. The chats on pesterchum leading the group of human kids through the game. He wasn't in the habit of talking so much, so Dave wound up pausing about the point in his memory where he started making hella bank in the stock market and took a seat. The place was nearly spotless by then out of the nervous cleaning he'd been doing. It helped.

"Sorry man, it's a lot to go through. It's like remembering a bad dream. Bits and pieces. And I'm pretty fucking sure all the timeline jumping tampered with my memory a ton, too." He finally took off his shades and set them aside. He was still self-conscious about them, but since his apartment was slowly getting darker as the day drew into afternoon, he started to have trouble seeing. Stupid north-facing apartment.

Under his shades, he'd been hiding candy red eyes, as well as a single brow piercing on his right side, and a scar on his left brow where the other piercing had grown out. He figured Karkat wouldn't throw an epic shitfit over the color of his eyes, since he'd noticed that Karkat's eyes were pretty much turning out to be the same color.

Karkat had long since taken a seat as he watched Dave pacing across the apartment cleaning up as he talked, sinking down further and further into the cushions until his head was nearly level with his knees. He asked the occasional question, and in some parts he managed to fill in names, parts of the blank period giving way to scenes that, without more context than what Dave could give him, didn't make much sense. There was a lot of death involved. A *lot* of death. His chest ached some when Dave finally fell silent, his arms crossing over it protectively with his hands tucked into his armpits. In his mind he was on the verge of very quietly breaking down, his eyes slightly glazed as he went over all of the information that had piled up. There wasn't enough therapy in the world that could make any of that ok.

Instead, he chose to give himself something else to focus on, and started to talk again, slowly at first then gaining momentum as he talked about his friends, or at least what was left of them. Gamzee, as he'd mentioned, had been locked up. He'd been committed after it had been determined that in addition to paranoid schizophrenia and bipolarity, the prolonged drug use had made it impossible for him to function as a member of society. Sollux was...ok, as far as he could remember. They hadn't spoken in six months; the last he'd heard, he was working for IBM in California. Terezi was predictably in law school, and Kanaya was studying childcare and development on the other side of the country as far as he could remember. The others... He had no idea. After life had resumed as was apparently the norm, he'd lost contact with them.

"I don't even know what the fuck happened to your friends. Who were also apparently my friends. Or something like that. Jesus fuck I don't know..." He laid his hand over half of his face, fingers twisted into his hair as he racked his brain for anything more. He looked back at Dave, pausing when he realized that he could see the other's eyes and relaxing some for the fact. Dave trusted him. The figment of his imagination. For now, it was enough.

Dave nodded as he scooted his chair a bit closer to Karkat and filled in for what he knew of his side of things. John had stopped talking to him a while back, Rose was already published but still going to school for English history and they talked occasionally, and Jade had fallen out of talking to them altogether. It was as if she hadn't even existed. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Fucked up shit man, seriously fucked up. So do they remember anything - I mean, the ones you talk to? Rose... She says she doesn't, but then when you read these stories she writes, it's obvious she remembers something." He sighed and shrugged. "Before John and I stopped talking he had said he found someone else, but I thought he was just fucking with me. That was when they had me on that shit that made me feel like a damn zombie."

"I think I know the shit you're talking about. They put me on it for a while to keep me calm or whatever during sessions in the beginning. Cost a pretty fucking penny and didn't do shit but make me feel like I'd sucked down my weight in sopor." He'd also stopped taking them when he'd realized he was becoming dependent on them, and refused to see the same therapist after that. The cycle had repeated a few times, until finally he'd given up, only taking the antidepressants and occasionally sleep aids these days. He looked down at his hands as he folded them together in his lap to keep them from shaking. "I thought shit would be okay when it was over. I remember that now. I thought, if we all made it to the end and got our prize, we'd all be okay. This doesn't feel okay, Strider. None of this is by any fucking stretch of the imagination okay."

"We're alive, that's... really all that we got out of it. But honestly, I would've preferred a doomed timeline to feeling like a fucking lunatic whenever I started remembering something that was impossible," Dave confessed, his brows knit as he watched Karkat's hands fidget. "Look man, it's gonna be okay though. We know it happened. Sure, it's a shit sandwich, but we gotta choke it down and smile like it's a fucking juicy hamburger. At least..." He shrugged as he heard someone approach the door. "At least we got someone who knows we're not fucking nuts." He opened the door as someone knocked on it and muttered something to them, before closing the door again and taking a short detour to the kitchen. He wrote a note on a piece of paper and slapped some tape on it and put it up on his doorway. It read "roommate found - ggnm."

"There, that'll keep them from being annoying. You hungry, loudmouth?"

"Not really," Karkat admitted, but he pushed himself off of the couch and stood nonetheless, pulling his hoodie down a little as he crossed the room and leaned against the wall just outside the kitchen, looking in with the hopes that Dave actually had something that wouldn't qualify solely as bachelor cuisine. There was only so much ramen one could take.

"I'm fucking starved to death," Dave muttered as he grabbed the pile of take-out menus from their drawer and leafed through them. "So let's get back to reality here. I'm not looking for a roommate because of the money. The apartment's paid off. I'm honestly just really goddamn bored. I'd get a pet but they don't feed or clean up after themselves. Too much work." He couldn't decide what he wanted from the menus and sighed. He set them down and dug in the fridge, then in a cupboard, and found a pack of cookies that he opened up and started to snack right there.

"I guess a surly dick with the same kind of crazy might be all right, I mean, if you're looking for a place that's closer to school than where you're at. I might not need the money, but I ain't a fucking charity here, either. You'd have to pay half the utilities. Put up with my foot odor. You know, the basics."

Karkat arched an eyebrow at him, glancing down at the takeout menus after Dave went through them, hoping that he had something good in there to pick from as he thought over the offer for all of ten seconds.

"So you just decided all on your own that you're gonna invite me into your home because we apparently share psychoses. Real fucking smart, Dave. But hey, if it keeps you from seeing if you can fly and it means I don't have to take the bus anymore, I think I can deal with this arrangement. But you have to start fucking picking up after yourself, bro. I don't want to trip over last week's fucking pizza box."

"Man, I'm not holding you at fucking gunpoint about this shit, it's up to you if you want to get out of your goddamn hive and live a little closer to the school." Dave shrugged and offered a cookie. "I've lived here for the past year on my own, I can keep on keepin' on with or without you, but if you're gonna be a little bitch about it, that's cool too. No promises about the mess, but I'll try. That's the best you'll get outta me." He smirked faintly and looked down with a chuckle. "Shit, Vantas, it's not like I'm hard up for an emotionally masochistic living situation. I just kinda like having your dumb nubby-headed face actually existing and around."

For the first time in several years, Karkat had a hard time trying not to smile. This was good. This was progress.

He had his best friend back.

\--

Arrangements were made fairly easily to pick up Karkat's belongings from his hive, resulting in a trip for both of them to be made the next day with a borrowed truck (though why anyone had ever given Karkat a driver's license in the first place was anyone's guess). Now it was just a matter of easing his lusus into the idea that he would be leaving the house, most likely for the rest of the school year, if not for good. He was nervous, but it felt pretty good and he was legitimately excited, even if it didn't really show on his face. Dave had taken time off work to help Karkat move his stuff, and called around to see if anyone else wanted to chip in on the promise of free pizza and soda. The only one that said maybe was Bro, who'd flaked out at the last minute for some 'serious important internet stuff', which Dave accepted. There were always problems with the servers that hosted his stupid puppet site.

But regardless, Dave followed along in his own car, and only had a very minor case of apprehension that he shook off at the door. He was excited to get Karkat moved in.

"So this is your hive? Fun times. Let's do this shit. Between the truck and car, I'm pretty sure we can make it in one trip."

"Yeah, as long as you don't mind having some shit tetrised into your trunk. It's not that I even have a lot of shit, it's that it's kind of awkwardly shaped." Karkat shrugged as he unlocked the front door of the hive, letting himself in and peeking around then nodding Dave inside. He'd let his lusus know ahead of time what the plan was, and predictably he was rather ticked off, overprotective and warning against going out on his own as if he were still a wriggler. He'd been easy enough to placate and explain things to after the initial resistance, and the giant crab creature stayed back out of the way, irritably skreeing every time Karkat or Dave came downstairs carrying something that had been haphazardly boxed or that looked heavy enough to struggle with. A couple of times, Karkat himself was prompted to screech back before going back to whatever he was doing. Dave, predictable as ever, watched the ongoing argument with a half-chuckle, although he couldn't remember the last time he was half as intimidated by someone's guardian. The lusus seemed pretty cool, if not bordering on being a helicopter dad. Dave did attempt to quell crabdad's fears by saying that hey, if anything bad happened, he'd call here straight up, and there would be no problems anyway because he's astute like that.

Loading the collapsed shelves that held his collections of books and movies into the back of the truck, the troll looked at his life neatly tucked into the 4x8 space and it hit him that he was actually leaving his lusus. It was strange, and he kind of wanted to go back inside and apologize.

When Dave finished lugging the last box of movies down, he leaned against the inner wall of the truck and sighed. "You sure you don't want your sleep... thingy?" He could never remember the word for it. "Recuperacoon? Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to move, but I could hire some movers to haul that shit up the stairs."

Karkat nodded some at that, glad for the distraction. "Maybe we can grab it after we unload this stuff. The cocoon itself is pretty light, it's just the slime that's gonna make it heavy," he replied as he lifted the tailgate into place, pulling a couple of bungee cords over the top of the stuff to keep it from sliding and potentially bumping out when they'd be going over speed bumps.

"Man, I have to wonder how hygienic that shit is. Ugh." He shuddered visibly and hopped out after helping with the bungees, and then walked to his car. "I'll see you there." He slid into his car and then started on the way. While on the way back into the city, he thought about what it'd be like to live with that over-reactive dumbass. He thought it was the kickin' ass-est thing in theory, but in practicality, they were kind of mutual douchebags and he remembered something about Rose saying how obnoxious they were together. But then again, that was when they were fuckin' fifteen. That'd change.

Once they got most of the shit up the stairs and into the second room, Dave decided it was time to die a little bit on the sofa. "Gimme ten minutes, we'll get the rest of it and go back for your cocoon. It's too hot for this dumb shit."

Rolling his eyes, Karkat started making steady trips up and down the stairs, bringing a box at a time or a shelf or some other thing and setting everything in the living room to be rearranged later on, intending to drag everything into the spare room before they went to fetch the recuperacoon. He sat down on the floor when it was done, wiping his arm across his forehead. He stripped his hoodie off over his head and tossed it into the corner to hang up later, wiping his hands over his face and leaning back against the wall. "Strider, you're being a fucking wimp right now. The sooner we get this shit done the sooner we can be lazy and figure out what the fuck to do with our weekend."

Dave was sweaty and overheated and honestly, it had been a while since he'd done much more than lifting his backpack onto his shoulder in terms of working out. "Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, dude. I am a fragile fucking snowflake." His smile tilted as he sat up from his sprawl on the sofa. "But you make a fine point. The sooner the shit is over, the sooner we can fuck around and I can berate your taste in movies. What Women Want? I don't know what the movie is about, but I guarantee Mel Gibson wouldn't know thing one about what women really want."

"Man, fuck you, it's a good fucking movie. You wouldn't know quality cinema if it jumped up and bit you in the ass." Pushing himself to stand, Karkat stretched his arms up over his head with a groan, then pulled the hem of his shirt back down. He watched as Dave left the room in search of a shirt with shorter sleeves and that was a lot less sweat-drenched, waiting until Dave returned then hopping back down the stairs quickly in the hopes of finishing getting his belongings moved in before it started getting late enough in the evening to qualify as dinner time. Dave followed after him, taking several steps at a time.

"Yeah, you're right, I clearly cannot understand the nuances in the mainstream media culture, pandering to women, and having them fawn all over a dude who, in reality, verbally and physically abuses his wife. Man, where do I come up with the things I think sometimes."

They wound up getting the cocoon and most of the slime moved without issue, though one container overturned in transit and spilled out the back of the truck. Dave figured if that was all that had happened, it counted as a victory in terms of moving. Once back up in the apartment, Dave helped with getting boxes organized as stuff that went in the living room, like the movies and music, and stuff that went in the bedroom, like clothes and the desk and computer.

"You know what really sketched me out when I moved here?" He said as he brought out the last box of movies into the living room. "How little my life was, when calculated in terms of stuff. I thought this place would barely contain all my shit, but once I got it all in, it... it felt really sparse. I had to keep buying shit last year to make the place not seem so empty." He motioned with a thumb to a large framed photo he'd gotten blown up and hung up on the wall. "Not my best work, but it's sufficiently boring enough to be wall art."

"Dude, you shouldn't have to make the boring shit the wall art. It's your space, hang up whatever the fuck you want. Except now it's my space too. I don't really have much to hang up outside of my posters and I know you'd just flip your shit if I started putting them up anywhere but my room." Karkat shrugged as he shoved a few boxes out of the way and started to maneuver the cocoon into the room, easing it around the corner and into place against the back wall. He could empty the slime back into it later on. He paused and picked up a container, remembering the comment Dave had made earlier about how hygienic it wasn't.

"You do realize that this stuff is sterile and actually remains so, right? Otherwise we wouldn't be able to use it every night to sleep. Like rubbing alcohol but without the fumes."

Dave still shuddered at the thought of slime. "Man, that's just weird as hell though. I'm sure it's all cozy and shit for you guys with thick skin, but I'd probably come out looking like a mutant albino raisin after sleeping in that stuff."

"You probably look like a fucking mutant albino raisin after getting out of a swimming pool," Karkat snorted and started pushing some of his stuff around to get it better arranged before starting to pour the slime back into place in the cocoon, sitting of the edge of it with his pantlegs rolled up to his knees.

Dave rolled his eyes, then wrinkled his nose and looked at the container. "And Gamzee ate this stuff?" That kid was probably better off in a hospital. It didn't matter how goddamn medicated that dude was, he had some serious problems if he thought sopor slime was edible. He shook his head at the thought. Karkat glanced back at him, nodding his head with a small frown.

"Yeah. He was told over and over it wasn't for consumption, but he loved his fucking high..."

"It's a damn shame. I mean, that kid could throw down some mad rhymes. He could've gone somewhere with that alone if he wasn't so hellbent on, you know. Destroying all sentient life and shit. I always felt like, man. There's a kid with a shitload of potential. Shame it all went straight into being a fuckoff." Dave shook his head solemnly. "S'kinda why I even came to college. I didn't want to wind up fucking off and blowing all my potential on dumb shit."

"Gamzee was a hell of a poet. Pretty fucking good friend too, all things considered, until he went batshit..." After emptying the last of the slime into the bed Karkat swung his feet back out and onto the floor, flicking some of the bright green stuff off his fingers then wiping them on the seat of his jeans.

"And holy shitballs, Strider, you actually have some initiative. I'm...kind of proud of that to be honest. I mean, the more I think about it, I didn't really expect all that much from you outside of trying to become the next Eminem wannabe. And yes, I know about human pop culture. It's kind of hard to avoid." He continued as he started to unroll and pin up some of his posters, bearing troll and human actors and traditional titles in Alternian writing.

"Ooo, should I praise you for your amazing far-flung knowledge of pervasive human media or...?" Dave teased, settling into Karkat's computer chair and leaning back as he watched his friend pin up posters. "Nah man, I get it. I do. I was a fucking annoying little shit back then, I'll own up to it. Fucking trying way too damn hard to stand in the shadow of my brother when I knew there was way damn better shit for me out there." He sighed and shook his head. "I still can spit some ill poetry, myself, but I just...kinda left that shit behind. It was something I kind of packaged in my head as stuff from Then and There. A fever dream."

He smiled faintly. Man, this was cozy as hell. Weird, sure, but comforting. "And to be fucking frank with you, dude, I thought if you could just release the stick from out your ass, you'd be able to be some sort of glorious world leader by now. Like, why the hell aren't you god-king of some peasant country or some shit?"

Leaning against the recuperacoon again, Karkat looked down at his feet, shaking his head then once more tucking his hands under his arms. "I gave up on the leader schtick as soon as the game ended. I fucked up a lot, from what I can remember and what you've told me. Got pretty introspective after starting therapy. Y'know, I tried meditation at one point but I don't have the patience for that shit."

"All leaders fuck up, dude. They're just people, y'know?" He shrugged one shoulder and sighed. "You've always been your own goddamn kismesis, man, I don't even know why you gotta be so hard on yourself." He stood then, "C'mon, let's get some food. I'm pretty sure I could eat an entire fucking buffet right now."

"Everyone else is too fucking forgiving." Karkat shook his head as he pushed off from his seat, waving Dave out of the room. "Fuck off so I can change into some clean clothes. I'll pay for chinese or something if we find a good all-you-can-eat somewhere close."

"Good plan," Dave said as he slipped up off the chair and out of the room, so he could go and get ready to face the public after hours of hard labor. He combed his hair back and put on a pair of sunglasses that weren't dark, so much as tinted a yellowy tone so that his eyes looked brown rather than red. He called out across the hall to Karkat's room, "Look man, all I'm saying is that I wouldn't fucking forgive you if I didn't think you deserved it. I'm just as forgiving as I should be."

Karkat rolled his eyes some, his own self-loathing muting what should have felt pretty good coming from someone like Dave. Nothing had been able to "fix" him yet, so why should he expect anything more or less? He combed his fingers through his hair a few times then shook it out, letting it fall into its natural mess before pulling on a bright red long sleeved shirt under a regular black tshirt that bore his sign. He slipped into a pair of slim jeans that he admitted in the only vaguely vain part of his mind that actually made him look good, and he stepped into his sneakers before going back to the living room to wait for Dave to join him. Mentally mapping out the area, he tried to remember where he might have seen a chinese buffet, recalling a few bright signs hovering over the street a few blocks down, a larger one a few miles away. At least living in the city would make his living a lot easier, even if it would be a little more expensive.

"Come on, asshat we haven't got all damn night, get out from in front of the mirror!"

"Don't fuck with a man in the middle of primping, douchecanoe," came the droll reply, though Dave emerged from his bedroom moments later and slipped his shoes on at the door. "Best thing about the place is that it doesn't card." He grabbed his wallet and keys from where they were on the counter near the door, and ushered Karkat out. He'd always locked the doors, because he'd grown up in a shitty neighborhood with every chance of getting robbed, mugged, or killed. He always wondered why he and Bro didn't just move the fuck out of the city if they had enough money to buy a house in one of the ritzier neighborhoods. He only realized later that it was because all that money was being funneled into a savings account for his college tuition and rent during school.

He locked up and started down the hall, smiling a bit at how Karkat cleaned up just to go to a damn hole-in-the-wall buffet. "Dude, skinny jeans just don't do it for me anymore. You rock 'em, but me, man, I need some room." He chuckled as he looked down at his own button-fly jeans and nondescript t-shirt, partnered with a pair of ostentatious red skater shoes. He had more ridiculous clothes than this in his closet, but was far less concerned about appearance than he'd been years prior.

"Thanks for noticing but I didn't exactly need your input," Karkat snorted and pushed his wallet into his back pocket, shooing Dave on ahead of him. He started down the stairs without another word, finally realizing how hungry he actually was.

"Just saying. I remember when I could tolerate the ten minute removal process. Fuck that noise." He stuck his hands in his pockets as he strolled down the stairs. "Look man, don't be a buzzkill tonight, okay? If some girls start flirting, I really don't need you to start screaming about how embarrassing I am, got it?" It was a gentle tease for Dave, honestly. He knew Karkat wouldn't do that to him. Usually.

"Oh come the fuck on, I'm not just going to make a scene in the middle of dinner," he complained and followed Dave out to his car, remembering that he'd have to make a call to return the truck the next day, but for the time being it could just sit in its spot and not go anywhere. He sank into the passenger seat of Dave's car once it was unlocked, immediately pulling his seatbelt on then wrinkling his nose as he glanced at the CD player, wanting to flip through the other's CDs in spite of the fact that the trip was only going to take a few minutes.

"Yeah okay, you will be completely mellow and not get all uppity over, I dunno, noodles or some shit. Got it. Noted." He smirked as he buckled in and swatted Karkat's hand away from the buttons. "Don't make me have to kill you the first day you moved in, man, that's a death sentence for most." He started up the car and pulled out of the lot, into the modest flow of traffic.

"I will fondle your fucking buttons all I want, and you won't do shit about it," Karkat sneered and poked at the button again out of sheer spite.

"Fucker, at least buy my buttons flowers first." Dave chuckled as he shook his head and leaned back a little. The way he drove was relaxed and casual, and it wasn't long before he found a place to park right in front of the buffet. Once inside, he stood around like an idiot while they waited to be seated. Standing beside Dave, Karkat couldn't help but feel mildly self-conscious, narrowing his eyes at anyone that looked their way. There wasn't even anything to be self-conscious about, it was an ingrained thing that he couldn't stand but that had never gone away. He looked up when the hostess took them back to where they would be sitting, taking their drink orders and nodding enthusiastically as she put down a pair of wrapped silverware sets.

Dave ordered himself a beer and then moved quickly to the buffet once the hostess left, eager to eat. He mentally noted Karkat's pinch-faced glares, and shook his head to himself as he thought about how those little things hadn't changed, but still were forgotten over the years. Dave, on the other hand, was still the stoic stone wall that was mostly legs and sarcasm, and that worked well for him.

After the initial hunger had been sated by a trip for each of them up to the buffet, Karkat slowed down, frowning down at his plate as he twisted his fork into the small heap of lo mein. He looked back at Dave with the intention of finding something to make small talk about. Friends? Probably a sore spot. Family? There probably wasn't much to say on that end either. School didn't feel right either for some reason. He made a face and returned to his food once more until the plate had been emptied and he was ready to load up again.

Dave, for his part, was perfectly comfortable with the silence, up until he noticed Karkat's expression and then sighed. "Dude, once we get back, you get one chance, one, to sway me to the dark side of rom coms. If I am not wholly impressed by the movie you choose to watch, I will dunk your head in ice water, or something equally malicious."

An eyebrow arched up at that and Karkat paused with his fork in his mouth, chewing slowly then pointing the utensil back at Dave. "And what's the catch?" He asked, obviously and, at least in his mind, justifiably suspicious.

"No catch. I just really feel like seeing what's so damn good about those shitty fucking mushy fluff films, that's all." Dave shrugged a shoulder as he poked at his plate of meat. "Maybe I'm watching them wrong or some shit." He stood up and brought his plate with him to go get another round of food. Karkat followed after him to retrieve another helping himself, leaving his old plate on the table in favor of picking up a clean one.

"Oh just you fucking wait, Strider. You'll find something that you love and it'll make you reevaluate your entire stance on the genre and you'll thank me on bended knee." He smirked faintly as the mood was successfully lightened, knowing he would get snark and sarcasm in reply and barely caring.

"Right. I think a reversal of position would be a little more favorable. You'd better be doing something other than being smug while you're down there, too," mocked Dave, pointing the tongs at Karkat. "You don't get on your knees in front of me without either prostrating or sucking. That's just the rules." He knew that Karkat was expecting snark, so he went with the out-of-left gross-out maneuver.

Karkat deadpanned. He knew this game. He knew it very well. If Strider wanted to play that way, he could at least match whatever was thrown at him.

"Would you rather I just about-face and present my ass?"

Dave simply raised an eyebrow to that and got a lopsided smile, which was then punctuated with him sticking his tongue out and presenting the barbell through it. "I'm a stone cold sex machine, Vantas, you'd be way too happy in that scenario." He slipped away from the buffet and back to the table.

"That's a hell of a lot of wishful thinking, Strider. I'd even bet that you've never slept with anyone, let alone that you'd be a machine of any kind of skill even remotely related to it." Settling back down at the table, Karkat sat back and started into his second plate, much more relaxed now that the tension was completely dispersed.

"Why would you take a losing bet?" Dave asked, putting on an almost sincere tone of bafflement. He tucked in quietly once more, rather glad that he didn't have to ask the waitress to bring another bottle of beer, as there had been a new one sitting on the table when they'd returned. He was amused, however, that Karkat had definitely mellowed over the past few years. That sort of thing would've sent the guy into a tailspin of severe gibbering frustration years ago, but now, it was just rib-poking and banter. "Man, now I've gotta find a way to actually rile you up. Sucks to be me, I guess."

"That's what happens when people grow up, Dave. We're adults now, remember? What's that whole thing about ages and shoe sizes? Oh right, don't be a fucking wriggler." Smirking faintly, Karkat took a few sips from his replenished soda then dug back into his food easily. He was prepared for spice this time, equipped with his own dish of ginger and everything.

"Adults? Since when. I demand a goddamn refund on this horseshit." Dave was about halfway through the plate of food when he started slowing down. He was clearly not used to eating so much, but man, he just couldn't help but want more eggrolls. "And did you just make a dick-size-in-comparison-to-age joke? Unkosher, man. Unkosher as hell." He didn't honestly care, frankly, but it was just another fun way of digging into the sass and breaking it up.

"Everything is about dicks with you, isn't it," Karkat snorted, stabbing his fork into a mushroom and popping it into his mouth, watching Dave and shaking his head some. "You're obsessed. You've always been obsessed. You and your stupid fucking penis ouija bullshit."

Dave stopped eating momentarily. "Holy shit, you are absolutely right. Wow. I am obsessed with penises. I just think about them all. The. Time. Yep, that's me, Dong Strider. Thanks, Karkat, I have seen the light." He sipped his beer and looked over at his friend with a completely straight face. "From now on, it will be just pussy and nooks for me. Thank you, friend."

That one actually seemed to get to him. The color rose slightly in his face and he jabbed his fork at Dave with a piece of broccoli on the end of it. "You're so full of shit, Strider, Jesus sweet bulgefucking christ. You couldn't even fucking begin to handle a troll girl. Or a troll guy, if that's what you're into. Humans are so fucking weird when it comes to that kind of thing, I don't even know what the fuck to think."

Dave shrugged one shoulder as he silently admitted defeat via Chinese food. He took another swig of beer and responded, "I have, and did, and I honestly wasn't sure what to expect at first but once I figured out the plumbing, I was all about mastering technique. I don't halfass, you know that. Go big or go home, right?" He felt only slightly awkward that he was discussing this at all, but it was an experience Dave felt was something that taught him a lot more about himself than about xenobiology. "As for what I'm into? Man, I don't even fucking know anymore. I'm just fucking glad it's not felt like some fuckin' weirdos I know."

Karkat pressed his lips together as he reminded himself that for a brief time, Dave had been with Terezi, which made it that much more awkward when he considered the nature of the discussion. "Thanks, Strider. Real nice. Now I've lost my appetite."

"My deepest sympathies to your everything, but hell dude, you're the one who called that into play." He stood once he finished his beer and patted his friend on the shoulder on the way by. "Don't be a wriggler, right?" He decided it was time to go out and catch some fresh air.

Dave stood next to his car and crossed his legs as he lit a cigarette, and watched the people as they walked past. Karkat lingered inside a moment, paying for the food and drinks then joining Dave outside, leaning against the other side of the car with his arms crossed and waiting for Dave to either finish his smoke or climb into the car with it. He tucked his hands under his arms, apparently a nervous tic that had developed over the last few years. Once he flicked the butt of the cigarette into the street, Dave slid into the car and sat there momentarily, deciding whether or not to apologize, before just strapping in and starting the engine. "Look man, that was pretty fucking unrighteous of me. Sorry I went there."

Karkat let a quiet, neutral grunt as he settled into the passenger seat, looking out the window with his chin propped on his hand as Dave pulled the car out for the drive home. He watched the passing city for a few minutes in the awkward silence before scratching his fingers irritably through his hair and letting out a sigh. "We're both being assholes, what a fucking surprise. Sorry for being a tool and bringing it up in the first place."

"Not a problem," Dave said, honest for once. "I'm still up for that terrible waste of film you call a good movie, though, just, you know, just in case you forgot that I said that." He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel while he waited for a light, agitated by the weird and sudden ball of angst they had going on.

Glad for a distraction from the miserable atmosphere, Karkat rounded on him and poked him hard in the shoulder. "Waste of film? I'm so going to make you fucking eat those words, Strider. And I'll be right there waiting for that heartfelt-as-fuck apology."

"Dude, that shit you call life-changing is completely sugar-coated idiot baby drivel and in my experience, nothing happens like in those movies. Never once have I seen a chick take off her glasses and get instantly seven hundred times hotter. Never once have I seen a relationship start out with some dumbass happenstance between two completely incompatible people. Not a single fucking time, Vantas, have I met a dude who impregnated some chick he met at a bar, because he was so drunk he didn't know how to put on a fucking condom, and then step up to be the best fucking father okay? It's all idiotic, and while I don't condemn your enjoyment of them, I find anyone who likes those has a sugar-coated view of the world that fucking distorts their ability to ever commit to a relationship, because they're always looking for one that's movie perfect." He parked in his regular spot and before he got out of the car he rumpled Karkat's hair. "Even you, Vantas."

Karkat flailed some at him and shook his hair back out, shoving on Dave's back to get him going then stepping out of the car himself. "Come on, Strider, give me some more fucking credit than that, I know shit doesn't happen like the movies. They're idealized. They play out a lot of fucking wishful thinking and it's like poetry in fucking motion. You're the kind of asshole that goes to a movie just to have a really fucking loud and obnoxious conversation about what's so wrong with it and then gets escorted out to the applause of everyone else."

"All movies are wish fulfillment in one way or another," Dave agreed, then scowled as he started up the stairs. "No, I'm not. I'm the kind of guy who goes to see a movie specifically for the cinematography. I may be a pretentious douchefuck, but at least I'm a pretentious douchefuck who knows how to run a fucking blog instead of whine while a movie is still rolling." He smiled faintly. "Like I said, I will watch your dumb dippy movie, and I meant it. I won't even say a word. Total silence will happen, and I will immerse myself in your dumb saccharine fantasy world."

Karkat rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day and waved Dave on in ahead of him, closing and locking the door behind them. He toed his shoes off to carry to his room and leave there under his desk, walking back to the living room in his socks and looking down at the boxes of movies. He would have to sort out and put back into their shelves once they were set up properly.

"I'll let you pick the movie if it means it'll stop this casually insulting barrage," Karkat said over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised back at Dave sitting there, his shoes off and sitting back by the entrance.

"Nah man, it's your choice. I don't know bad from good, like I said. You're the romcom expert, so wow me. Pick your favorite or the best or whatever." He slipped off his shades and set them aside, rubbing his face. He wasn't sure he was ready to sit through two hours of this tripe, but he'd promised. Karkat stood there staring into the box, one hand across his middle, cupping his elbow as he tapped his fingers against his cheek while pondering the contents of his film collection. Should he lean more toward heartbreaking to make the happy ending that much more satisfying, or try and make Dave laugh? He decided something in between would make a decent introduction to his obsession. He bent and plucked one out, grinning as he presented the movie for an appraisal of the back blurb. It was an older one, but arguably one of his favorites outside of some of Will Smith's work (he wouldn't readily admit it, but he had a few Smith films that weren't strictly romcom) and he felt it would be a good way to end a pretty shitty night.

While he read the back blurb, and completely kept a poker face at the fact that it had Johnny Depp in it, Dave nodded in interest. "Sounds promising," he agreed, before slipping out of his seat to put the movie in, sighing heavily that the center was wired wrong for movies. "Gimme a minute," he grumbled as he reached back behind the electronics to fumble with the wires and switch out the game system for the blu-ray player. Once that was done, he climbed back up onto the sofa and pressed play on the remote. "So what do you want if I actually do like this? You know, on the very slim chance I might actually concede?"

Karkat tapped thoughtfully on his chin as he sank onto the sofa at the other end with his legs pulled up in front of him, smiling rather triumphantly as he looked back at Dave. "Well, first you have to admit all the bitching you did was completely biased and unjustified. After that, whatever you decide to do for me will be based on how much you actually enjoyed it."

"Wow, open ended 'whatever' cop-out," Dave said as the unpassable old-as-shit previews rolled, "I like those. How uncomfortable can I make you for saying that?" He wondered aloud, before he simply shrugged. "I accept. Sounds decent enough for me." He finally settled on his end of the couch, sitting while sprawling his body from the chest up across the arm of the sofa.

As the movie rolled, he was silent, as he said he would be. He watched intently, and to his eternal displeasure, he got immersed fairly quickly. He wasn't moved to tears, although he felt himself getting a bit choked up at the end, and that was enough to admit to himself, that yeah, that was a good movie. Fucking Vantas, being right about shit.

"Okay," he muttered as the credits started to roll. "Fine. I apologize, asshole, for having a biased view of romantic comedies at large."

Karkat gave Dave his best shit-eating grin then stretched out some, groaning then nudging Dave's leg with his foot. "So what do you intend to do for me now, huh? It had better be pretty fucking spectacular. I saw you getting all misty-eyed and shit, you can't even try to hide that from me."

"I wasn't fucking misty-eyed, you knobgobbler, I just... fuck you." He shook his head with a chuckle and threw his hands up in surrender. "I don't know, dude. I never thought you'd win, honestly." He leaned back and scowled at Karkat's foot, poking it back, albeit in a delayed response. "I'll think of something. I owe you one, how's that?"

"Wow, nice cop-out there, Strider," Karkat teased and retracted his foot, sitting up at his end of the couch with his smirk still all over his face. This was a huge triumph and it meant that maybe he could convince Dave to watch more with him. He knew that the guy wouldn't be that easily swayed, but he had his foot in the door. That was better than nothing.

"A cop-out for a cop-out, take it or leave it, Vantas." Dave stretched out and yawned, only just realizing how sore his arms and legs were from all the heavy lifting. "Jesus fuck, dude, if I'm able to stand tomorrow, it'll be a goddamn miracle." He cracked his neck. "Okay, so instead of owing you a solid, how about we do this. For every one of your dippy-ass romcoms I actually like - two a week tops - I'll do your half of the chores that week. That means cleaning, garbage, whatever you were going to do. Including this time, since I'm a good sport."

Karkat snorted quietly and gestured to the room at large. "When I got here it was a mess, do you really expect me to think you're gonna keep up on that promise for longer than the first week? I'm not a fucking grub, Dave."

Dammit, he was right. Dave thought a little longer and then sighed with a shake of his head, rubbing his face. "Okay look, mister fucking perfectionist, since everything I suggest is going to be shot down, why don't you just tell me what it is you're looking to get out of this so I can just do it and get it over with?"

Karkat tapped his fingers against his jaw as he started to really think about it, skimming over several rather stupid or outrageous options, settling on the most practical thing he could possibly think of: "You're going to help me find a job, Dave. I don't care how you do it, but I need a job because I am *not* relying on student loans my entire fucking college career."

"Wow, that's surprisingly levelheaded of you," Dave said as his brows arched. "Sure man. I mean, I don't really have in-roads everywhere, but I can see what strings I can pull. Anything that's a definite no for you right off the bat? I'd hate to put effort into something you'll just straight up say fuck no to."

"As long as it doesn't involve me having to interact directly with people, I'll be just fine." Just imagining himself doing customer service made him shudder. Mental breakdowns, property damage, lawsuits, all of them seemed like very real threats if he were to be placed behind a counter or on a phone dealing with the general public.

"Hm. That weeds out basically everything. Though we had to fire a busser last month at the shop because he was a fucking slacker-ass." That, coming from Dave, was pretty bad. He shrugged. "You want to schlep dishes for a paycheck? I could ask my boss to swing that for you. It's not a glamorous lifestyle, but it'd be a foot in the door to getting a baristo job, or at least something while you look for something better."

"That works for me just fine. I don't care if it's minimum wage, as long as it's something I can put in my checking."

With that settled, Karkat stood up, groaning quietly at the heaviness in his limbs from moving the bigger half of his belongings first out of his hive, then into Dave's apartment. His legs would be completely jello by morning, he was sure, but at least tomorrow he could laze a while and ignore pretty much everything. He offered a hand to help Dave to his feet, knowing he probably felt the same if not worse. "We can start on that first thing Monday morning then."

Dave took the offered hand and hoisted himself up, patting Karkat's shoulder gingerly before nodding. "You don't have to worry. You'll be a pretentious dick in no time, with me around." He shuffled off to the hallway and smirked a little. "If you get slime anywhere but your room, I'll kick your ass," he joked as he got to his room. "Oh. Shit, remind me to buy you earplugs on Monday," he added, leaning against his doorway. "You'll need them if you aren't nubs-deep in the sopor."

"What, I'm not a pretentious dick already? Does this mean I have to step up my game and start hiking my pants up to my armpits?" Karkat chuckled and followed Dave, starting to turn into his room only to pause, looking back at him with one hand on the doorframe. "Earplugs? Why?"

"I'm...pretty annoying when I sleep. Shouting and shit. Sorry in advance." Dave shrugged in a 'what can you do?' fashion before slipping into his room. "I'll try not to scream too much. No promises." He tried to be lighthearted about it, at least. He waved and murmured, "G'night," before closing his door. He really didn't want to go into the 'why' of shit, but more than that, he really didn't feel like having camp counselor happy fun time with Karkat when he was already dead on his feet.

Karkat lingered in the doorway for a moment, frowning deeply at Dave's closed door. Just because he'd mentioned the night terrors didn't mean that Karkat was prepared for this. He drummed his fingers on the doorframe a moment, then ducked into his room, closing the door behind him and stripping down to climb into his cocoon, sinking into the ooze and trying to fall asleep deeply before he got the chance to hear his friend's screaming.

That night wasn't as bad as Dave had made it out to be. He slept fairly soundly, given how wiped out he was from moving Karkat in. However, he woke up feeling like he'd been hit by a goddamn truck. He pulled himself out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom to start his morning routine, and felt a bit moronic when it took seeing boxes in the hallway to remember that Karkat was there.

He shuffled out of the bathroom about half an hour later fully dressed, but still looking half dead. He made his way to the kitchen and stood in front of the fridge, scratching through his hair as he tried to figure out what take-out leftovers would make a good breakfast. Karkat didn't even appear for another few minutes, crawling out of his room looking bewildered with his hair slicked back with the slime, squinting out at the hallway. It took him a little bit to realize where he was and why he was there, and then he just slouched against the door frame and listened to Dave doing whatever he was doing in the fridge.

"I'm not eating cold pizza for breakfast if that's the bright idea you have," he muttered before slinking into the bathroom with a clean pair of boxers and a towel, spending maybe fifteen minutes in there before reappearing with the towel around his shoulders. He didn't check to see what Dave was up to before returning to his room and closing the door, trying to find something comfortable to laze in for the day as his muscles screamed at him for trying to move everything he owned in a single trip.

"I was going to say before your rude ass walked off, I think I have cereal in one of the cupboards," Dave muttered when Karkat settled down to watch him. "No milk, though. Well, we have milk, but I don't really trust it. It's about a day or two off expiration." He did, however, have cream, and, not so surprisingly, a miniature espresso setup in his kitchen. He started getting ready to make himself something to keep him from crashing directly. He flipped the switch on the machine once he checked the water level, then he grabbed the grinder out of a cupboard and ground some beans.

"You want anything this morning? I've got a regular coffee pot and stuff down there," he said as he pointed out the cabinet that he kept the coffee maker and filters. "I've got painkillers in that cabinet over the sink," he added, figuring that if he was sore, so was Karkat. "You know, unless you want to be in severe pain this morning, you masochist."

"Fuck you Strider," he groaned as he slumped into the kitchen in a loose pair of jeans and thin tshirt, leaning against the counter and scratching his hands through his damp hair as he leaned his elbows against the surface. He looked over at the setup he'd paid no mind to the day before, raising an eyebrow at it then went for the regular coffee instead. Anything beyond that tended to give him jitters and he grew slightly paranoid, once being asked if he was on anything.

"You wish." He looked over at Karkat, raising a brow to his looking nearly hungover - more out of concern than judgment - before leaning down and grabbing the coffee maker and filters. He ground more and poured the grounds into the filter that was set in place. He then got the water for the maker and flipped the switch. "That'll be done in about five minutes." He finished making his own latte and set it aside to cool before cleaning up.

That was the weird thing about this apartment. Dave could have trashed the entire place but the kitchen was always spotless. "So hey, look, if you're hungry and absolutely refuse leftovers, there's a deli on the other side of the block, and a diner about two blocks away. I've made the walk drunk, so I think we'll be in good enough shape if you really want to insist on walking."

"I'm fine without for a day, Dave. I don't really want to move right now," Karkat sighed as he turned to press his back to the counter, crossing his arms and tipping his head back with a groan then rotated it back and forth as his neck gave a quiet pop here and there. He looked back at Dave when the coffee was set to brew, watching him with a soft frown.

"How'd you sleep?"

"Better than usual," replied Dave as he reached above the sink and brought down some ibuprofen, shaking out four for himself, and handed down the bottle to Karkat. "I'm sure it's because of how much we killed it yesterday. I was too exhausted to dream, I guess." He leaned back against the other side of the room's cabinets and sipped his latte to swig down the pills. "I don't feel like doing shit today. I'll probably just go through my proofs and choose what's going in my portfolio this semester for photography." It wasn't a required course, but the workload for film was pretty light, and he could squeeze it in. It gave him access to the dark room, which was really all he needed. He couldn't actually care less about the class.

Shaking a few of the pills from the bottle for himself, Karkat tossed one into his mouth to swallow dry. He grimaced and took the rest, then bent over the sink and took a few swallows of water directly from the tap. He wiped his hand over his mouth and turned back around, glancing at the proofs still laying out everywhere. "Hopefully tonight you get that lucky, huh?" He muttered, tucking his hands under his arms and looking around at Dave with a carefully neutral expression. He wouldn't pry; he owed Dave that much.

"Don't jinx it, man," Dave half-joked, sighing with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry I sprung that on you, dude, you're the last guy I'd want to fuck over with my dumb fucking problems, y'know. But yeah, dude, I'm getting you some earplugs. It's not like I want you pissed off for keeping you up all night, you know what I mean?" He sipped his latte and pointedly avoided eye contact. It was something he had always done, but it was obvious now, without his glasses. Karkat reached out and patted his shoulder awkwardly, pressing his lips together and turning back to the coffee machine as it began to finally drip into the pot, focusing on that for the time being. If Dave did indeed start waking him up at night screaming, he would deal with that when it happened, earplugs notwithstanding.

Dave chuckled at the shoulder pat and shook his head. A+ effort, Vantas, points for trying. He took his latte into the living room and started gathering up all his proofs, scratching his head as he looked them over. He sighed heavily as he shook his head at an entire page, and flipped to the next one. "This place fucking sucks for inspiration," he muttered as he set the pile down and went back to grabbing up others. "So I didn't even ask, what are you majoring in, dude?"

"Philosophy." Karkat shrugged and fished for a mug to fill with coffee. He took the milk from the fridge and sniffed it, grimacing and putting it aside to be thrown out then just settling on sugar. He poured it into the mug and followed it with the coffee, swirling it around to mix without using a spoon then filling the mug up the rest of the way once it was dissolved. He sipped at it with a quiet sigh. Dave nearly sputtered his latte when he heard Karkat's major, but kept his cool.

"That's...different. But I guess it fits you pretty well." He knew that under the facade, Karkat was a pretty deep little shit. "There's cream on the door," he pointed out with an offhanded murmur, "It's still good. I go through that stuff more than milk, so I make sure it's always fresh."

"Maybe when we're not feeling like the latest victims of the zombie mania we can go out and find some actual inspiration for you, huh?" Karkat suggested his eyes, pulling a face as he went for the cream. He poured it into the coffee and stirred it with the end of his finger, sucking it off then turning back around with the doctored coffee in hand.

Dave sighed as he settled into a chair and kept looking through the proofs. "Don't worry about it. I just haven't found the right impetus to get me back and rolling since last winter. Shit's been stagnant lately for me." He shrugged. "I'm a hundred percent convinced that some people are capable of stealing a person's soul, or at least a part of it." He shook his head with a sigh. "You don't need to hear about that, though. Bad break-ups and shit. You know how it goes." If anyone knew how bad ends of relationships went, it was Karkat, he figured. Karkat's was head tilted some as he listened nonetheless. Again his lips pressed together into a thin line and he nodded. Nobody wanted to talk about that shit. It was unnecessary and didn't change a damn thing.

"Whatever, it's in the past." Dave looked up at him again and smiled faintly. "Philosophy though. Just general philosophy or are you planning on a niche? Troll philosophy's pretty fucking interesting; they went into it a little last year. I took the introductory course last year and it was way too fucking deep for me, I was getting migraines." It was one of the first majors he'd switched out of. "They started talking quadrants and my head just about exploded."

"Human philosophy is nice and simple most of the time compared to troll philosophy, yeah" Karkat replied. "I'm taking courses in both. It's more rounded that way. What I can't fucking stand is the humans in the troll course thinking that this shit is gonna make them so much better than everyone else. Like what the fuck, ok you know about quadrants, that gives you a leg up on other humans in troll romance, all while making you look like a pretentious douchefuck that's trying way too fucking hard for something that honestly you don't really have any business in. What do they even think they're fucking doing, it's not like humans and trolls can even fucking reproduce. They would know that if they paid any attention in their high school courses. Jesus fuck." Rolling his eyes after his miniature rant, Karkat sucked down a little more of his coffee and wandered behind Dave to peek over his shoulder at the photos.

Dave chuckled, and nodded, "Man, I tried to figure that shit out and it gave me a damn headache. I get the simpler parts, but it's not a matter of reproduction, y'know? It's..." He shook his head. "I mean, hanging out with you and the rest of the guys kind of made it pretty unavoidable to at least try and figure out a little. You fuckin' guys have completely set my shit off balance with quadrants. I think humans are capable of fitting quadrants, but we're also really fucking weird about polyamory. I say you know what? Fuck that. Fill quadrants, do the monogamous thing, whatever floats your boat. It's a fucking dick move to judge a guy for whatever he wants to do with his heart. It's his. And unless that guy is trying to give you it, it's none of your goddamn business." He handed up a page and looked up with it. "Third row, second picture, the one of the cracked facade. That look good to you?"

"People are determined to fit us into their ideals and social dogmas. I wouldn't care so much about it if it weren't so goddamn stupid. It's like that stupid fucking Westboro place that can't go a day without finding something new to bitch about and this year it happens to be everything Troll. And it's a little blurry up here." Karkat bent and gestured toward part of the picture where he assumed an animal had either run into the shot or rattled something overhead to smudge an otherwise tasteful picture.

"Mm, well they're douchefucks anyhow, they're the exception to the rule. Nobody even remotely sane and rational thinks those guys have any real gravity to anything they say. I know even that extreme Human Pride group thinks they're fucking retarded assholes who have no right to be saying or doing what they do. Not saying that those Human Pride guys are any better, but when even those guys can see that bullshit ten miles away, it's pretty bad." Dave took a look at the flaw and sighed. "Goddammit." He looked at the other photos he took of the same abandoned building and none lived up to his expectations. "I need to get back to this place, get some winter shots. It looks so desolate and dead there. It's great."

Looking over the other photos while hovering over Dave's shoulder, Karkat nodded his head and glanced back and forth between a few of them. He recognized the place, had wandered there himself on one or two occasions when he'd had to leave the metro for fear of throwing someone through a window. "I'd suggest late winter or really early spring when the trees are budding. You can get some really good shots then most likely and have some kind of deep bullshit meaning like rebirth or whatever."

Dave snorted faintly at that. "Yeah, right, deep, that's what I go for." He tossed that page of proofs aside. "So you've been there? Heh. That's one of my favorite places to go when I need to get out of the house, out of the city. Fucking amazing place." It made him wonder if Karkat had seen the graffiti he'd left inside the building. It wasn't exactly hard to miss as being his; it was the broken record that he'd worn on his clothes. Sure, it was uninspired, but he felt particularly rebellious and needing to leave his mark on the world, and just so happened to have spray paint along.

"It's a fucking wonder we haven't bumped into each other until just now," he thought aloud as he kept scanning through the pages. The rest of the photos were fairly typical of him. Dead animals, old architecture, spooky woods, bonfires. Karkat hummed thoughtfully as he looked over the rest of the photos with him, all of it predictable but his thoughts kept coming back to that first place. If Dave had been going there as well, it really was kind of fucked up that they hadn't seen one-another until now. He frowned as he recalled why he'd started avoiding the place: after he'd spotted the record, the image had started cropping up in nightmares, usually covered in blood or morphing into red gears. Maybe if he had run into Dave, the dreams would have stopped or at least quieted some.

"Maybe that's where we can go to try and get your muse back. Walk around, see some new graffiti."

Dave almost protested when Karkat absconded with the rest of the pages and then huffed and shook his head with a lopsided smile, sipping his latte. He was proud of his art, even though what Karkat was looking at for the moment was kind of shit, and he would fess up to it. "Yeah, sounds like a good idea, once I stop wanting to die a little because of my arms." He stood up to bring his cup back into the kitchen and rinse it out before putting it in the dishwasher. "I'll put up your shelves so you can get your movies on them." He smiled faintly when he took a second look at the concentration on Karkat's face once he came back in. He rarely saw anyone actually give that much attention to anything he did. Karkat was flipping through the rest of the proofs slowly, trying to pick out the places he'd been, chewing on his lip as he looked over a few of the decent ones and thinking about suggesting going back and revisiting certain locations. He may not have been much into the arts himself outside of cinema, but at least he knew what was visually appealing. He looked up as Dave reappeared, nodding at the suggestion about the shelves.

"Alright yeah, you do that and I can sort through the movies so I can put them back on the shelves easily. Then we can figure out what the fuck we actually want to do with the rest of the day. I'm not crawling back into bed just yet."

Dave nodded and went to go get his power drill to put the shelf together. He spent some time doing that, being careful about not fucking up while still being pretty quick about it. Once he put it up against the wall, he was feeling better than when he woke up. "We could do that now. Going out there, I mean. It's not like we'll be doing much, there's plenty of places to rest if we need to. Anyway, it'll give me an excuse to dick around with my camera. Haven't taken a single photo in like, two weeks." He smiled faintly, looking over at his friend. Karkat had taken a seat on the floor and sorted the movies alphabetically, lifting six cases at a time to slip them onto the shelves as soon as they were put up. He looked over them with his hands on his hips then switched a couple of titles around before nodding and turning back to Dave, shrugging a shoulder.

"Sounds good to me, at least this way we're not crammed up inside bored all day." Used to be, it wouldn't matter, each of them spending the majority of their lives inside, on the computer, barely interacting with anyone face to face. But things change. Jesus fuck how things change. Dave rarely even used the computer anymore - the only reason he even dealt with the internet these days was to write the occasional update on facebook so his friends and Bro would know he was still alive. He only really used the computer to write his papers, fuck around and shit out some comics, and that was it. He got enough socialization at work and at class to more than make up for what he used to find online.

He nodded and went to go get his camera. He came back with it and his case full of film and special lenses, and slipped on his glasses. "Come on, grumpy," he called from the door as he put on his shoes. "If you're lucky, we might even go to the store later and grab some non-rotten food."

Karkat rolled his eyes and went to pull on his shoes, not even bothering to change into a better shirt. They weren't going to actually be in public much, so he didn't really give a shit. He pulled a zip-up hoodie on over the shirt and joined Dave at the door then followed him out. It was a nice day out, especially considering how bright it was, and he had to squint a little when he looked up. "I know you don't have any specific plans so if you just suddenly want to stop and take some pics just let me know and I'll get out of the shot."

"I'll let you know if you're somewhere you shouldn't be for me." He slid into his seat and buckled in, starting the car. "Some time, I'll take you to that place out in the country north of here, fucking place is amazeballs. It's an old victorian mansion that never got torn down, looks like it's fucking haunted." He started down the road and smiled faintly. This was something he really needed, he felt. It was a great day for dramatic lighting. He noted that it looked like the clouds were rolling in - it was likely to rain in the evening - so he figured they could spend a couple hours fucking around and still be in the clear.

"Only you could use "haunted" and "amazeballs" in the same sentence completely unironically," Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes as he slouched down in the seat after fastening his seat belt. He looked up at the sky and the cloud cover that started coming in from the south, knowing that even if they did end up getting rained on, at least they might get a couple of good weather shots. Not before he bitched about it, of course, but still.

"I've completely lost track of what I do ironically and what I do sincerely. It's a downward spiral of layers and layers of irony, enveloping a seed of seriousness."

"Why doesn't that surprise me..." Dave amused himself, at least.

It was an old abandoned mill of some sort, situated off the outskirts of the city. Dave didn't care much about what it had been, but adored what it was. It was surrounded by dirt lots and an overgrown field of scrub and weeds. Once there, he parked on one of the dirt lots and started fussing with his camera, putting in a new roll of film and made sure that the lens was in fine working order. "You can go on ahead of me, this'll be a few minutes," he said to Karkat. He adjusted the aperture for the light, and idly plodded toward the building, still getting the settings just right.

When they parked and Karkat looked around he breathed a soft sigh. He'd walked out here on those nights when staying home wasn't an option, his hive was just close enough by to make it a leisurely walk without completely draining him and he was able to get home tired enough to sleep well. He kept his hands in the pockets of the sweater as he looked around, his head tipped up in a breeze that pushed his hair back from his face for a moment then let it back down over his eyes haphazardly. He shook it straight again and started toward the other side of the building, hoping that no more of the windows had been broken; the last time he'd been there, a group of vandals had apparently attempted to throw their beer bottles through all of the high windows but had apparently run out of bottles before windows.

Dave looked up from his camera just in time to watch Karkat walk through a dusty beam of light that illuminated the cracked cement floor, and it caught his attention. "Mm," he near-whispered to himself, as he focused on that space of light, framing it with a support beam and the horizontal steel siding of the wall behind it. He made a few minor adjustments for light, and took the shot. He moved slightly to the left after that and took another picture, not-so-covertly making it such that Karkat was framed in the shot, standing just outside of the beam of light, his dark skin and messy hair catching the light in a really great way in profile. He bit his lip as he took the shot, trying not to smile too much. It was really a great shot; he hoped it turned out.

"I'm going up on the walkway. If I fall to my death, tell my fans I love them," he mentioned as he walked past Karkat, towards the metal grate stairway.

"What fans?" Karkat called in reply with a quiet chuckle and continued up, waving a hand through the dust motes and watching them swirl away before turning to look up at Dave as he climbed the stairs. "Just fucking be careful alright? I don't want to have to scrape you off the ground and then explain this shit to your Bro." He went back to wandering, crouching to look at something on the ground then standing back up and nudging it over with his toe. He frowned and let a quiet whistle to try and get Dave's attention.

Dave had gotten up to the catwalk and was taking it pretty carefully as he walked over Karkat, smiling a little at his concern. "Man, I've been in more precarious situations than this. It's not coming down." That said, he looked to see what his friend had found. "What'd you find?" He asked. He squinted to see, and it looked vaguely like a dead...something. Karkat had crouched down, looking at the thing then swearing quietly and picking up whatever it was gingerly, cradling it in his arm and taking it back over to the light, dragging his fingers over the matted fur then licking his thumb and rubbing it over a couple of places before looking back around at Dave.

"Hey, are there any cats up there that you can see?"

Dave looked around briefly and then shook his head. "Not that I see. Shit, I'm coming down," he said, and started his way back to the stairs. He furrowed his brow and paused, catching a glimpse of the look on Karkat's face. He stood there holding his camera momentarily, and decided, fuck it, and took the shot. It would've killed him a little to not have captured that moment.

He walked quickly until he got back to Karkat's side and frowned heavily. "Is it still alive?" He whispered, worried that his voice alone would break it.

"Christ..." Karkat sighed bitterly and turned over the little thing in his arm, unsure what color it even was. It was barely moving and its eyes were caked shut, mouth open to show it barely even had its milk teeth. He looked back up at Dave as soon as he was close enough, unsure what he should even be doing about a dying kitten. "Are you sure you didn't see like...tracks or anything? Cat shit anywhere?"

Dave shook his head, "Not a damn thing on the catwalk, but there's a back room here, hang on," he said, biting his lower lip in worry before walking off again. He called out a few moments later with a "Yeah, there's about half a dozen of 'em here under this desk. No mama that I can see, dude." He looked around for her and noticed that the kittens were just fine, save for the one that Karkat had found. He wondered how that one got separated from the rest of the litter. "Wherever she is, she can't be far, her other kittens are fine." He peeked out the door to the main floor and to Karkat. "What do you wanna do with it?"

Frankly, if it was abandoned like that, he knew the kitten probably had serious problems. Bringing it to a vet would probably get nothing more than a 'there's nothing we can do', and he couldn't deal with that. Then again, he knew fuckall about cats in general. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked.

"If it was left alone for this long the mother most likely already thinks it's dead," Karkat sighed and stroked the back of his finger over its head. Likewise, he didn't know the first thing about cats, just that this one was too sick to do anything about. He turned it over to try and see what might be wrong with it, moving gingerly then wincing when he realized that two of its legs were badly broken. He looked up at the catwalk overhead, quickly trying to calculate if anything this small could survive from that high of a drop, then decided that yeah, apparently it could. He turned and walked toward the door then sat down on a dislodged cinderblock, holding the thing in his lap and leaning back against the wall. Overhead, Dave's graffiiti was sitting faded from exposure, going ignored.

Dave grit his teeth and shook his head as he walked with, useless for the moment. He didn't want to let it suffer, but on the other hand, taking its life just felt wrong. "Fuck," he grumbled as he squatted down beside Karkat, looking at the kitten on his lap. He had nothing to say. Everything he thought was grim. "Hey," he murmured as he turned to Karkat, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder. "There's really nothing we can do for it. But those kittens in there, they probably won't live very well out here. And they're pretty good for now."

"So...what? You want to wait until the mother reappears and just cart them all off?" He looked back at Dave with a grimace, his hands closing protectively over the little one in his lap. He looked back down at it with a soft sigh, dragging his fingers over its head again as he slouched against the side of the building. "Do you even have a pet carrier? Maybe we can just call the ASPCA."

"It's better than just leaving them here to fend off coyotes and shit," Dave said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and immediately going to scroll through the yellow pages for the local ASPCA. He put his other hand on Karkat's free hand, patting it. Things would be okay. "Look man, I don't know if that little guy there's going to do anything but die on us, but if anyone could help him, it'll be them, okay?"

He finally found the number and made the call. He informed them of about half a dozen kittens and a feral cat in the building, gave directions, and asked if there was any way they could help one that had broken legs. They said they'd be up in about an hour and would see what they could do for the litter. He hung up and shook his head. "There. Best damn day ever, right now. Fucking love staring death in the face. Never gets old." He slipped away and pocketed his phone, walking off to the outside to sulk in solitude.

Karkat sat in place trying not to let the kitten move much, stroking his fingers over the slightly damp, smelly fur and trying to pretend that no, he didn't want to fucking cry, those weren't tears, there was just something in both of his eyes. He gritted his teeth, imagining just walking away from the entire scene and going home, back to his hive, back to Crabdad, and forgetting this had ever happened. He wiped the sleeve of his sweater across his eyes irritably and went back inside, easing up the stairs to the catwalk and pausing at a few pairs of phosphorescent eyes glittering at him, one of which was slinking backward. He eased forward slowly, biting hard on his lip as the boards underfoot creaked until the cat and her litter were in view then sitting down with his legs crossed, holding the dying one in the crook of his arm and keeping an eye on the rest of them. At least this way he could be sure that when whoever was coming to get them, they would all be there.

By the time the van drove up, one of the two inside had spotted Dave and gone to talk to him, the other one going inside and announcing himself, looking up at Karkat as he peeked over the edge of the walkway at him. It was a brownblooded troll, that much was obvious by the color of his eyes, the best person to bring on such a job. He turned his back again and stood slowly, handing over the one that he'd been holding then passing by him to go back down the stairs, wiping his hands over his jeans repeatedly as he waited for the rest of them to be brought back out.

Dave, in the time that they waited for them to get there, had chain smoked and taken a few more pictures. He wanted to go in with Karkat and keep him company, but he knew he'd be the worst kind of company at the moment. When he returned in with the guys from the ASPCA, he immediately came to Karkat's side and stood there, just slightly in front of his friend, having seen streaks of dried tears on his cheeks and not wanting the guys to get his friend on the defensive. He answered as many questions as he could, and then asked if they could call once they got the official report on the kittens and mother cat. 

He turned to Karkat once the guys started rounding up the kittens and muttered, "We're getting a cat in the next month." The tone was final. As if he'd made yet another executive decision on the spot. In fact, he sort of wanted to adopt all the kittens and the cat and let them live with him, but he didn't want to admit that. Karkat turned to stare at him, making no comment, just leaning back again with his hands in his pockets, watching as the carriers with the mother and kittens were put in the van then waving weakly as it backed up and turned back onto the road. He leaned his shoulder against Dave's briefly, then stood back up straight and looked up in time for a raindrop to land in the center of his forehead.

"Shit..."

"I couldn't agree more," Dave grumbled as he started towards the car. "C'mon, fucker, we'll get something to eat and then go watch dumb shit." He honestly liked the rain, but it was just shitty timing.

Once back in the car and on the way back into town, he briefly turned to Karkat and then started to say something, but he shut himself up with a shake of his head. Yeah, not now with that emotional shit. Karkat was looking down at his hands, occasionally scrubbing them against the thighs of his jeans. He was going to be taking another shower when they got home if only to try and clear his head. "Sorry I kind of ruined your shoot," he muttered after a little while, looking out of the windshield as the wipers wicked away the droplets.

"You didn't ruin anything, I just needed to get out, and we got out." Dave sighed. He didn't like seeing his friend so down. It stung. "Look man, if... what do you want to do? I mean, other than take a fifteen year shower? I feel like I sort of just dragged you along. You probably didn't even want to go."

"I did," Karkat argued. "It was good to actually get out and do shit that wasn't completely school related, at least for me. I just...fuck, man..." He groaned and shook one of his sleeves over his hand, rubbing it across his face. Hell of an outing this had turned out to be.

Dave turned off the road and into a grocery store parking lot and stopped the car. "You gonna be okay? We did what we could, dude. You did great. You were fucking protective as hell over that little guy, and that was awesome." He turned to face Karkat a bit more and motioned slightly with his head. He didn't want Karkat to dwell for too long on something he couldn't help. "I'm going to run in and get some stuff. You can come if you want, but if you just want to stick in here and get your shit together, I'm not gonna judge."

"I'm ok. Really," Karkat sighed and pulled himself up and out of the car, stretching out a little and looking back at Dave. Just like that, he really did look it, or at least as close to ok as he ever really did, just a little bit worse for wear. He nodded his head toward the store, then started in with his hands in his pockets again. Dave scowled in exasperation but wiped the look off his face when he exited, himself, shaking off his want to find some fault somewhere that he could slip in between the sarcasm and cold shoulder and talk about the things he was having trouble putting to words, and was back to his usual stony expression.

"So what do you like eating? I'm not good at cooking. At all. Like, okay, one time, I tried cooking dinner for me and Bro and wound up setting the kitchen on fire. Like the fridge and stove were both on fire." He shook his head with a wry smile as he grabbed a cart and pushed it along as he scanned the deli.

"How the hell have you managed to live this long, jeez..." Shaking his head, Karkat took Dave by the sleeve and urged him down the aisle for frozen food, picking out a couple of the staples before the other could argue and handing them over, then hauling a gallon of 1% out of the dairy selection, as well as a huge tub of vanilla yogurt. He would eat it, too, by itself, out of the tub, with a tablespoon. "I can cook kind of, and I know how to follow a recipe so if you want anything, just point it out ok?"

Dave followed along, grabbing bread and cold cuts, as well as some juice and soda. When Karkat said he could cook a little, he raised an eyebrow. "Look at you all practical and shit. Um." Now he was stuck in a quandary. He had been raised by someone who couldn't cook, and he himself couldn't even get a damn frozen pizza to turn out right, so he didn't even know what to think of for actual food. "Fuck, man, you can't just tell a guy that without setting him up for severe brain block. I dunno, can you do pasta?"

"What kind of pasta, dipshit? You realize that the only difference between most of them is the shape? It's the sauce that makes it an actual dish. Give me angel hair and a tomato sauce, I can make you a chicken parmesan. Stick with spaghetti noodles, bam, you get some fucking spaghetti. You want goulash? Give me some damn macaroni noodles. If you want something cheesy as fuck, give me some provolone or something and a bag of penne and you have a baked fucking zitti." Karkat started walking backwards as he rattled it off, arching an eyebrow at Dave. It was no wonder he was as skinny as he was if he didn't eat anything that counted as real food. Before he could be questioned, he continued, "Crabdad can't cook for shit and I didn't want roe cubes every day of my damn life so I learned how to make shit."

"Dude, all of those sound awesome as fuck," Dave said, clearly impressed. "I don't care, pick one man, I am at your mercy, o' glorious kitchen lord." He stopped the cart in front of the pasta boxes and just gaped a little. All of those could become food that he could eat. That was fucking exciting to him. "Seriously, just go nuts over it, I won't even fucking argue. Anything beats eating take-out every damn day." And with the exception of deli sandwiches, that was what he did.

"We'll just find somewhere that's having a sale on pasta and get everything, how's that? We'll have pasta coming out of our fucking sponge clots." Karkat smirked faintly as he turned back around, walking along the shelves and grabbing a few more things, including a few cans of Spaghetti-Os, then looked toward the assortment of pastries, chewing at his lip as he debated on getting a box of donuts to share between them. Dave tossed in a few cans of Boyardee sports shapes just to make it even, then slowed down when Karkat did. Karkat jerked a thumb at one of the shelves with the boxes stacked on it. "Feel like cavities?"

"You know I do," he said about the donuts and looked them over once they approached. "I like jelly donuts, myself, and apple turnovers, but don't let that stop you from sprinkle stuff or whatever. Go hog fucking wild, man."

His tongue poking out of his mouth, Karkat started to look through the boxes until he found a box that had an assortment so that more likely than not, they would both get what they wanted. He put them on top of the groceries, then turned and stood up on top of the end of the cart, holding onto the basket. "Alright, reverse this fucker. Let's get checked out and go home."

"Aye aye, kitchen wizard!" Dave saluted and put the cart on the path to the least crowded check out. Once there, he started loading things onto the belt and smirked a little. "Since I'm paying, can you bag them once they're scanned?" He figured that they could both lug them up the stairs once they got home, but he didn't like bagging shit.

Karkat nodded and took a place down at the end of the checkout, grabbing each thing as it was passed down the line to him and bagged everything easily, putting it aside to be carried out to the car. He stood with his hands in his pockets and watched Dave as he paid, then grabbed four of the bags, leaving two for Dave before heading out and waiting until it was unlocked. "Alright, I got the frozen shit so we could eat today and when I don't feel like my knees want to collapse, I'll cook something."

"Yeah, that's smart. I figure the cold cuts will be if we're hungry and too lazy to actually do anything but eat sandwiches or whatever." He popped the trunk and dropped his bags in, before looking at Karkat once more and smiling faintly. Once the bags were securely in, he closed the trunk and got back in the car. They were back home within minutes, and once the groceries were put away, Dave got a victory donut out of the box and went to sit down and relax, eating quietly and simply relaxing.

He was thinking about how to broach the subject. It was pretty damn early into finally seeing the little shit again to actually talk about any sort of feelings, he figured, but it wasn't exactly something that Dave felt should be left to fester. It had to be talked about some time. He polished off the donut and stretched his legs out in front of him, looking at the rain through the windows of the patio door. "Hey Vantas, you know how you were saying that humans shouldn't even broach the subject of quadrants? You don't really think that about every human, right? Like, you're not seriously saying that humans can't comprehend that shit, are you?"

Sitting on the arm of the couch with an eclair paused halfway into his mouth, lowering it slowly as he looked toward the patio window, dragging a hand through the hair at the side of his head and scratching some at his scalp. "I meant that humans weren't really equipped for this shit. You guys grow up with one thing, a black and white line between love and hate. You guys are trying to force yourselves outside your comfort zones when you really shouldn't be trying that hard. When you look at things... Your frame of reference is pretty narrow."

"I won't disagree with that, on the whole. But okay, let's use me for an example of the exception to the rule, play devil's advocate here a little. I can't understand the full definition of the other two quadrants that most humans don't really have, but I can feel them. Even if the concept is foreign to me, and the emotions aren't hard-wired like it is for trolls, I can still feel that way. Okay, so I don't fully comprehend, in a definitive, logical way, moirallegiance. But humans can't comprehend our OWN dichotomous emotional sets, much less another four-aspected set. One of the greatest fucking philosophical debates in our history is trying to define love. That doesn't mean we can't feel it." Dave pushed his glasses up over his hair and continued, looking straight at Karkat. "Okay, so even if I can't personally define it, does that mean I can't understand it on a baser level? Fuck no, dude. That's just not how it is."

Karkat turned it over in his mind as he listened, scooting down onto the couch and crossing his legs, the eclair coming to rest against his knee. "Alright, granted. The feelings themselves, they're pretty much hard wired into anyone with a brainstem. You're gonna have those people you can't fucking stand but you still want to pin them against a wall and suck their faces off no matter if you're troll or human. But I know that auspisticism seems to be pretty much beyond you guys. Moiraillegiance...From what I've seen, the closest equivalents you guys have is the whole BFF thing."

"I know that it's different, however," Dave said of moiraillegiance, fidgeting with a pen that he'd picked up off the side table. "See, best friends can have a friendship that's strong and really based on trust and understanding without getting that actual love aspect in there. Moiraillegiance is more like... what close siblings have, I guess. I mean, I'm just guessing because I honestly wouldn't know. It's a platonic love. An understanding that goes deeper than friendship, right? I mean, you can have a best friend, but best friends aren't... you know. Emotionally connected on the level that moirails are. At least that's what I get out of it. I mean, I'm no fuckin' expert, by any means." He looked over at Karkat again from over the pen and shrugged. "But you're right about Auspiticism. I don't think I'll ever really grasp that quadrant even in emotion."

He set back to fidgeting and twirled the pen over his knuckles as he broke eye contact. "Point I'm really coming to from a sideways perspective here is that it's been a long goddamn time since we knew each other but we picked off right where we left off just like the past four years didn't even happen, in terms of emotional value. For me, it's a fucking freight train of overwhelming emotional shit hit me straight in the face and here I am sitting with all these goddamn feelings splattered on me and I'm trying to sort them out."

"Then let me sort them out a little, huh? You've apparently got a decent understanding of it, most likely because you saw this shit in action. I still don't remember much, but that shit...you don't really forget those feelings. What I had with Gamzee. I know how this shit feels, even if it didn't end well. So. You feel like we have a pale thing?" In spite of the raised eyebrow, it was obvious that Karkat was genuinely curious. He leaned forward and nearly managed to squish his snack against his knee, moving it to the couch for the moment. Dave nodded solemnly, sitting up a little as Karkat moved as well.

"Yeah, it's pretty pale, I mean. Earlier, it tore me the fuck up seeing you like that. Like, what the fuck can I do about it? Seeing you get so worked up sucked ass." He shook his head, "And I mean, I don't like talking about what happened because for the past three years, I've been led to believe that what happened in paradox space didn't, really, but for you, I'd be willing to get things sorted out. Because nobody should live with that big of a gap in their memory, that shit is fucking rough." He set down the pen and rubbed his face. "I don't like fucking talking about much of anything, to be frank as fuck. I'm not used to dealing with shit. Put it to the side, forget about it, sure, I'll do that, but fucking... if it doesn't directly and greatly impact me in any way, I don't fucking care. Except here I am, not completely adverse to any of this. This is oddly comfortable. Trippy as hell, sure, but comfortable."

Karkat sat up and rubbed his hands over his legs, looking down at his knees as he thought through everything again on top of the new information. He looked back up at Dave, trying to get him to look him straight in the face. It was better that he'd been left alone with his thoughts back at the mill, both of them understood that. Now, face to face, he wanted to be able to talk and be of some kind of comfort. Dave was his best, and likely his only friend now. They had to take care of each other and the longer it went on, the stronger the bond was going to get. Either that, or they would end up drifting apart, and he had to admit, the thought made something deep in his chest feel like there was a boot pressing down on his sternum.

"I'm remembering more and more as I sort out shit in my head and build on the information you gave me. I don't know if some of it is just shit that I'm making up to fill in the gaps, but at least it's not just blackness and nightmares anymore. I wanted to thank you for that. And fuck, living with you here even for just this week has been the best decision I've made in a long goddamn time. I feel...grounded. I don't think I could have gotten to this point with any other fucker on this planet."

Sitting back, Karkat rubbed his hands over his face, then up into his hair, pushing his bangs back up off his forehead and looking back at Dave as if he were trying to figure him out. All evidence suggested that yeah, things were getting pretty fucking pale between them. And he was completely fine with that.

Dave knew exactly what that felt like - wondering if it was just made up to fill in the gaps or if it actually happened - and he nodded in silent understanding then sighed and leaned back. "It's been uniquely surreal for me, too. I mean, fuck, I was all but convinced that you were just a construct of a weird coma dream, you know? And yet, here you are. Sure, you're a surly sonofabitch and you've got this tendency to overreact to the slightest sincere criticisms, but that shit's... man, I couldn't make that shit up, and even if I could, it wouldn't come off half as endearing. Knowing that you're real is a load off my conscience, and having you here... man, I don't know what the fuck I did to get this kind of good karma. And I'm not even fucking kidding when I say I'd have your back to my death if I had to." He added the last bit after a moment of thought, chuckling despite himself.

"So let's try that shit out, you know? The worst that could happen is that we find out that we're not that emotionally connected after all and we'd still be buds. There's no loss here. I don't see a down side."

Karkat nodded slowly and pulled his knees up to his chest, grabbing his snack off the couch and finally taking a bite. Now that he'd actually calmed down and both of them had managed to get this off their chests, it was a lot easier to enjoy the little things, like a slightly crappy cream-filled pastry and listening to rain on the windows.

"I should have known you'd always have that weird poetic way with words. I spent a lot of time before resigning myself to therapy trying to find the people with the names that fit with the snatches of memory I could actually hold onto. That's the only reason I know about any of the others at this point. I don't think any of them remember me but somehow I think it's a little better that way."

"You don't keep tabs on them, though?" Dave was moderately surprised; not that he'd kept very good track of John and Rose, and Jade had fallen off the grid entirely. He was just surprised that Karkat would let things go so easily. "I... you know, I've gotta wonder about Kanaya. More what would happen if I told Rose that Kanaya is real, actually, but yeah. I'm pretty sure she'd find a way to take a very stylish leap straight off the handle." And then he furrowed his brow. "If all this is real, though, I mean all of them? There's a missing Strider or two. That's disconcerting. Like. Massively discomforting. We shouldn't be left to our own devices."

Karkat rubbed his hands together then pressed his fingers against his lips, trying to think about it objectively as he had about every other thing, including the potential trying to contact everyone else. "If everything about it was real and carried over, there would be some of us that never made it out, Dave. Your Bro, for instance. You told me you saw him die."

"Yeah, but I died, too. All of us died. That didn't stop a lot of us. It sure as fuck wouldn't stop Bro, he's too headstrong for that," Dave slipped his glasses off and set them on the table, looking at them. "Maybe...I dunno, things get pretty fucking hazy after Jade pulled us off the meteor. Maybe it was a wish or some sort of juju. There's a lot here that doesn't add up to the facts from there." He shook his head. "I've tried to reconcile the discrepancies, but it's all a bunch of mushy, hole-riddled fuckery and I just...kinda gave up on it."

"Well yeah, most of the fucking game was apparently hole-riddled fuckery that there doesn't seem to be any real continuity for and it all sounds like someone just pulled every possible construct out of their ass and slapped it into a program created by a psychopathic god. But hey, you mentioned that Rose was writing about this shit and publishing it. Kanaya...I remember, she was really fucking smart. She'll see it. She'll remember something. She loved Rose... Even when Rose was permanently hammered, she loved her." Karkat smiled faintly. That was some of that movie idealism that he and Dave had argued about. But sometimes people could afford to have those kinds of hopes.

In his own way, Dave had also really idolized the girls for really just going for it, letting each other sweep each other away. It was pretty amazing, seeing one of his best friends get really swept up like she deserved. He even stopped flirting badly with her once things got serious between Rose and Kanaya. "You're right, she'll see it eventually, she reads." Dave got a small, hopeful smile out of that notion. "And maybe, you know, not just her, but others, too. Maybe it'll give us all something back that we lost." He shook his head then.

"Dude, I wish I had the mental constitution to keep my shit together long enough to pull a project as large as I want to do. Y'know, I've been wanting to get some of the more visceral shit onto film, but I really haven't figured out a way to do that yet. Get that shit out there, maybe wake a few brains up in the process." He had one deterring factor that kept him from doing exactly that. If he put something out that would kick-start a few memories in some people, he'd run the risk of potentially revving some engines he'd rather stay dormant. "I mean. If we're all here, and who's to say we aren't, that means somewhere, there might be the Batterwitch that the other kids talked about." He really didn't want to toy with that kind of shit.

"The Batterwitch...Jack... I don't know if waking them up would actually bring anything down on us, but I don't think we should risk it." Leaning back against the arm of the couch, Karkat ground the heels of his hands into his eyes then looked up at the ceiling. "Unless you can do that fucking layers of irony thing over it so that someone that's not connected to us specifically wouldn't be able to discern shit other than 'wow, that's a beautiful fucking picture'."

"There's some shit that went down that could even wind up being semi-erotic if played out just right," Dave mentioned with a browarch of scheming. "I sure as hell could subvert some of that shit to a point where it was simply seen as performance art or surrealism." The gears in his mind started spinning, and his smile went toothy as he stood and went for a notepad to jot some ideas down. "I think you just gave me my finals project and it's the first damn month of the year." He paused in his writing to look over at Karkat, making eye contact. "Thank you."

Karkat's eyebrows arched up at that and he just shrugged a shoulder, returning to his donut. Seeing Dave this excited about just a loose project was kind of...precious. He watched the pen scribbling back and forth across the notepad, taking that time to stretch out across the entirety of the couch with his arm behind his head, taking the time to just be lazy a moment and feel every last ache in his body.

Dave was downright PUMPED about the idea. He spent a few more minutes writing out rough plot points and then set the pad and pen down before looking over at the sofa and then simply stretching and popping his back. He then walked over to the sofa and, clearly not even giving half a shit, proceeded to sprawl out, mostly attempting not to lay on top of Karkat, facing the other direction, while grabbing the remote and turning the TV on. He was skinny enough, and the sofa was deep enough where he fit between the back of the sofa and Karkat's legs. "Time to zone out," he announced to the world at large. Karkat merely gave a grunt of assent and adjusted himself minutely with one leg stretching along the outside of the couch, bare toes protruding from the hem of his jeans. His head tipped back against the arm of the couch at his end and already his eyes started to flutter. He tried to concentrate on whatever was happening on whatever they were watching, but after the day he'd had, it was a losing battle. Soon enough he'd dozed off with his arms across his stomach, one foot on the floor.

Dave, however, fought off the desire to nap, despite being sore, tired, as well as emotionally and mentally exhausted. He looked over at Karkat once he'd crashed, and smiled faintly, scooching farther back into the sofa before gently moving the troll's leg back up onto the sofa. He watched TV as he dicked around on his phone for a while. But eventually the lack of energy got the better of him, and he found his eyes blurring and mind slowing, and shaking his head to keep awake only fended off sleep for a few minutes, before he finally dozed off, the final waking thought beforehand being 'please don't be a nightmare'.

Luckily for Dave, it wasn't. Unluckily, it was something on par in the discomfort bracket. He wasn't sure why, even in the dream, he was sliding Karkat's shirt off and trailing his lips and tongue over the guy's warm, exposed neck, or why he found his hands moving down to undo his skinny jeans. All he knew was that his blood was racing and his breath was short, and that when he woke up, he woke up too soon.

The sun had set, but the rain persisted, and on the TV, there was a man droning on about an air purifier system that was so small and quiet, it was practically invisible. Dave rubbed his face and looked over on the other side of the sofa, bleary and wondering what just happened, fragments of his dream still lingering and making him feel very, very odd.

Karkat was sitting on the kitchen counter with his own phone out, occasionally looking back at the oven timer, bumping his heel gently against the cupboard door below him. He looked up when he heard Dave stir, then back down at his phone.

"Hope you don't mind, I ran out of soap earlier and took some of yours. How do you even stand that shit? I'm not going to stop smelling like 'Excite' for a fucking week."

Dave turned to look into the kitchen and he promptly and covertly readjusted himself to look as nonchalant as possible. "No problem, now we can both smell like the manliest waterfall," he quipped before turning off the TV. "Speaking of a gift to the olafactory senses, what the hell are you cooking in there? Heaven?"

"Pizza, dipshit. I told you I'd cook tomorrow. For now, we're settling on whatever the fuck a Mexican-style pizza is." Slipping down off the counter, Karkat bent to peek into the oven, letting out a waft of the scent and taking a breath then closing the door again and looking at the timer. It was nearly out, so he stopped it and turned the oven off then just let the residual heat finish cooking their dinner. There was a pizza cutter somewhere, he would just have to find it, or else there was always the massive chef's knife he'd moved in with, a beautiful thing separated from its set and thus sold at a garage sale for ten bucks when its actual value was well over forty. He leaned his shoulder against the refrigerator, looking back into the living room at Dave fidgeting. "What the hell, something crawl into your pants?"

Dave's ears went red at being called out. "Yeah, a fucking giant-ass boa found its way into the apartment and up my leg while I was sleeping," he replied, before attempting to be helpful while pulling a pillow over his problem. "The pizza cutter's in the left-most drawer." The dream started filtering back and he grit his teeth, realizing what his subconscious had been doing. "So how long have you been awake?" Please say more than a half an hour please say more than half an hour please...

"Well, the pizza's been in for about twenty minutes and I took a shower before that, so I guess about forty-five minutes," Karkat replied with another shrug, still watching Dave with a raised brow, otherwise looking completely neutral in the face of Dave's obvious fluster. He dug into the drawer to find the cutter, putting it on the counter and turning to the refrigerator to grab the jug of juice there, putting it out as well to drink with dinner.

It only took a few moments before Dave realized how...*naive* Karkat was acting about human physiology. He chuckled and shook his head, leaning back with a sigh. "At least you got some sleep in. I tried fighting it off man, but it bested me. Got me in a headlock and choked me straight the hell out just before the bell rang for time," he kept the metaphor going and then sat up. "Holy shit, is that the time for real?" He said, noticing the clock on the wall reading seven before nine. "My schedule's going to be so fucked by Monday."

"After dinner just go take a shower and go to bed. I think I brought some melatonin with me for nights I can't sleep in my own cocoon." With that, Karkat turned his back to Dave and opened the oven again and snagged the hand towel from the counter, pulling the pan out and laying it on the counter atop a potholder. He shook his hand some as his fingertips caught the edge of the hot metal, sticking them in his mouth as he plucked a couple of glasses from another cupboard.

Dave finally willed himself to walk into the kitchen and help get things ready. "Thanks, I think I might take you up on that. It might actually knock me out enough to keep me quiet tonight, too." Two nights without waking up screaming would be pretty fantastic, he thought as he got down some plates and went into the veggie drawer of the fridge to grab a couple bottles of beer that one of his of-age friends snagged for him. "Hey, we didn't get to toast to your housewarming last night. That's just downright rude of me." He popped the tops with his lighter that he'd grabbed from its place on top of his pack of smokes, and then handed a bottle to Karkat. Like all things drinkable in Dave's life, the beer was high end. It was a microbrew from a brewery in the city, dark, strong, and more reminiscent of a German schwartzbier than any canned factory-processed pilsner that most guys his age and pretension bracket tended to drink.

"So here's to you coming home. Welcome home, fuckhose. It's great to have you here."

With a small smirk at the beer, Karkat put the juice back into the fridge, then turned to cut the pizza into six pieces, picking a glob of cheese off the blade and popping it into his mouth before running the water over it to wash away most of the sauce and laying it in the sink to be taken care of later. He sucked it off his thumb then twisted the cap off of the beer, unsure about the stuff as he'd only ever drunk maybe two before then, both cheap as hell and tasting more like piss than anything drinkable. He lifted it to Dave, sneering back at him. "To having the world's biggest, most pretentious nookbite for a roommate. Couldn't ask for anything more."

Dave nodded, unable to deny a word of it, and then took a swig, murmuring appreciation at the taste of the beer before grabbing a slice of pizza and putting it on a plate. He wandered back to the living room and took a seat again. "Before I fell asleep, I texted Rose, told her I got a roommate. She's thoroughly impressed with my ability to find someone who can put up with me. I told her you're an old friend." He took a bite of the pizza and chuckled. "She said my hand doesn't technically qualify as a roommate."

"Somehow I'm pretty sure dealing with your asshole antics would be infinitely easier than her psychoanalysis," Karkat snorted and took a tentative swallow of his beer, holding back a grimace at it. Acquired taste... A taste shouldn't have to be fucking acquired. What it was was masochism that drove people to drink shit like this enough to start liking it. He couldn't deny there was a rather nice, slightly oaty aftertaste though. He picked up a couple of pieces of pizza himself and put them on his own plate before going back to the couch and perching on the edge with the plate on his knees, folding his first piece and taking out half of it in two bites.

Dave took another bite of pizza and then shrugged. "She's got some pretty wicked insights, from time to time. I tuned out her armchair psychology years ago, it makes her about nine hundred times easier to put up with once you filter out her probing your innermost thoughts to find a deeper meaning." He shook his head, "I mean look at me, how fucking deep am I." He shrugged and sipped his beer again before continuing, "Anyway, she says welcome and she insisted I tell you that if I get too obnoxious, you have her express permission to hit me upside the head until I start thinking straight." He shook his head with a huff and went back to eating.

"If that's the case, you should have brain damage by the end of the week. I hope she's happy with this development." Karkat tucked neatly into the rest of his pizza, sipping at the beer occasionally until the pizza was gone while the bottle still sat half-full. There was the slightest bit of sway to his walk as he went to retrieve a last slice, putting the plate in the sink as well before returning with the pizza half-eaten, flopping down onto the couch again with a quiet "oof".

"Don't tell me you're already buzzed with just half a beer, Vantas," Dave chided once Karkat returned. He had finished his own and wasn't feeling anything but just slightly more calm than usual. "You have a piss-poor constitution." He finished his pizza by popping the last bite into his mouth, and leaning back. The pervasive memory of his dream lingered in his mind and he tried to think of something else.

"Fuck you, Strider," he snapped, squinting some at Dave and brandishing his pizza. "You shouldn't even be drinking this shit in the first place."

"Says who, the fucking FDA? Okay, smartass, riddle me this. Why is it okay for me to pollute my lungs with known carcinogens and tar, but it's not okay to drink something that mildly impairs my judgment, and after repeated and frequent exposure - which I don't get - might do damage to my liver? And furthermore, it's been okay for me to fire a gun ever since I was old enough to hold one up?" He smirked, "My god, Vantas, who died and made you king rule-keeper?" Dave grabbed the remote and turned the TV back on to start channel surfing to distract himself from the repeating mental image of his tongue tracing over the curve of Karkat's shoulder.

"Because humans have some fucked up priorities." Rolling his eyes, Karkat slumped down in the couch, finishing off the last slice of pizza before returning to his beer. He sucked down another few swallows then seating it between his knees as he watched the flicking channels, absolutely nothing catching his interest at that point. He leaned his head against his hand, trying to pay enough attention to be able to tell Dave to stop clicking. There was a documentary on sharks, sitcoms and cartoons, some ridiculous movie for preteens and then, against all expectation, something caught his interest and he flapped a hand at Dave to get him to stop channel surfing.

Nobody dared pass up I Am Legend in his presence.

"Whoa, good call," Dave agreed as he set the remote down. He leaned into the back of the sofa, sprawling his legs out in front of him while he rested his hands on his stomach. "Glad to see you have _some_ sense of good taste in movies," he teased, albeit more lighthearted than the last time he ribbed Karkat about it. He hushed then and mentally caught up to the point they'd come in on - Robert Neville's daring stand-off with a mannequin.

Karkat leaned heavily into the arm of the couch and brought his legs up in front of him as he listened to the insistence that Fred speak, then couldn't help but wince at the audible crack of Neville's skull against pavement. He never got tired of this movie. There was no way he ever could, even with its complete lack of romance outside of a deleted scene at the end of the movie. His hands perched on top of his knees as he watched, head craned forward some.

Dave looked over in his periphery at Karkat while a particularly tense scene played out. He knew where the jump scare would be, having seen this movie at least a dozen times. He figured Karkat had seen it too, knew what was coming, but he couldn't pass it up. He lowered his hand slowly while he timed his moves, making sure Karkat was intently watching, and just as the jump scare happened, he poked his friend in the side, lightly, but still enough to get a good reaction out of him. Immediately Karkat yelped and flew across the couch at him, but he found himself lacking in cushions to smack his friend over the head with. Instead he sat down heavily on Dave's stomach and rested the arch of his bare foot against his cheek, leaning against the back of the couch as he resumed watching the movie as if nothing had happened, though his lips were pressed into a thin, stubborn line.

Dave couldn't help but outright laugh at the reaction, and although he was sat on and pinned, he was smug as fuck. He daintily removed Karkat's foot from his face after a minute or two, and continued to watch with no protest about the troll on his torso. He'd watched movies in less comfortable seating arrangements, and this was fairly comfortable, as far as being sat on was concerned.

Once the movie cut to commercial, though, Dave retaliated by using what little leverage he could to swing Karkat off of him and onto the floor, before using him as a footrest. Karkat spluttered and started to complain loudly, though he never actually got up, eventually just putting his head down on his arms when the movie started back up. He would get his revenge soon enough.

When he finally saw his opportunity, it had been silent for a good twenty minutes. The movie had become thoroughly interesting once again, thus affording Karkat the opportunity to shift slowly before flipping over in place and wrapping his arms around Dave's legs. He sat on top of the other's feet, refusing to let go, even growling and biting one of his knees for good measure. It was obvious that a sober Karkat wouldn't pull this kind of thing, but a good, strong beer had remedied that.

Dave shouted at the bite, more out of surprise than pain, though Karkat's sharp teeth didn't do much to help the situation. He bent forward, wrapped his arms around Karkat's torso, and simply rolled from where he was on the sofa to the floor, effectively dislodging Karkat from his legs while also sprawling both of them out in the process. He chuckled a little at their antics and then turned to face his friend. "Careful with those teeth, Vantas, you could rip someone's leg off with those things."

"Don't even tempt me, Strider. I will gnaw your leg off and then start on every other fucking extremity you have." Karkat squinted at him, then crawled halfway over him, laying across his stomach and propping his chin on his hands as he looked up at the movie just as soon as it came off of commercial again. Dave put his hands up in defeat at that, and relaxed once the movie came on. Within a few minutes, his hand found its way into Karkat's mess of hair and was idly toying with the ends of it. He smiled contentedly as the movie drew to a close, and once the credits started to roll, an ad popped up in the corner. Next up was Hancock and he had the tough decision between bed and enjoying THAT movie, too.

"I've got that on blu-ray," he mentioned, "We can watch it tomorrow."

Karkat had unconsciously tilted his head some into the hand on it, the strangest little noise starting to emanate from his chest, somewhere between a very quiet purr and a chirp akin to that of a cricket. He blinked when Dave spoke up, bolting upright when he did and rubbing his hands over his head furiously then looking up at the screen. He frowned at the advert then pressing his lips together again as he pulled his shirt straight, stood, and gave the other a light kick in the side. "Fine, we're watching that tomorrow; now get off the floor, jackass."

Dave couldn't help another chuckle and a duck of his head at Karkat's sudden sour disposition after being lulled into comfort. He'd never heard a sound like that before, and it was soothing, mellow, and altogether wonderful. He stood as he turned off the TV and stretched one last time. "I'm off to bed," He yawned. "You should get some rest, too, man. S'been a long, weird day."

"Yeah... Oh wait, hold on a second. Meds." Karkat started toward his room, rifling through his belongings for a moment before coming back with a large bottle of small tablets, handing them over with a slight grimace. "So you can actually get your sleep shit in order."

Dave followed into the hallway, and once he was handed the bottle, he looked over at Karkat with a subtle gratefulness in his expression. "I hope these will work," he murmured before shuffling over to his door. "Goodnight, Vantas," he called over his shoulder as he slipped into his room. He made short work of stripping out of his clothes and then read the bottle as he sat down on the edge of his bed. He took a pill as directed, and then set the bottle down and sprawled out, turning off the light.

He was fast asleep shortly thereafter, and wound up continuing what he'd been dreaming with his nap. Only this time, there was no confusion. He was assertive this time, whispering forgettable but instantly pleasurable things while his hands roamed freely over bare grey skin. His mind concocted an image of what Karkat would look like, and Dave enjoyed what he saw. His dream went on, and just as he'd dropped to his knees to trace a long line of heat across the bright red bulge, his alarm woke him up.

He was drenched in sweat and his mouth was dry. His throat wasn't sore, which was a good sign at least. He blinked the bleariness away and sighed grumpily. He had business to take care of before getting up. Twenty minutes later, once he emerged from his room with a change of clothes and clean towel under his arm, he peeked out into the hallway to make sure Karkat wasn't there before creeping into the bathroom and quietly shutting the door.

Karkat was still out cold in his bed of slime, curled in on himself as his own dreams faded between morbidly colorful scenes and blood spattered walls and complete darkness, his hands tucked under his chest. He was a deep sleeper, barely making a sound as he shifted even when the shower started. It was another half hour before he stirred, leaning against the inner wall of the recuperacoon with a heavy sigh and grinding his palms into his eyes. He was more tired now than when he'd gone to bed, but at least it was Sunday and he could hide in his room for a while longer without drawing any attention. He braced his feet against the other side of the cocoon, looking down at his slightly knobby knees as he listened to the water drumming against the shower walls.

Dave wasn't very quick about his morning routine. Once out of the shower, he shaved and brushed his teeth, primped his hair into a style that managed to somehow seem extremely natural, yet expertly done. He dressed in a sleeveless tank today, as well as a pair of well-fitted distressed jeans. He put in a different set of plugs in his ears, hollow titanium plugs this time around, and put a red ball at the end of his barbell, before stepping out of the bathroom, looking like a slightly underfed hipster supermodel. He walked into the kitchen and started the morning coffee routine without looking in the fridge this time. He knew what was in there, he didn't need to stare like a moron into the rows of leftovers.

Karkat crept out of the room after a little while longer, when he heard the coffee being started and he knew Dave was distracted. He shook as much of the slime off him as possible before slinking into the bathroom with his own towel and change of clothes. He spent a large portion of the shower with his forehead against the wall, letting the water beat down on his back. He wasn't really hung-over, just mildly miserable in a general sort of way.

When he crept out of the bathroom it was in a loose sweater akin to what he had always worn, sans the Cancer insignia, and a pair of relaxed but still rather skinny jeans that fell over his feet and effectively hid them. He dragged a mug out and filled it with coffee black, slinking out to the balcony and watching the city sleepily. Dave gave a grunted 'morning' in lieu of a more casual hello, and slipped off to his room after grabbing his coffee and a couple slices of toast, as well as his cigarettes. He wasn't in a bad mood, really. He just didn't know what to do with himself after a dream like that. He stayed in his room, reading while nibbling on the toast, and after a couple of cigarettes, he finally braved going out into the living room. Karkat had come back inside and refilled his coffee mug, sitting back in the middle of the couch watching a morning newscast with all the enthusiasm one would expect from a previously nocturnal person. He held the mug in both hands as he stared at the far-too-cheerful anchorwoman with mild disgust as she described events in far-off countries with climbing death tolls.

"Oh boy," Dave muttered as he dropped onto the sofa, "it's Perky Wonktits and her increasingly chipper recitations of awful events. Gosh, do I ever love her." He didn't say anything after that, and simply fidgeted, rubbing his thumb against his middle finger with one hand while he tried to find something to say.

"I'm pretty sure it's common practice to get every last fucking trace of sensibility removed when one becomes a newscaster," Karkat muttered, then took a few swallows of the bitter, strong coffee. The weather was, predictably, going to be wet and grey all week, making the world horribly humid and generally less bearable than usual. Dave didn't mind the rain. He preferred it to a week of sweltering sunny heat, hands down. Though once the extremely boisterous sportscaster came on, it was about as much news as Dave could take and he stood up and went to his shelf of movies to go grab Hancock.

"Thaaat's about enough out of the news, I think," he said, as he took Benny & Joon out of the player and put his movie in. He set the DVD aside, too lazy to find its case, before walking back to the kitchen. "You can operate the buttons. I need another coffee," he said as he went to pour himself another cup.

Karkat was up and more mobile than he'd been all morning, immediately fitting the DVD back into its case and slotting it back into its place in his collection before picking up Hancock's case, laying it on top of the shelves then starting the player, adjusting the volume then going right back to the middle of the couch with the remote in hand. He had finished off his second coffee and was marginally more awake by the time the title menu finally came up. He waited until Dave had fetched his coffee before hitting play.

Dave was moderately taken aback by how tidy Karkat was. He came back in and sat down with his coffee resting between his hands, his legs dangling outward from the sofa. "Thanks," he said as he got comfortable and took a sip from his mug. Karkat grunted quietly in response as he tucked his bare feet underneath him, leaning against the back of the couch comfortably and watched the opening roll. One of his knees came up after a little while and his chin rested atop it, hands tucked between his chest and thigh. Dave noticed the curled up position and bowed his head faintly. He really fucking hoped it wasn't something he'd done. He wasn't able to handle that. Not as freaked out about everything as he was today. Shit was just going weird and it was starting to really get on his nerves. He sighed and set his coffee aside before slipping closer. It only took another few minutes before he wound up slumping over and leaning against Karkat, using him like an extra-lumpy pillow. Whatever personal space was, Dave certainly hadn't heard of it. Or at least that was the impression he was trying to give.

Karkat blinked then leaned over the same direction until he'd fallen over onto his side in relatively the same position, making it so that Dave had to lay with his head against his hip. He tucked one arm under his head as he continued to watch the movie quite casually, feeling somewhere between tense and awkward and rather amused. Dave was still feeling a little janky himself, but the movie kept his brain occupied so he didn't overthink it and wind up fucking himself up more. He looked up at Karkat after a while, and realized he looked pretty uncomfortable, so he adjusted his position to sprawl unceremoniously across the entirety of the couch, troll legs be damned.

"What's eating you, dude?" He finally asked. "You're more crabby than usual." Oh fuck, puns. He went there. The pun earned him a rough half-second noogie in the part of his oh so carefully crafted hairstyle, then Karkat's legs right over the top of his as they sprawled across the couch in nearly the same position, though the fact that Dave was more or less all leg didn't really leave Karkat much room to spread out.

"It's nothing for you to fucking worry about, just watch the damn movie."

"That argument's going to wear pretty thin if you keep using it every time I ask," Dave pointed out as he made a little more room for Karkat to get comfortable, preening his hair back into place briefly. "But I'll let it slide for now. Fuckin' grumpyass." He hushed again and watched the movie in silence, feeling pretty mellow after a while. He smiled when the scene came on that had the two of them brawling in the city and fucking up all sorts of shit. When he'd first seen the movie, he had the idea that was really good as a visual metaphor for every throwdown exes went through, as he'd just broken up with his first girlfriend that hadn't been written off as a delusion.

Karkat was predictably quiet through the movie with his legs tangled around Dave's, his arm tucked under his head. He was just as thoroughly invested in the movie as he was in every other movie in his personal collection, which also included Hancock, though not on blu-ray. When the end credits started to roll he stayed where he was, but withdrew his legs in case Dave wanted to get up.

Dave didn't really want to leave the comfort of the sofa, but if they wanted to watch another movie, he was more free to go put one in. He reluctantly rolled to his feet and went to go put the movie back. "You know what movie is good for miserable, wet days like this?" He asked rhetorically as he pulled out another movie, holding it out to Karkat.

It had nothing to do with weather at all. It was Devil's Advocate. Dave had picked the movie at random. Karkat's eyebrow arched up some as he looked it over, flipping it over to read the back blurb and raising the brow higher as he looked up at Dave. Rainy day movie, his ass. He let it go though and sat up, lounging against the arm of the couch. At least it wasn't something worse; he'd fully expected Dave to pull out The Weather Man. "Now who has shitty taste in movies..."

Dave hadn't even seen that terrible ass Nicholas Cage movie. He noped out at 'Nicholas Cage'. "Are you even fucking kidding me," he said flatly, "this movie is brilliant if only because of Pacino's 'fan of man' speech. Sure, it's Keanu and his acting has one note, but it's a really good note." He shrugged then, "Well fine, you picky shit, you pick the next one." He set the movie back on the shelf and looked out at the rain that started coming down again.

Karkat rolled his eyes and stretched one leg back out to put his foot very firmly in Dave's seat. "If I don't complain about this, you're not allowed to say one fucking word about the next thing I pick, you get me? One word and I'll make you sit through some fucking soap operas too."

"You're a cruel and unusual man, Vantas," Dave said with a sidelong narrowing of his eyes, and he crouched down to put the movie in. "Threatening me with soaps. What's next, vices on my nipples and red hot pokers?" He sprawled back out on the couch once the movie was in, this time behind Karkat so that his broad shoulders and longer body weren't nearly as cumbersome and in the way.

"You know, I get the feeling that you'd like that," Karkat teased then shifted some so that once more they were laying spread out on the couch comfortably. It was somewhat surprising how well they could completely occupy the sofa without caring what was in who's space. Propping his head up on his hand, Karkat immediately had to fight down the urge to complain about Keanu Reeves on general principles. Dave had a soft spot for the guy. He never really talked about it, but he was a pretty heavy Matrix fanboy when he was little. That being noted, he never complained about people complaining about Keanu. He knew the guy's deliveries were dry as a cracker. He didn't care. He also couldn't help but have a semi-ironic love for bland delivery of the line, 'they didn't steal your ovaries.'

He was easily distracted by the movie again, and was able to ignore the warmth that Karkat gave off, though his hand was back in his friend's hair and toying idly with it while he watched, really more out of something to fidget with than anything. It was there, close, and he wasn't getting yelled at for it. That constituted a good reason for him to do it.

As much as Karkat didn't want to admit it, especially to Dave, he liked having his hair touched. He had once hated people touching him at all and would have reacted violently (and sometimes, he still did) but this...this was nice. With a soft sigh he flattened his palm and leaned his head against it, watching the movie with clear disdain.

When he realized that once again he'd begun to make that sound, that chirpy little humming purr, he stiffened and leaned his head away from Dave's hand, turning an indignant shade of red in his embarrassment. But...they were friends. Moirails now. Dave liked doing it, and he admitted grudgingly to himself that he did too. He leaned his head back again, crossing his arms over his chest as if he were cold when it was exactly the opposite.

That sound got Dave to smile and practically melt into contentedness again. He couldn't help but feel like he'd been doing something good. When Karkat pulled away, however, Dave moved his hand away slightly and he frowned. Well there went that, he mentally groused, though once Karkat moved back into it, the sudden sinking feeling subsided and he put his fingers back into Karkat's hair. He quietly murmured, "If you want me to stop, don't just sit and tolerate it." He hated feeling like he was doing something wrong. "I'm not going to get all shitty or whatever."

"You're such a pain in the ass, goddamn..." Karkat rolled his eyes and leaned his head back, frowning up at Dave and bumping his head against the other's jaw before lifting it back up and huffing quietly. "If I really fucking want it to stop, I'll just move further away."

"Jesus asspounding fuck, I'm just saying," Dave grumbled, though it was completely without any actual fire behind it. His smile returned slowly as he let his mind drift, first to the movie, then far, far from all that was currently going on and to completely unrelated, brief, miniscule things. His mind didn't stay on one topic for more than a moment, dancing from thought to thought while his fingers left Karkat's hair and rested on his shoulder instead. Karkat leaned back against him as the movie progressed, having long since lost his interest as he instead chose to focus on the heartbeat thudding against his back. It was weirdly soothing being this close to anyone. His knees curled up some, his feet tucking up under Dave's leg, arm up under his jaw and keeping his head up. It was rather obvious to him by now that Dave had started letting his mind wander as well, and he finally gave up, letting his head fall some as he looked down at the couch cushion.

"I don't think I want to remember shit anymore..."

Karkat's voice pulled him back down to earth and Dave blinked, looking down at him, brow furrowed in concern. "Something happen?" He knew that remembering wound up making him feel like a fucking nutcase most of the time. Worse when he couldn't control the downward descent into the well of surreal memories that always wound up ending in seeing himself and Bro dead, dying, fading away, as well as the deaths of his friends, the dried stains of multi-hued blood, the explosion of the sun. Everything made him want to shut down, shut off, simply disappear.

So yeah, he could understand not wanting to remember.

"The slime's not working anymore," he said quietly, keeping his eyes down as his brow furrowed. "Not how it's supposed to, anyway. I woke up this morning and... It felt like I was still on the fucking meteor, living the nightmares..." His hands tucked between his legs at that, his knees pulling up a little higher toward his chest.

"Shh," whispered Dave as he squeezed Karkat's shoulder lightly once he started curling up again. "I wish I had a fuckin' solution to it, I do. Man, if I did, I wouldn't have to deal with the shit I do. I just... I hope what you're dealing with doesn't get bad as me, that's... that's all I can really do." He looked down. "Maybe it isn't the violent subconscious shit inherent in your genes that's making the sopor useless. Man, maybe you've got PTSD. I wouldn't fuckin' doubt it with what we dealt with. We were fuckin' kids. Nobody should have to deal with that shit. But I mean. Kids."

"The only reason I don't fucking wake up screaming is because I can't remember jack fucking shit past seeing everyone die. Over and over again. All for the sake of this fucking game. For this universe here. Nothing is worth that..."

Dave grit his teeth because deep down, he agreed. Wholeheartedly. But he silently moved his hand back into Karkat's hair and stared ahead, jaw clenched. He had nothing to say to it. It wasn't like they had a choice in playing the game. If they didn't, they would've been casualties. If they hadn't done what they did and how they did it, they would've died along with their worlds. If they hadn't scratched the disc, they wouldn't have had the chance to fix shit like they did. There was no other way. There were no other options but this one.

"We gave ourselves this chance," he finally said, though his tone was darker and angrier than he wanted it to come off. "We thought that you know what? Fuck it. We deserved the chance to live, to be able to exist without the risk of being destroyed. I'm fucking sorry that I started telling you what happened. If I knew it was going to fuck you up, man, I just wouldn't have." He vaguely recalled that his acknowledgment of the wish wasn't entirely altruistic. He had reasons he wanted to go back to as normal as possible. "I'm a fucking asshole."

Karkat sighed as he closed his eyes, reaching back and laying his hand against the side of Dave's neck. Now that they were both miserable, again, there was nothing else he could really do.

"I asked you to tell me. I should have considered what if I wouldn't fucking like what I heard. You didn't do any fucking thing wrong. I'm sorry I'm acting like a complete fucking grub about all of this. I know I should be happy with what I have. I'm in school and I have my best fucking friend in the multiverse. That should be enough..."

Dave bit back a bitter chuckle. "Well, that's enough for me, for now. If you have shitty dreams again tonight, let me know. I still have a few pills that were too weak for me but might work for your weenie constitution, keep you from dreaming too much." He buried his face in Karkat's hair and muttered, "Pale for you." He sighed and then chuckled. "God, that sounds sappy as shit coming out of me."

"A lot of shit you say sounds pretty fucking sappy anyway," Karkat snorted and bumped his head back against Dave's chin again. "It's just half the time I don't know whether it's your jokes on top of irony wrapped in cellophane sincerity."

"Yeah, whatever, I'm a fucking pushover for nubby-headed douchebags, what can I say," Dave teased, then groaned when he heard his phone buzzing. "That's probably my manager. I'm not going in today no matter how sick Toby says he is." Dave was getting really fucking sick of Toby's shit, making him pull his weight on the weekends. He knew the fucker was just hung over.

Karkat sat up and rubbed his hand across the back of his neck, groaning quietly as he hung his head and rubbed his fingers into his eyes. He propped his elbows against his knees as he looked around at Dave with a raised eyebrow, staying quiet during the call but catching Dave's tone immediately. He gave Dave a look, debating on asking if he should go in as well just to keep him sane.

"So what's the verdict, o' venerable coffee pusher?"

"The high lord command has insisted that I take Toby's shift again," sighed Dave as he hung up. "I swear to all that is good and pure in this world, I'm going to shit on that man's breakfast one day. See how he likes having his morning ruined." He tossed his phone onto the nearby chair and rubbed his face. "Well, I suppose I have no other recourse but to be a productive member of society today. Want to come be an obnoxious shithead in my general proximity? I'll sneak you drinks on the house."

"Sounds like a fantastic way to waste my Sunday. I'll just find something presentable to wear or whatever."

When Karkat emerged from his room a few minutes later, he was wearing a dull red tshirt under his hoodie that bore something that looked like Dave's trademark broken record near the bottom hem on the right hand side. He hadn't changed out of his jeans, toeing on his sneakers as he joined Dave at the door, shaking his hair straight-ish. Or at least a little less haphazard than usual. Dave took the time that Karkat was getting ready to smooth out his hair again and put in a clear placeholder in his eyebrow piercing. He grabbed his wallet, keys, phone, smokes, and slipped on his shades, before walking to the door and putting his shoes on. "Bring your homework, this shift is stupid amounts of long without something to do."

"In that case, give me a second. The coffee shop has free wifi," Karkat commented as he went back to his room, only to come back out ten seconds later with his laptop case over his shoulder. He shrugged some when he came back, mentioning that he had research he could do while he was there. He waited until the door was opened then jogged down the stairs to wait by the car, the case held over his head as he was sprinkled on. Dave was smart enough to grab his umbrella as he walked out the door and gave Karkat a purse-lipped 'are you fucking serious right now' look as he started the other way, to the cafe that was only two and a half blocks away. He had the umbrella open and he stood patiently while waiting for Karkat to catch up

"I'm not wasting gas to drive three blocks."

Karkat immediately flipped him off then jogged to catch up with him, having to walk a little more quickly to keep up, complaining rather loudly about the rain and how fast Dave was walking on his long-ass fucking giraffe legs, shivering a little. He sniffed a little as they went; clearly he still wasn't really adapted to the swings in temperature he was forced through, his naturally high body temperature making the cold that much more apparent. He ducked into the coffee shop ahead of Dave so that he could close the umbrella, heading for a seat near the back of the shop to keep out of the way for the time being. Dave silently put up with the griping and entered the store with an invisible roll of his eyes. He shook out the umbrella and tossed it in the stand near the door. Then he went straight through to the back to get his apron on and talk to the boss. Once he came out, he was in a distinctly pleasant mood. He hated having to deal with talking to the boss usually, but he used this, the third Sunday in a row coming in on his day off, as a mighty leverage for getting Karkat's foot in the door.

"Hey, nubby," he called over to Karkat. "The boss wants to meet you. I vouched for your ability to carry things from one side of a room to the other." He motioned with a thumb over his shoulder to the manager's office. "If you're lucky, you can start tomorrow." He started into work with swift efficiency, getting everything set up the way he preferred before the first customer could come.

Karkat had barely had time to open and boot up his husktop before Dave was yelling for him. He paused in the middle of starting to yell back, eyebrows lifting fast enough to have flown into his hair. He put the computer aside and made his way back into the office cautiously, poking his head inside then stepping in and reaching out to shake the manager's hand, feeling as if he'd been put on the spot and that he would choke at any moment. But against all expectations, the man seemed to like him as Karkat looked him square in the face and answered his questions promptly. He seemed even more pleased at the fact that Karkat didn't drink.

When he emerged, the troll looked somewhere between traumatized and relieved, looking around at Dave and cracking a crooked, unsure smile before fleeing back to where his husktop sat. Dave gave a smile and a shrug, before the next customer came by for a refill. He was pretty happy that it was a dreary day, because even though it was a weekend, it wasn't that busy. He scooted out from behind the counter once he had a minute and offered Karkat a biscotti and a chai.

"How'd it go?" He asked in a hushed tone. "Are you my new dish jockey?"

Taking the drink, Karkat made a face at him then punched him in the shoulder lightly. "Apparently I'm going to be Toby's replacement if I actually manage to keep this for more than a month. So you've kept your end of the Benny & Joon agreement." He unwrapped the biscotti and dipped it into the chai, letting it sit for a moment before adding, "Thanks. I owe you a hell of a lot..."

Dave pumped his fist slightly at the first, and then shook his head, waving his hand. "Yeah, you'll be paying me back by not giving me a hard fucking time when I have to train your stubborn ass on how to actually work here." He smirked and rumpled Karkat's hair before walking away to get back to work. "You can thank me AFTER I'm done being a hardass. I'm not accepting gratitude at this juncture. Prostration and blowjobs, however, are always welcome, and in fact, the preferred currency in this land."

"Everything is dicks with you, Strider. Everything. Jesus..." Shaking his head, Karkat nevertheless sat back with the husktop balanced on his knees. He opened his web browser, typing quickly with a very clear goal in mind, just hoping that he would actually be able to find what he was looking for. He couldn't seem to find anything that he needed from the first site, instead searching a couple of different engines. He came up with some disappointing hits, until finally entering a full name. An image search popped up a few thumbnails, and his fingers stopped tapping across the keyboard as he frowned softly at the broadly smiling face of a young brown-blooded troll, surrounded by bulldog puppies, a necklace sitting against his shirt that looked like a phial of glitter.

"Fucking fairy dust..."

Dave raised an eyebrow at the mumbling from the loveseat, and finished the order before peeking over the counter. "What're you grumbling about now, Vantas?" He tapped his hands to the intricate beat of the song that was on the stereo system and smirked. He wasn't sure what his moirail was doing over there, but whatever it was, he wanted in on that sweet action. Karkat was thumping his head against the wall behind the loveseat, grouching to himself then turning on Dave with a grimace.

"He has the kittens, Dave."

"Congratulations to him, may they live many prosperous lives," Dave deadpanned. "Who?" He hadn't caught exactly what was going on, and honestly, he knew he'd catch shit for not being a psychic and immediately knowing exactly what the fuck was going on. Instead of answering, Karkat jerked the computer around to show the multiple pictures that he'd been able to bring up of Tavros Nitram, bent over injured animals, surrounded by puppies, holding a one-eyed cat, looking extremely content.

"I saw him, Strider. He came and fucking got the kittens. He didn't say one mother*fucking* word to me but I know it was him."

"Oh my god you have got to be shitting me so hard," Dave said, leaning over the counter to get a better look. "That's Tavros? Dude, he's even more of a drip than I ever pictured. Wow." He shrugged a little. "Well, it's nice to see that he can walk and shit." He was pretty unfazed by the entire thing, though he could understand the significance of having Tavros nearby. "So if he's here, I mean, in this city, how much do you want to bet there's at least one more of us in the area?" He knew that it was at least feasible that they'd fallen into place in arbitrarily chosen groups. "And if we're here, I'm starting to wonder if the others are near to each other, too." He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Rose, asking if she'd seen any familiar strangers where she was.

"Where did you say clownshoe wound up?"

"I don't even know how the fuck he managed it, but he's in Boston. In the McLean psychiatric hospital. That might mean one of the others ended up in the same area." Karkat started tapping at the keyboard again, hoping to be able to pull up more information, but he wasn't able to find much outside of the initial new reports of the insane juggalo that had apparently decided to preach his message to tourists outside of Red Sox games. He rubbed his hands over his face, swearing irritably then looking around as someone dinged at the little bell sitting atop the counter on the other side of the room. "I think you're wanted, asshat. Shoo."

"Boston? Dude, you know who- ," and that's when he got pulled away from the conversation by a customer. He smiled extra-super genuinely and apologized in his best "I want to die a quick, painless death" way while taking the order. And just his luck, it was an irritable picky fancy-drink wanting doucheprick. He made the drink as quickly and as to spec as he'd do if he'd wanted the same thing and then, while the customer was distracted by something else, he picked a fly from the flypaper above the sink, and tossed it into the foam, covering it up with a mint leaf and handed the drink over. "Have a super wonderful day." He took the next two customers in line with less snotty attitude, before coming back over to the side of the counter that Karkat was sitting. "Rose." As if summoned by her name alone, she responded at the same time and he fumbled for the phone in his apron pocket.

Karkat was staring at him with wide eyes, having spotted the quick, horrible little maneuver and having to stop himself from breaking down laughing as the guy wandered out with his coffee. He let it go for the time being though and straightened back up, waiting for Dave to respond to and possibly relay the message. Rose was in Boston? Why the fuck would she have ended up where Gamzee had? If anything, the first place a Makara should have ended up in Michigan... Though more likely than not, if one had, they would have had a fucking army of hatchet-wielding psychopaths at their disposal.

"Though, you know, to be fair, she was from there to begin with. Her and what'sherface, her mom-not-mom both were in New York. I was in Houston. John was in some fuckin' suburb in Washington or some shit. And Jade... Fuckin'... Some weird ass island in the Pacific somewhere." He shrugged and sighed. "Who knows why he wound up where she is. Why'd Tavros show up here? Why not Terezi, since y'know, she's more likely?" He shrugged it off and went back to work, still talking. "I'm pretty sure where we landed and with whom is arbitrary."

"I don't think I want to know where else I might have ended up," Karkat muttered, looking back at Dave as he returned to his job, frowning faintly after him then deciding that he didn't particularly care where he might have ended up. Where he was now was fine. Who he was now was...sort of fine. Getting there. Maybe. Dave was making that easier to believe at least. He wondered vaguely what the others would have thought if they learned of the new moiraillegiance. He pushed the thought down when he heard a clatter from a few feet away, raising an eyebrow at a girl in completely unnecessary high heels tripping over a chair leg and spilling half her soy decaf whateverthefuck latte all over the ground in the process. He stood and made his way back to the manager's office to ask after a mop, deciding now would be as good a time as any to make himself himself useful. Dave watched as the girl tripped and spilled and grimaced, and then he went around to go see if she was all right. He raised an eyebrow as Karkat moved and went to work, and chuckled under his breath as he nodded to the girl who had apparently had the worst morning ever. He really wasn't listening to her, but definitely seemed like he'd been.

"Look, I'll get you another of the same, on the house, just sit down and put your foot up for a minute." He patted her hand and then walked past Karkat on his way back behind the counter. "This is why we have repeat customers," he murmured, before springing back to work.

"You're shameless," Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes as he sopped up the sweet-smelling mess, his hands laced together on top of the mop handle as the girl looked up at him while waiting for her drink. She apologized and started to tell him about her worst day ever, and he put on a sympathetic little frown for her.

Dave came back over with the drink once he was done with it. "Just a tip, Karkat's a good guy, but he's had a rough week, himself. Nooooot exactly prime shoulder-to-cry-on estate." He smiled softly and slipped off to work on the new customers' orders. The fact of the matter was that the girl in the exceptionally high heels was a regular and would spend about an hour whining about everything and anything to anybody who'd listen, and while Dave had the patience of a saint (and the fantastic ability to tune anybody out while still seeming attentive,) he didn't want to have Karkat suffer the same fate. The girl smiled up apologetically as Karkat went back up to his allotted job, grabbing an abandoned water bottle with a single swallow left on a table however long ago and pouring that little bit on the sticky spot before it could dry then mopping that up too. He tossed the bottle and took the mop back to wash it out. The girl had been...nice. He guessed. But not something he really felt equipped to deal with just then with rapidfire comments and rhetorical questions and that on-the-verge-of-tears look that he couldn't really handle. When he returned and settled in front of his husktop again he gave her a wide berth then settled back in with the hopes he could spend Dave's shift in peace.

Dave watched as Karkat cleaned up and shook his head. The guy was completely incomprehensible. He didn't even start until tomorrow, and he was already cleaning up and fussing over things. Things went fairly smoothly for a while as Dave worked and let his mind sort out the confusion behind Tavros living here, and Gamzee living where Rose was. He shot a few more texts back and forth with her, nothing really all that important. When his first break hit, he moved over to Karkat's side and held up the conversation between himself and Rose. It seemed that she'd run into another girl who she thought she'd known and it just made her brain itch when she saw her, working at the local florist's. The girl was an oliveblood, really chipper and cheerful, and had made what Rose described as 'frankly quite adorable cat puns'.

"Sounds familiar," Dave said with a shrug and patted Karkat's shoulder. "I'm going out for a smoke."

Karkat had to try hard to keep a straight face when he heard that, swallowing hard as he looked up at Dave then following him out. He tucked his husktop under his arm and stepped out into the water half-light with it. He looked preoccupied as he opened it back up, tapping rapidly at the keys until he'd managed to find a list of florists in the Boston area who had trolls in their employment, coming across a few different ones then spotting one that made his heart sink some. He remembered stark, bare walls covered in drawings of everyone and their quadrants, smudged chalk and a massive red heart at one point. He scratched at his hair some, then prodded at Dave's shoulder.

"Ask her if there's a big, sweaty douchehose that hangs around the florist girl."

Dave tapped the question in and sent the text before lighting his cigarette and dropped into his seat. "So far we've only found our iteration of people. Maybe the ones from after the scratch went somewhere else," he considered the possibility and that seemed reasonable. Another reality for another iteration. Made sense. His phone buzzed and he looked at it, and he chuckled. "Yeah, her response said, 'Her "meowrail"?" He fingerquoted, "Apparently he's there some of the time, though he's a mechanic and spends a lot of time tinkering on his own projects." He shrugged. "Well, that's where those two are. Good to know they're together."

"Yeah. I don't think either of them would really be able to handle their shit if they were separated." Karkat laced his fingers together behind his neck after tucking his computer under his arm, leaning back against the wall with his eyes turned up toward the dismal sky. "Just because we're finding people doesn't mean that we'll all be able to just...get back together like nothing happened, even if more of them do remember."

"I wasn't planning on it," Dave said with a shrug. "Honestly, if their lives are going on like nothing happened, more power to them. That's why I don't really push Rose. That's why I didn't keep talking to John. Just because we're aware of it doesn't necessarily mean we should make the others..." He sighed. "The only real reason I want to get things on film, you know, like I was saying, was to get the images out of my head." He shook his head. "If they deal with it like you do, though, I'd rather not be the reason behind them getting really fucked up over it. What happened happened. Does that mean we should rip through the mend to remember? Sometimes shit's better left alone." He'd had a change of heart over the course of the past few hours, seeing how it affected Karkat.

With his lips pressed together Karkat nodded some, letting a slow breath through his nose. "Yeah. Just...yeah."

Dave took a strained pull of his cigarette and nodded once. "There's no fault in checking up on them, though. That's all that this is." He slid his hand through his hair and looked over at Karkat. "I get a half-hour for lunch in a couple hours here. I'll grab some lunch for us so you don't have to go out in this," he said, pointing at the rain that was pouring on the street. He was happy that the patio was covered. "Don't need a soaked cranky-ass keeping me company," he joked as he took another drag of his cigarette.

"As if that's any worse than the usual cranky-ass that keeps you company anyway," Karkat muttered and stood up, starting to pace a little as he tried to think of who else they might be able to find and at least see if they were still around. The other iteration's kids could come after they found the last of their own.

"Hey, do me a favor," Dave said as he took another tight-lipped drag of his cigarette. "Could you look up the name 'Eridan Ampora'?" He didn't even know what would come up for that one - he had limited interaction with that guy, but the name popped into his head and he figured Karkat would know the name once he'd heard it. "He's probably got some cush job or some shit. Fuckin' fishpeople."

Karkat's brow arched up as he opened the husktop again, opening a new tab on his browser alongside the ones he'd already found. He chewed some at his lower lip, stripping away a bit of the skin then licking over the raw place. He rolled his eyes when he he saw, predictably, pictures of the seadweller in nicely tailored suits surrounded by yes-men and shaking the hands of various big names including actors, all the while wearing a smug, self-satisfied little smirk. At least he'd replaced the ridiculous hipster glasses with something a little more respectable. "Bet Feferi is somewhere in his general vicinity too," he muttered and ran her search as well. Surprisingly though, she was working on the other side of the world, in Australia, on guided scuba tours around the Barrier Reef. There were a lot of beautiful pictures on the tour company's site, many of which featured her and her massive cloud of hair swimming through the clear blue water. Clearly, she was just as much a tourist attraction as the ocean was. Dave watched over Karkat's shoulder, pointedly attempting not to focus on Karkat's lip and tongue.

He nodded. "Looks like they're doing all right. Good." He finished his cigarette and tossed the butt out to the street. "I've gotta get back to work."

"Yeah. Hopefully shit stays that way." It was likely that at least one of the others remembered bits of what happened if not the whole damn thing and they were just keeping their psychosis out of the public eye. He wouldn't blame them one bit; nobody needed to end up like Gamzee. Of course, he probably would have ended up there anyway, but still. Karkat followed Dave back into the coffee shop, back to his seat which had been taken up by a pair of college girls in sorority sweaters, pointedly ignoring them as he bent to retrieve his charge cord and laptop bag to relocate to another seat. He picked a small table near the bar itself, opening the husktop on its surface and opening a note document to attempt to keep track of everyone they'd managed to find. Not knowing where Aradia or Jade had gone was getting to him.

Dave spent a good half-hour simply doing busy-work, mouthing the words to the songs on the stereo as he cleaned up some minor messes. Occasionally he'd look over to see what Karkat was working on, but really didn't have much to offer, until he came up with a pretty spectacular leap of logic. "Long shot here, but look up Jake English. If anything comes up, there might be a connection to Jade. If not Jake English, try Jake Harley." It was worth a shot. After all, it would've worked for his connections. If anyone were to look up Dirk Strider, they'd wind up with a face full of smuppet ass.

Pausing in the middle of his Eridan entry, Karkat looked back at him then nodded and wordlessly opened another search. He couldn't find anything for either entry that seemed relevant though, sadly. It was like none of them existed in this particular plane of reality. He wrinkled his nose and tried to look himself up to see if there was anything for any of the rest of them to look up and potentially find him. He found a grand total of two entries, one of which didn't even link back to him, but a deactivated account on an ancestry site that he'd attempted to set up to use to find information on any other possible Vantases with which to jog his memory. He was back to chewing his lip as he thought about this.

Dave noticed Karkat worrying at his lip again and sighed. "Calm your tits, Vantas, it's probable that they're just off the grid. I mean, like I said, she lived on a tiny island with her granddad and dog. It's amazing she had internet at all." The cafe had gotten pretty quiet since the rain had started coming down hard, and became a pretty vicious storm, so he took the opportunity to make Karkat and himself something to drink. He walked over to the table and had a seat, handing over another chai to his friend. "I thought you said you knew where Kanaya is though dude, why can't you find her?"

"My tits are totally calm, Strider. Look at me, calm as fuck here. I just thought there would be...something, you know?" Glancing up as Dave sat down, Karkat sighed and took the drink, sipping a little and nodding at the comment about Kanaya. "I told you before, the last I knew, she was studying to be able to take care of human kids or some shit, but that was like...a year or so ago. Now she's just kind of fallen off the radar. I thought she might end up being some huge fashion designer with her own label or something by now, y'know?"

"Dude, we're all like nineteen. She's probably just in school. Not everyone can have the leg up that the seadwellers or Rose have." He sipped his own latte and pulled his shades up to rub his eyes a little, and then dropped them back down before anyone could see them.

"Yeah, I realize that. But still, I can't really let go of how fucking scattered everyone is. The fact that a lot of us don't even fucking remember each other doesn't help anything. I mean, Jesus...I had to get right the hell into your face to even start remembering anything important.

Dave sighed heavily and shook his head. "What would it help if we did, though?" He bowed his head and sighed. "What the hell does it matter if Tavros doesn't remember anything about what happened? Doesn't that make him better off? I mean, he was a fucking sad sap. Got his shit all caught up with that..." He rolled his hand. "Spidery...fucking sociopath." He couldn't remember her name, not that it mattered. "He seems happy here. And whole." 

That brought him to another memory that made his stomach drop. "You already looked her up, but was Terezi blind, or was she still. You know." Sighted was a weird way to say it, but when she regained her sight, she lost so much of her hope and faith in the system, in justice and in herself.

At that, Karkat cracked a soft smile and pulled up his messenger, pointing her out there on the very short list of contacts. "We started talking about six months ago. She doesn't remember much after Gamzee got to her. She's not blind anymore, but she hasn't gotten rid of those glasses. Told you she was in law school. Really wants to be a full-fledged lawyer."

"Wow," Dave said with a faint smile, which grew when the information really hit him. "That's really great." He chuckled a little. Just to know that she was all right, even though she still had her sight, it was enough to put him back in a good mood. Even if they'd been separated, he had great memories of her pestering the shit out of him, sending him gifs she'd made. And hell, that first love shit kept him just a little sentimental. Nothing so far as to want to disturb her shway these days, but it was great to know how well she was doing.

The boss came out of the back and told them that there was a severe storm warning and that most shops in the area were closing up - nobody was going out in THIS kind of ridiculousness. Dave raised his eyebrows at that, looked at the completely empty cafe - having been so preoccupied, he hadn't even noticed that the last of the customers had vacated. He shrugged. "I guess that means we're free to go dick off at home then." He nudged Karkat and stood. "We'll be back tomorrow. Drive save, Bill." That said, he grabbed his stuff, took off his apron and clocked out.

Karkat was almost literally velcroed to Dave's side as they walked back to the apartment under the umbrella, his bag held close under his arm. He swore heavily any time a car passed and managed to throw up a sheet of water that reached his shoes, flipping off several motorists and one guy on a bike before they'd made it home. He toed off his shoes in the doorway then took them to a vent to sit on and dry while he himself went to hang up his sweater then returned to flop down at one end of the couch with his husktop sitting on the end table.

"So. You have any idea what you want to put in your face? So I don't have to sit in front of the fridge staring into the abyss that is your growing collection of leftovers."

"My colonies of mold, more like," Dave said as he pulled off his own shoes and put the umbrella up to drip-dry near the welcome mat. "I'll make some sandwiches." He watched out the window as the rain came down in torrents and a particularly brilliant flash of lightning shot through the sky, before taking off his shades and setting them on the counter near the door. He walked into the kitchen and started on his task.

While working on the sandwiches, he got a text from one of the friends he made last year and chuckled. "Dale's pissed that I haven't introduced you to everyone. Apparently Rose isn't the only one that has little faith in my roommate keeping skills - he wants to meet, fuckin' quote, 'The guy who can put up with my unmatched pizza box hoarding'. You want company? It'd be better than boring each other to death."

"Your pizza box hoarding days are over, Strider. You're not leaving a greasy-ass cardboard box anywhere if you don't want to be eating the fucking thing," Karkat insisted as he leaned against the kitchen doorframe, making a face at the prospect of being introduced to more people. He already more or less hated having to go out into public to do anything as it was, getting cozy with anyone new just didn't float his boat in any way, shape or form. He narrowed his eyes some at Dave and the sandwiches, waving him away before he could put any mayonnaise on his. "Keep that shit away from my food, you assgrabbing son of a fuck."

"Assgrabbing?" Chuckled Dave, getting a coy smile, "I haven't grabbed a single ass in... days!" He stepped aside with a smug grin and grabbed a sandwich, letting Karkat in to finish his own damn food. "Almost an entire week, even!"

"Don't lie, you probably go around grabbing every ass you see trying to decide if they're plush enough for the great Strider and his inconceivable fucking porn collection." Squishing his sandwich together with a little bit of mustard, Karkat went back to the living room and perched on the arm of the couch with his legs pulled up and crossed in front of him, bare toes turned a little red from the chill of being outside in the rain.

"Okay, first off, my porn collection is completely conceivable. It's not even that large or bizarre. Secondly, and more to the point, if I grabbed every nice ass I saw, I'd be on the sex offender registry, and your ass would be red from repeated grabbing. I'm a fucking master of restraint." Dave slipped down into his spot on the sofa and took a bite of his sandwich. He wasn't half as offended as he sounded, and it wasn't clear whether he was joking or serious about Karkat's ass in particular.

Karkat opened his mouth to continue the argument, until the tail-end of the comment caught up to him. He narrowed his eyes and turned in place to lean over and stare directly at Dave, brandishing his sandwich. As always, he couldn't tell what Dave's motivation was for saying it, and he'd be damned to get it out of him without a hair-pulling struggle. "You have issues, Dave Fucking Strider."

Dave leaned back away from the mayo-less sandwich and looked Karkat in the eyes, "My only issue is that I have to restrain myself from exclaiming my delight at choice ass when I see it." He raised his eyebrow at that, and then poked the ball of his barbell out between his teeth, grinning up a storm.

"What ass? There is no ass here for you to be salivating over. And you, you don't even *have* an ass. Is that was this is about, Dave? Are you trying to compensate for your lacking of ass by ogling mine? For shame, bro." Karkat slid down to sit on the couch sideways with his legs still crossed in front of him, taking a huge bite of the sandwich and spending some time masticating it.

Dave laughed outright at that and shook his head. "The fact that I lack ass has nothing to do with my propensity for nice ones. And I know a quality rump when I see one, it's in my genetic code to be a discerning gentleman of fine posterior." He took another bite of his sandwich before shaking what was left of it at Karkat. "An' you," he said over the bite, "Are the owner of ace ass."

"Jesus fuck, Dave..." Shaking his head, Karkat swallowed the last of his lunch then slouched down some into the couch cushions, reaching out and propping his foot on Dave's knee. "John's ass was better than mine since he was all active and shit. I never heard you gush over his."

Dave stretched out as well, his legs dangling as usual while he finished up his sandwich. He practically choked at the mention of John's ass and then laughed again. "Dude, fucking...hammer ass? No man, no. And even if he DID have a nice ass, which he didn't, he still had shit taste in movies, and made me so paranoid about apple juice being piss that I don't even drink it anymore." He wrinkled his nose. "Unforgivable sins that no amount of fine ass could ever change."

"You were so fucking certain that my movies were bullshit until I made you watch Benny & Joon with me," Karkat reminded him, then made a face in kind at the apple juice. "Ok, I'll give you that one. That's just fucking wrong. No wonder the jug in the fridge hasn't even been touched."

"Dude, his boner for Nicholas Cage and Matthew McConaughey is terrifying and a little worrisome." Dave put his hands behind his head and sighed. "Yeah, sorry to disappoint you, I just... Yeah. Nasty. Every time I even think about getting a glass of it, I get a little queasy and think, 'monsters pissed in that.' It's not a pretty picture." He turned slightly and smiled then. "But I suppose that's karma. I made him make his strife specibus be hammers."

"Well, he utilized it pretty fucking well when it came down to it. But if I see another Zilly*anything* in my life I'm going to have a complete mental collapse. Fucking goofy-looking rainbow-ass bullshit. But. I have an idea, if you're willing to humor me ok?" Holding up a finger, Karkat climbed out of the couch and dusted his hands on the seat of his jeans as he went to the kitchen and dug in the fridge. He retrieved a glass from the cupboard and returned, the glass in one hand, the jug of juice in the other.

"Alright. First: Monster fucking Howie Mandel has never been in your apartment. How do I know? Because Howie Fucking Mandel is a germophobe to such a degree that this place would have sent him screaming into the night. Second: This jug is sealed. It's brand fucking new. You're an irrational dipshit because of John and his dumb fucking pranks."

As he spoke, Karkat unscrewed the lid of the juice and poured it into the glass, then closed and set it back down on the floor. Looking squarely at Dave, he lifted it to his lips and took a long swallow, then held it out.

"Okay, but he and I had been through that. That was my logic, too." He took the glass with a sigh. "But monsters are fucking clever little shits and could potentially open, pour out some juice, then fill it back up with piss and there you go, pissjuice. But you bring up a good argument about Mandel being a freaky germophobe." He looked over at Karkat and then took a sip, and then shook his head, making a face. "Aw man, no," he lamented, "I don't even like the taste anymore. I'm going to hunt that little shit down and put pubes in everything he eats until he dies."

"Way to go, Assbert. Ruined a perfectly good beverage. Well, more for me I guess." Karkat finished the glass without a second thought then went to put the jug back in the fridge, lingering in the doorway on his way back in and leaning his shoulder against it with his arms crossed. "So what do you want to do now? At this rate we're going to run through every fucking movie we own before the end of the semester."

Dave had completely gotten over the juice problem by the time Karkat returned from the kitchen, and was texting his friends. "Fff, iunno, I could kick your ass at scrabble? Or would you prefer to have your fine ass handed to you over Call of Duty?" He looked up at Karkat again with a shit-eating grin. "I've got shit-tons of games in that cabinet right there. Pick something you haven't played. I don't mind watching you playing a thing if you haven't yet."

Karkat arched a brow as he looked toward the cabinet in question, pulling it open and scanning over what was available there. How Dave managed to hoard so many games while still going to school baffled him. There were titles in there that he'd never even heard of until now. He pulled out a generic-looking RPG, turning it over to read the back blurb with his eyebrow seemingly permanently wrenched up into that skeptical 'you must be shitting me' look. He showed it to Dave then started setting up to play, taking a seat on the floor with the control in his lap, thumbing the D-pad as the company logos scrolled and buzzed past then settled on an equally generic menu screen. "You sure you don't want to actually sit your ass down here and play with? There is always some kind of co-op mode in these things."

"I haven't even played that before," he said when Karkat showed him, "Bro throws all these games he plays my way when he's done with them and I keep telling him no, dude, I don't have time for 'em, but still," he shrugged and then slipped down to the floor with. "But sure, I'll give it a go." He grabbed the other controller and turned to Karkat, giving him a nod to fire it up. "The only reason I've played any of these was because about two weeks into summer, I got bored off my ass and wound up grinding through about two games a month." It kept him awake, and it gave him something to do.

Karkat shook his head some. "I'm pretty sure that between the two of us we can find better shit to do than just sitting here playing secondhand video games in our free time all fucking year."

"Well, this city's got shitloads to do, if we can tolerate people long enough to do them," he mentioned as he set about making his own character.

Reclining against the front of the couch, Karkat started the game and came to the character creation, flipping through the options with a growing grimace. No matter what he chose from, the avatar was still pretty hideous. "Jesus fuck, you'd think with the budget these people spend on pretty scenery they'd be able to come up with better facial constructs..."

Dave took the shitty avatar selections to his own creative bent and went for the worst looking thing he could make. "It could be worse -- they could be original playstation poly freaks. I did a speed run of Final Fantasy VII this summer and it cracked my shit up when I saw the sprites again. That shit didn't stand up to the test of time." He saved his own avatar and slipped down to sprawl sidelong across the floor.

"I can already see it, we're going to fuck this up so bad somehow and end up halfway to fucking Mordor before we even realize what's going on in the story. Great, now there's a skill tree made of the most ridiculous combination of fucking skills I've ever seen." As the game continued, the diatribe was almost incessant, Karkat's mouth running nonstop as he bitched about everything from the copy/paste trees to clipping scenery to how horribly unintuitive the combat system was.

Dave didn't mind the running commentary, to be honest. In fact, to him, he thought it was really endearing to hear Karkat berate the shitty game. Though after about twenty minutes, his facade cracked and he snickered. "Dude, would you please take a breath?" He sat back up and leaned against the couch beside his friend and shook his head with an amused sigh. "Fucking damn, man." He continued playing however, grinning from ear to ear. Karkat aimed a kick at him, not hard enough to hurt but definitely enough to throw him off as they were jumped by yet another ambush of inexplicable monsters, hammering on the buttons and spasming as something managed to freeze him in place.

The kick was responded to with a grunt of discomfort and a rough hair-ruffle, before Karkat started throwing an epic tantrum. "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF SHIT WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN DOING?" He threw the controller into the air a couple feet and flopped back against the couch as he was killed, yelling at the ceiling. Dave gasped as he saw the controller go airborne and he lunged across Karkat's lap and caught the controller before it came into contact with the floor, and still managed to mash the button to hit the monsters, before he got decimated and set his controller aside. He sat back up again and shook his head, barely holding back a bout of chuckles. That shit was hilarious. Karkat growled at him and shoved on his shoulder until he fell the other direction, then planted a foot on his bony butt as he retrieved his controller and went back into the game, trying to catch up from his respawn point. It was at least uneventful as he caught back up, muttering about bullshit enemies and swarms. Dave righted himself again and grabbed his own controller, still fighting back laughter as he joined back in, the tip of his tongue sticking out in amused concentration as he went for as many multikills as he could with as little effort put forth as possible. This game was going fucking DOWN.

After a while, they finally got to a safe zone and save point and Dave set his controller down, and excused himself to the balcony so he could get a cigarette. The rain was still coming down in torrents, and the streets looked like they had a couple inches of water built up on them. "Maybe they'll cancel classes tomorrow," he said over his shoulder into the apartment, "if downtown keeps up looking like Venice."

Karkat peeked down over the balcony as he stepped out shortly after, having grabbed his sweater again in spite of his feet being bare, the master of good judgment that he was. "They wouldn't cancel class for anything short of a fucking nuclear strike on the campus," he said as he looked down at the torrents of water flowing along the gutters pushing along debris to collect in the drains. He tucked his hands up under his armpits and watched the rain for a little while, slouching against the wall behind him.

"You say that, but you're new here. I'm guessing they'll send you an email telling you that tomorrow's class will be held via video conference or skype call or carrier pigeon in a few hours, if they plan to do it at all." He took a seat in his patio chair and looked up at Karkat. "Dude, go inside if you're so cold and miserable."

"I'm not cold," he insisted immediately in spite of the fact that he'd shaken his pant legs down enough to cover his feet. He scratched a hand over the back of his hair and looked out at the city obscured by the downpour. "I remember living where it didn't really rain much but I still didn't go outside."

"It rained pretty frequently in Houston, but it made up for it with shitloads of stupid sun. It's kinda why I was nocturnal-ish. Shit, I still am. Day shit confuses the piss out of me." He leaned back in the chair. "But then again, Alternia was all full of fucking doom-death, from what you guys told me." He looked up at the clouds and shrugged. "And you fucking guys have more sensitive eyes than I do, being actually nocturnal." He tapped the ash into an ashtray and idly ran his fingertip over the filter as he held it. "And then there's the whole hive-dwelling proto-neckbeard thing that you had going on." Not that he had any room to talk. If it weren't for school when he was a kid, he probably wouldn't have ever left his apartment. Why would he bother?

"Hey, it's not like we had any fucking choice. Are you even aware of why Terezi was blind in the first place? Or why leaving our hives during the day was a bad fucking idea? We would have more or less died out because Alternia orbited this fucking red giant." Rolling his eyes, Karkat leaned away from the wall to look back down at the street again, his elbows resting against the railing. "At least here we can go out in the sun and not fucking fry over it."

"Yeah, I'm fucking aware of why Terezi was blind," Dave said, his tone going snappish. He still wanted to strangle the life out of Vri- hey there's a name! Vriska for that shit. He shook his head and took another drag of his cigarette. "So hey, now you can, and you can stop being a huge fucking baby about it." He sighed out the smoke and looked at the street lights as they flickered on.

"I'm not being a huge fucking baby, Strider. I just don't fucking like this and you're the only one that's ever fucking listened to me when it came to this or anything pertaining to it. I used to try relaying bits of my dreams to people and nobody gave half a gracefully flying fuck so excuse the hell out of me if I want to be able to vent like four goddamn years of feeling like my life was a goddamn black fucking hole." Throwing his hands up, Karkat finally opted to go back inside, fairly certain that it was the cold that had started getting to him. He sat back down on the couch and rubbed his feet to warm them back up, picking up his control and thumbing the pause button, going through his inventory for something to do as a distraction from feeling like a class-A asshole.

Dave scowled at that and stubbed his cigarette out before skulking back in behind Karkat, closing the door behind him. He sat down beside his friend and wrapped an arm around him, using his other hand to remove the controller from Karkat's grasp. "No. Now is the time of venting and shouting. Go for it. Go. Now. Go."

Karkat froze, looking down at the space between his hands that the control had occupied as if it had spontaneously evaporated. He mentally flailed then huffed and crossed his arms stubbornly, looking the opposite direction. Dave rolled his eyes and shook his head, sighing heavily. "Come on, Vantas, don't be a shithead. Look, I'm sorry okay, I didn't realize how much you bitching about the weather actually fucking helped you. Go. Come on." He squeezed Karkat's shoulders and hung his head. It really irked him that he actually wanted to hear Karkat complain some more. It was obvious that he was fucking batshit fucking bonkers.

"Oh my fucking god, Strider, just let it go. You're used to this weather, I'm not. I'm completely fucking ill-equipped to live here and I knew that from the minute I stepped outside my hive the first time. Do you feel this?" He pressed his hands to the sides of Dave's neck, demonstrating just how warm he actually was if Dave hadn't actually noticed before. "This is my natural temperature. It's a lot fucking higher than any other blood caste and because of that, the cold gets to me. That's all."

"You've got a pretty high core temperature, okay," Dave hadn't noticed himself leaning into the hand, nor the fact that his ears had started burning again. "So stay inside when it's cool outside. It's better than getting sick like a fucking idiot." He slipped away and folded his arms onto his chest.

Karkat rubbed his fingers into his eyes, sighing bitterly. "I don't even fucking know how I'm going to survive winter here just commuting back and forth to school or the cafe even if it's like two blocks away. Next year, the fall semester is going to be nothing but online classes I swear to fuck."

"Longjohns," Dave suggested, even though the mental image of Karkat wearing anything so ridiculous made him chuckle. "They sell little heat pad things in the winter, you can stock up on those. ... Maybe I can convince Bro to knit you some sweaters or some shit." He dug his toes into the carpet and continued to pointedly not look at Karkat. "Seriously, if you're so worried, I'll help you figure something out."

"Oh you'd just love that, wouldn't you Strider." Karkat grimaced at him then leaned against his chin on Dave's shoulder. "I'll just get a better hoodie and socks and all that good shit when I get a couple of paychecks saved back."

"Don't fuckin' scoff, dude, Bro's sweaters own bones." He grinned a little as he put his arm back around Karkat and played with the ends of his hair. "You're going to be just fucking fine in the winter. You've survived worse shit than a little snow."

Karkat groaned and put his forehead against Dave's shoulder, leaning against him heavily. "Yeah, I know, fuck... It's easier to focus on this shit than that so this is what I'm going to fucking complain about ok?" He let his hands fall limp in his lap again, keeping his head down and closing his eyes and concentrating some on the fingers messing with his hair.

Dave's fingers moved in further to run his nails gently across Karkat's scalp. "I get that." He wasn't going to force his friend to spill his guts about shit that happened. It never helped Dave to talk it out, even though his therapists had said it would. It just wound up making him have even more vivid nightmares the night after talking about things. He stayed quiet for a long while, simply running his fingers through Karkat's hair, enjoying the warmth and weight of the troll against him. He'd started making that sound again, that little muted vibration as he fidgeted some with his fingers, chewing on his lower lip mindlessly as the looping music of the paused game played in the background. He hadn't meant to get that hostile to begin with and only really managed to worry Dave further, now starting to feel like a burden more than a roommate or moirail. Dave grabbed the remote with his free hand and turned off the TV, shutting up the music once it started to get annoying to him, and then leaned in a little more.

"Gotta be honest with you, Vantas, when you talk about it, it helps me a lot. Keeps me from thinking I'm as crazy as I've been told." He leaned his own head down against Karkat's and sighed. "Shit like this... Just even being able to say stuff like...like even mentioning what you guys said about Alternia. It'd get fuckin' looks from anybody but you. But talking's never helped me. Listening does, though." He buried his face in Karkat's hair and chuckled. "You smell like my soap."

The completely out of left field comment made Karkat snort quietly, nudging his head against Dave's as he stretched his legs back out to put his feet on the floor. "Told you I had to use that Axe shit you have sitting in the shower..."

"Smells good on you." He closed his eyes and took his head away from Karkat's to rest against the sofa cushion behind them. "But whatever, it's probably too strong for your delicate, sensitive baby senses." He smirked then, shaking his head. "I still can't believe you got drunk on one bottle of beer. You are the lightest lightweight in the history of lightweights ever, dude."

"Man, fuck you and your expensive-ass pretentious beer for Oktoberfest fucking liederhosen-wearing assholes. I don't drink jack shit to begin with." He shoved Dave's shoulder then laid back again on the couch, throwing his legs back up and over his friend's lap mostly to be a nuisance. Which bothered him exactly not at all. Dave looked down at Karkat with a lazy smile, shaking his head.

"You're just a little delicate snowflake, aren't you." His mind started connecting rhymes together and he had half a mind to start rapping at Karkat about what a sensitive soul he was. But he opted against it and stretched and yawned instead. "Didn't get a very good rest last night. Should conk out early so I don't miss class being canceled."

"Yeah, and we did already eat so that's not really an issue. We need some cereal though, man. I can't just live on nothing but coffee in the morning every fucking day. You don't have any eggs or bacon either even though they're like...the easiest fucking thing to make. Do you want another melatonin for the night or do you think you're good?" He added offhand as he swung his legs out of Dave's lap, yawning quietly himself. He wasn't really ready to go to sleep just yet, but he could still try and get in a short chat with Terezi before he did on the offchance that she wasn't buried under homework.

Dave scratched his head as he stood and shrugged, "I'll get some eggs and bacon from the deli tomorrow if I don't need a canoe to get there. And you gave me the entire bottle last night, dude. If you need it back, I'll go grab it for you." He shuffled off towards the hallway, hoping that tonight he wouldn't have dreams that made him either scream OR wake up horny.

"I'm fine, just go to bed and we'll figure out what we're doing in the morning. I don't have class until ten so at least I can sleep in a little." On that note, Karkat pushed himself off the couch and slunk toward the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror for all of two seconds then opening it and digging out his toothbrush; he just wanted to get back into his routine after how much shit had happened over a three-day span and be able to take care of his shit without making Dave regret letting him move in. Dave nodded and wandered off to bed, taking another melatonin capsule before stripping and slipping under the covers. He watched as the rain splattered his windows, drifting off to the sound soon after.

His dreams weren't pleasant. His mind replayed the scene of seeing Bec Noir looming high in the distance, heard the flutter of wings and the shouting of his brother as they ran past him. He choked out a protest and tried to catch up to Bro, but it was too late. He couldn't run fast enough and couldn't do anything to stop what he witnessed. Outwardly, he was curled into a ball, fully enveloped by his blankets as he shouted protests, gritting his teeth in his sleep.

Karkat had managed a whole five minutes' conversation with Terezi before she had to go and finish whatever assignment she was already working on, ending up crawling into his recuperacoon earlier than he'd expected and curling up against the wall with his arms tucked up under his head. He'd nearly managed to fall asleep by the time he heard yelling, muffled by the walls and the blankets Dave was tangled in. He laid awake, hoping that soon it would calm down and either Dave would be able to sleep, or just wake himself up.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, at least just yet. The dream went from one horror to another, from Bec Noir to every death Dave had to encounter. Even though he wasn't personally the Dave that had died those deaths, but a doomed timeline Dave, he still could remember them and it sunk him lower and lower into a spiraling subconscious pit. Karkat wanted to clamp his hands over his ears to block it out, but every time it seemed to subside, it would get louder and he felt like he could actually hear Dave's vocal cords straining. He sat up and climbed out of his recuperacoon, ignoring the trail of slime behind him as he moved down the hall, easing open the other's bedroom door and slipping inside then closing it again. He let his eyes adjust to the near complete darkness in the room and moved forward with a hand outstretched until his knee collided with the edge of the bed. He crawled into it, leaning over Dave and staring down at the blonde tuft of hair poking up from the knot of blankets. It was obvious that Dave was too far into his dream to wake up yet.

"Christ..." he muttered as he tried to dislodge part of the blanket blindly, laying down behind Dave's bowed back and wrapping an arm around his middle. The other hand found its way into Dave's hair and pet it gingerly in the hopes that it would calm him like it did for himself.

At the initial feeling of skin against his, his subconscious turned it into something terrible and Dave gasped sharply, before curling up further, his body trembling and his breath short and hoarse. However, it didn't take much longer than a minute or two before Dave went from taut and tense, to winding down and relaxed. The hand in his hair had helped. His dreams had backed off momentarily, and his dreams slipped back into such as he'd been having the night prior, though far more subdued.

He leaned back into Karkat and with a rasping murmur, he practically cooed the other's name. Karkat had started to doze off by that point, thankfully, his nose buried against the side of Dave's neck when he'd finally calmed down. He scratched his nails idly against the top of Dave's head until he'd finally managed to fall asleep with his arm draped over the other's side, practically spooned up against him in spite of being the smaller of the two.

Over the course of the night, Dave managed to turn in Karkat's arms, and tangle himself up against the other, his legs wrapped around Karkat's and his head against the troll's chest. He found himself comfortably at ease in that position, and when he woke up, his throat was raw, his mouth was dry, and he only realized belatedly how he was wrapped around Karkat when he brushed his lips against his friend's neck. Nope, this wasn't a dream. This was a thing that existed. He opened his eyes and went very, very still. Karkat slept like a brick, arms and legs dead weight around Dave's with half his face hidden in the sheets, mouth barely open and drooling a thin, slightly pinkish puddle that would leave the faintest stain. There was tacky slime still stuck to him and now smeared over Dave in places and seeping into his sheets, the trail of it from the hall obvious in the muted, still rainy morning light. Dave wrinkled his nose at the slime, before he slowly and carefully disentangled himself from his moirail. He could only guess as to why Karkat ended up in here - hoping that it was only his own nightmares that prompted it, rather than Karkat's - as he moved out of the bed and to the hall closet, where he grabbed some of the shittier towels to clean up the sopor slime. Without Dave there to wrap around the troll curled up in the sheets, pulling the blankets up around his shoulders and grunting quietly in his sleep. At least most of the slime seemed to stay in Karkat's room in the general vicinity of the cocoon and it was easy enough to clean off, viscous as it was. Washing it out of the sheets would be simple enough.

When Karkat woke up he spent a few seconds being slightly bewildered as he sat up in front of the window listening to the rain falling steadily outside. He crawled across the bed to peek out, frowning deeply at the water still nearly shin-high in the street. It would be a miracle if he could actually get to his lectures that day if school had not been canceled.

Dave wandered back in a moment later in a pair of boxers and nodded. "Hey." His throat was still sore and it showed in his voice. He had just tossed the towels in the washer that was in the hall closet before he came in to grab some clean clothes. "I cleaned up the slime off your floor for you," he murmured as he walked to his side table to grab his barbell off the top of it. "You okay?"

Karkat sat up, turning back around and nodding sleepily as he scratched at his hair, slicking it back away from his face and slouching a little in place with the blankets pooled around his waist. "Just fucking peachy. Have you caught the news yet?"

Dave shook his head. "Just woke up. ..." He stood there a moment, looking a bit lost for words, before muttering, "Sorry." He really didn't mean for Karkat to be so concerned. He felt like shit, and he was absolutely certain this was a dealbreaker. It always had been. "Like I said, I'll buy you earplugs today if I can."

Shaking his head, Karkat dragged himself out of the bed and walked over, bare as the day he was hatched, then wrapped his arms around Dave's middle as high as he could manage, patting his back and shushing him before leaving the room. He went back to his own room and dragged his husktop out of its bag, pulling on a pair of shorts as he waited for it to boot up. He sat back down on the floor and opened the college's website to check the emergency notifications, three of them sitting in his inbox. School wasn't canceled entirely, but the morning classes were, meaning that he had nothing for the day. At least this meant that he'd only have to go in that afternoon for his first shift at the coffee house.

Dave stood there where he was, even after Karkat left the room. He was just fucking papshooshed. Karkat just fucking papped and shooshed him. He didn't know whether to be slightly insulted or really fucking honored by that. It only took a few more moments to realize that hey, he was also naked. Wow that was...interesting. Dave shook his head and got his shit back in focus before walking into the bathroom to get himself un-slimed and coherent for the day.

Once he came out he grabbed his phone to check on his own schedule. As he figured, his class was canceled as well, so he texted his boss and asked if shit was going to be open today. The reply back was a hearty **AHAHAHAHAHA R U SRS** and then " **no dave** " and he chuckled to himself. "We're off the hook," he called down the hall to Karkat, as he went to start the coffee and make some toast for himself. After consideration, he made Karkat some, too. It was one of the handful of things that he could heat up in something other than a microwave and not have it immediately combust.

Karkat groaned audibly from his room and laid back on the floor, debating on crawling right back into his cocoon and getting in a few more hours' sleep. After some deliberation and staring at the ceiling, though, he decided it would be best to keep his sleep schedule on track and dragged himself and a change of clothes to the bathroom to shower off the slime still clinging to him. He emerged in a pair of loose pajama pants and oversized tshirt, clearly intending to skulk around in that for the day now that he knew that he didn't have jack shit that he needed to leave the apartment for. He grabbed the toast slices as soon as they popped out of the toaster and snagged a jar of peanut butter from one of the cupboards, smearing it over his breakfast then sitting on the arm of the couch with one piece in hand, the other hanging from his mouth.

"What about you, you feeling ok? Apparently the meds didn't really help."

"Yeah, I'll be fine, shit's common," Dave waved his hand dismissively. "I'm going out there to grab some shit. The corner store's just around the block, I'll be back in like, less than twenty minutes." The fucking thing would be open if it were the zombie apocalypse and all they had for workers was the dog that was always there. "If you need anything, you've got my number." He thought 'lol txt it' and he got a brief, faint smile. He grabbed his phone and wallet and the umbrella. "If I'm not back, send the navy seals out to rescue my floating bloated corpse." He saluted as he slipped out the door to go buy smokes, cereal, earplugs, toilet paper, and some snack foods so they weren't completely without something fun to eat.

As luck would have it, one of his friends was working the counter and they got to talking while Dave grabbed everything he needed. He returned to the apartment with a grin a mile wide on his face. "You're going to kill me," Dave said as he slipped out of his shoes and set down the plastic bag.

"I'm not even going to fucking ask," Karkat muttered when he heard that, sitting up from where he'd been lounging on the couch with his husktop on his knees, holding himself up on his arms and glowering back at Dave. There were a lot of things that he could have possibly done to make him say that, it was just a matter of narrowing down the possibilities.

He put the cereal away and the carton of smokes on the counter. "Okay check this out. I've got a friend Jase who works at the store around the block - he and I tried setting up a band once and we sucked - but he's got a little sister who comes to the cafe every day. I mean. Fucking every goddamn day she's there. Mostly to stare at guys and do her homework. So she saw you there yesterday and started bugging Jase to bug ME to give her your digits." He walked in with a donut and a coffee and sat down, still grinning. Karkat's brow arched up as he continued to stare up at Dave, expecting him to continue, hoping he wouldn't have to actually ask if his cell number had actually been given out.

"I'm just gonna go out on a limb and guess it's the dippy little thing with the three-fucking-foot heels, right?"

"Nah man, that's another gal, she's a spaz, no. Listen. Jill's cool. But not give-out-numbers-to-strange-ladies cool. Soooo I basically told Jase his sister can come to YOU for your fucking number because there's no way in hell I'm going to give my best bro's digits out just for a booty call." He shrugged and sipped his coffee. "Might've mentioned the moirails thing," he muttered under his breath.

"...uh huh. So when I go in to work, I'm gonna have this chick I've never fucking met coming up to me asking for my number under the ever-watchful eye of my best fucking bro because...why, exactly?" Sitting up, Karkat put his computer on the side table and walked into the kitchen, grabbing for something edible and peeling the wrapper off a cheap pastry.

"Why does anybody do anything?" Dave replied, shaking his head. "Fuckin' I dunno, maybe you'll hit it off, or fuckin'... get to know people who'll go 'hey, that Karkat guy, he's a pretty fuckin' cool cat, let's invite him to our WOW guild or some shit' I dunno. Are you seriously asking why meeting people is intrinsic to the college experience right now?"

"I don't *want* to meet people, did you ever fucking think of that? That's why I asked you to help me find a position where I didn't have to actively associate with anyone. Jesus fuck, Strider." Unwrapping his breakfast, Karkat crammed half of it into his mouth and crossed his arms as he chewed indignantly, clearly peeved at Dave for taking such liberties with his social life. Yes, he was aware that Dave was trying to help him, but he would rather have at least met someone himself without that potential awkwardness that would be generated by having one's moirail directly adjacent to the proceedings.

"Like I said, it's up to her to even come up to you. Trust me man, if she does? She's freaky shy. Like. It's kind of sad. It makes me sad just thinking about it. One time when she had a crush on me, before she got over me right, I had to ask her to speak up three times before I could hear what she was ordering." He took a bite of his donut after dunking it in his coffee. "No dude, don't even fuckin' trip. You're going to be fine."

Karkat rolled his eyes up at the ceiling, his free hand coming up under his arm as he muttered to himself, "This is going to be just fucking great. Watch, I'll end up making her run the fuck out of the shop in tears."

"That's the spirit. Good ol' fashioned extreme self-loathing, that'll get the girl to fall in love with you so quick." With another shake of his head and a smile, he finished off his donut. "Man, I said you were gonna kill me. So okay, there was no right way to deal with that. Give the dude the number to give to her? Fucking shitty maneuver right there. Say no? I'm the prick who says no, you can't meet my friend. Say 'you do it, I'm not your fucking go-between patsy?' I'm the bad guy because my best friend is a xenophobic twit."

"I'm not fucking xenophobic, I just don't want this to end up being some kind of fucking public spectacle because you couldn't just say 'no, sorry, he doesn't really like being called out in public' or some shit. It's not that goddamn difficult, Dave." Karkat finished his pastry and grabbed for the apple juice, filling a large glass and chugging it then going back to the couch to sulk.

Dave just stared at Karkat for a minute, trying to figure out what the hell was going on there. "So what should I have done. You know, so if this scenario happens again - which it will because chicks dig cute guys - you just want me to say 'no man, karkat doesn't accept any methods of communication but interpretive dance'?"

Ignoring that Dave had once again very casually called him _cute_ , Karkat slumped back on the couch with a groan and put his hands over his face. "At least let someone come up to me first, dumbfuck. That way I know you're not just fucking misreading someone's fucking intentions and bringing me bad information. Maybe I'll like this girl, maybe I won't. But if she doesn't give two shits about me, I'm blaming you for even bringing up this pseudo blind date bullshit."

"Y'know what? No. I fucking did that. I fucking left it where it's up to her whether or not she comes up to you, and whether or not you want to talk to her is your own goddamn business. You're mindfucking this situation and it's not even getting a reacharound." He grit his teeth and sipped his coffee in the most spectacularly surly way anyone ever could. "So basically, except for her having asked her brother to have me set the two of you up, yeah, it's just like it would have been if nothing had fucking happened to begin with. Don't fucking blame me for HER dumbass fucking way of going about things."

Pressing his fingers into the bridge of his nose, Karkat sighed at the ceiling and set his foot down on the floor, sprawling across the couch like a man with nothing left to care about. "Dave, just...stop. Don't give anyone my number. Just tell your friend that I'll be working the same shifts you do so if she wants to see me, she can do it at the coffee house and we can have a nice breaktime chat or some shit. Completely in-fucking-formal. That way there's none of the awkward silence on either end of the phone or dropped calls or panicking and ending the call before I can finish a fucking sentence. Ok?"

Dave huffed in aggravation and threw his hands in the air. "Fuckin' fine. Next time, I will. This time's already done. If I could fucking turn back the clock, I'd punch myself for even considering it." He stood up and walked off to his room. Jesus H. porn-watching Christ. He stripped his bed of the sheets and tossed them into the washer with the towels and started the load, before going out to the patio with his cigarettes.

Karkat stretched his hands up to the ceiling, silently asking the world at large a very general WHY then letting them fall limp over his head. He lingered there and ignored his computer for a little while longer, then got up and crept out onto the patio himself, leaning against Dave's back with his cheek between his friend's shoulderblades. "Can we just agree that this is a really fucking stupid argument and that I can at least try to take it from there after this girl decides whether she can stand me past just looking at my ugly mug."

Dave seethed as Karkat talked and then took a long drag of his cigarette before looking up over the rims of his glasses. "You're not ugly," he flatly stated before turning to watch the rain.

"Whatever. You've got some weird fucking tastes if you think I look good," Karkat muttered as he watched the steady drip of rainwater off one of the gutters running along the edge of the building.

"So what if I do." Dave muttered quietly. At least they weren't shouting anymore. He grit his teeth as he muttered, "I got you some cereal. I didn't know what you liked so I got shit with marshmallows, shit with chocolate, and shit that's fruity. They didn't have healthy stuff." He flicked the ash from his smoke and then bowed his head.

"Look at you, spoiling your moirail and it's only been a couple days," he murmured then pulled himself back off of Dave, running a hand over his back up near his neck and muttering a little about being able to see his spinal column, skinny bulgefucking bony-ass Strider. He let his hand fall away and went inside to see what brands the cereals were at least, so he could tell if it would even be worth trying. Sometimes the brand actually did make a difference.

"Yeah," Dave murmured as he finished his cigarette before lighting up another one immediately after. He was cold, and he was angry, but not at Karkat. He leaned across the patio table and stared at the rain, trying to get his shit together.

The boxes of cereal were all General Mills. He'd also gotten two sets of fairly high-quality earplugs, going for a pair with a cord between them so they wouldn't get lost. He'd actually had a selection, much to his surprise, and decided that rather than cheap out and buy a bunch of them that looked like they'd last maybe one use before having to get thrown out, he'd get the higher quality ones that specifically stated on the packaging that they were resistant to sopor slime. 

He came back inside a few minutes later and dropped onto the sofa, sprawling on it facedown, grabbing his phone to send Bro a text. "Sorry I was a prick," he said to Karkat once he heard his friend walk back in.

Karkat leaned back against the wall and looked down at Dave flopped out on the couch, shoving a spoon full of cereal into his mouth and shrugging a shoulder as if it hadn't been a big deal, even if they were both moping about it and would still be moping for the rest of the day. He had put the earplugs on the counter without opening them, deciding he would figure out what he really wanted to do with them when it came around to that.

"You're always a prick though. I learned how to deal when we were kids. It's ok," he emphasized then went back to the cereal, flicking an anomalously dry marshmallow shaped like a blue diamond at him and smirking faintly as it managed to land in the middle of his hair.

"I swear to fucking god, Vantas," muttered Dave as he picked the marshmallow out of his hair before popping it in his mouth, "If I didn't fuckin' love you so much I would've strangled you by now." He flopped back down and took off his shades, setting them aside to rest his face on the throw pillow, scrolling through a site he pulled up on his phone detailing the socially regular hard limits of moiraillegiance, although the font was small enough he knew that Karkat probably couldn't even see what he was reading.

"I'd just fucking love to see you try, Strider," Karkat snorted in reply then went to sit on the arm of the couch by Dave's feet, going back to his cereal peacefully and trying not to think about what he knew about leprechauns from listening to some intense exposition on the subject of romance. Usually it was fascinating. Right now, it was just trying to ruin his breakfast.

"Would you? Perv." He was preoccupied with his reading and then turned around, resting his feet on Karkat's legs. Once he got the answer, he texted his bro back, and set the phone aside, looking over at Karkat. "You up for more of the shitty game you hate so much?"

Karkat shrugged, leaving the feet up on his legs for a moment then looking down at the controllers still sitting on the floor in front of the tv. "It's a better way to waste an afternoon than I was thinking about. Let's do it." To punctuate his thought, Karkat dragged one of his nails along the arch of Dave's foot, pulling his nearly-empty cereal bowl out of the way just in case.

"What were you thi- EEEGh!" He recoiled his foot up towards him and stared wide eyed at Karkat for a split second before springing across the sofa to grab Karkat's hands and pull them away before going straight for the ribs with his free hand. He had a fairly tight grip for someone so wiry, and it came in handy when getting into this sort of situation. Karkat's immediate reaction was to scream at the top of his lungs (and startle the dog of the neighbor directly below them) and writhe back up over the arm of the couch, kicking out until there was a sudden lack of couch beneath him and he'd come away from Dave's grip. When he landed on the ground he had to stop and think for a moment before remembering to try and take a breath only to start laughing, his face turning bright red.

Dave cracked up once Karkat hit the floor and rolled backwards onto the couch. "Oh my god, your fuckin' face, dude!" He chuckled. "You should've seen your face." He buried his face in his hands as he tried to get his composure, still laughing silently as he tried not to picture the look of utter shock.

Taking a deep, wheezing breath Karkat started to cough between laughing, groaning quietly at an ache creeping up the side of his head from laughing so hard when he clearly wasn't used to it. "Jesus nooksucking christ... You fucking killed me, Strider. I hope you're happy."

"My condolences to your lusus, man," he responded between chuckles, "My god your laugh is ridiculous." And charming. Dave sat up again and held out his hand to help Karkat up off the floor. "You should laugh more. Holy fuck."

Karkat wrinkled his nose and took the hand, hauling himself up and clearing his throat before going to find his bowl. It had somehow ended up halfway across the room, the last dregs of his cereal seeping into the carpet. He fetched a few paper towels to soak it back up, bending to pick up the bowl and dab at the stain until most of the milk had come away then sticking his tongue out at Dave. "You're such a cockbite."

"Whatever, dude, you're the one who started it this time. It is you, you are the cockbite." Dave stretched from his spot on the couch to grab a controller, before reaching and just barely reaching the console to turn it on. "But seriously, what were you thinking of doing?"

Taking the bowl back to the kitchen, Karkat dumped it into the sink, knowing he'd have to do the dishes soon if they wanted to actually have any clean dishes to begin with. "I want to go through those fucking leftovers and see if any of them haven't spawned new lifeforms. I want to actually have some fucking *food* in there, ok?"

Dave flinched when he heard the clatter of the bowl in the sink and stood up, then he went in there to put the bowl and the pizza cutter into the dishwasher, grabbed the dishwashing detergent from under the sink and filled the washer before he set it to run. "I might be a slob everywhere else, but man, you do not know how freaky I can be about the dishes," he said with a wry chuckle as he walked past Karkat with a slightly sly smile.

"Dude you have no fucking idea how happy I am to hear you say that. One less thing to actively worry about," Karkat sighed and turned to the refrigerator instead, pulling it open and pulling out the multitude of tupperware containers filled with things he wasn't even sure he wanted to contemplate. "Alright, start sniffing this shit. We'll eat whatever's still good for dinner."

Dave wrinkled his nose at a few of them, already noticing a stench or mold from a few. He pushed those aside and looked at some of the others, setting one along with the others, one in a separate pile, and the third next to the fridge. He chewed on the corner of his lip as he inspected another couple, his mind wandering to the dreams he had been having, and the awkward-in-hindsight way they'd woken up that morning. He'd seen scars on Karkat's thighs and that made him furrow his brow. They looked faded, older, but it still gave him cause for concern. He put that thought aside and focused instead on if the dreams were the reason behind his desires, or vice-versa. "Yeah, most of this is shit," he stated, shrugging as he went to get a garbage bag for the rest.

"Why does that not surprise me... Have you ever actually cleaned out this refrigerator?" Karkat asked, though he didn't really wait for an answer before ducking back into it up to his shoulders and pulling out a few more containers, plus a bag of some unidentifiable vegetable that had long since become more fungus than food. It was just lucky that he had a strong stomach or he would have gagged a long time ago.

"I cleaned it twice this summer out of boredom," Dave responded. "I'm just not used to having food staying in there for more than a day. And half the time, we didn't even have anything but swords in our fridge." He sighed as he went through the boxes as Karkat pulled them out, which were all trash. He continued before Karkat could question the swords thing. "Bro's eccentric. I never asked why he put things where he did, but he did."

Karkat just gave him a look that clearly read 'you're both fucking insane' as he finished pulling things out, passing them over then dragging open the crisper, which held the lunch meat but not much else. He straightened up and wiped his hands on the legs of his pants then let the fridge fall shut as he started helping Dave throw the old food away. "Ok from now on I'm only making enough for single meals between the two of us so you can't start hoarding this shit again, got it?"

Dave nodded to that and then smiled faintly. "Thanks. And yeah, I know we're crazy dude, we're Striders. If you ever meet a sane Strider, let me know, because we kill all imposters." He ruffled Karkat's hair before taking the garbage bag out of the can in the kitchen and hoisted both bags over his shoulder. "I'll be back in a few. I'm going to swim these over to the dumpster," he joked.

"Don't drown standing up, I don't want to have to pay your rent," he called after, shaking his hair back into place and grumbling about it some as he started rinsing out and loading the dishwasher with the newly-emptied tupperwares. He added the cups from the last two days as well and started running a shorter cycle just so they wouldn't have to worry about it later, already trying to decide what he might want to do for dinner now that he was on the subject. He could confer with Dave when he got back inside on that. He hopped up to sit on the counter over the dishwasher, his chin propped on his hand.

Dave returned in a few minutes, his pants legs soaked from mid-calf down. "It's a little wet out there," he announced. "Gimme a minute, I've gotta toss the shit into the dryer and get some dry pants on." He did the former quickly, shedding his pants at the closet and tossing them in the washer, before going into his room and getting on a pair of yoga pants and coming back out with his dirty shit, tossing them in with his jeans. "So more of shitgame?" He asked over his shoulder as he closed the sliding door to the closet. Karkat could barely stop himself from commenting on Dave's pants. He was already fucking skinny, the pants only made him look like he would snap in half at the slightest provocation. He shook his head then shooed Dave toward the tv, washing his hands in the sink before coming back and grabbing the controller again. They were at the first save point at least, so they wouldn't have to deal with the same hassles as the last time.

The only real upside to the yoga pants - other than being bitchin' rad for sparring - was that they barely hid *anything*, and Dave was pretty proud of what he was lab-spawned with. But that wasn't on his mind when he pulled them out. What was on his mind was "why the fuck did I let myself get the hell down to this pair of pants?" and "ugh fine."

He dropped himself down onto the floor in front of the sofa and grabbed his controller. "Come on, grumpyass, let's get this shit going." Karkat took a spot on the couch right behind him, crossing his legs on the cushion right behind Dave's head as he leaned forward, ready to start as soon as it had loaded.

Just as it had yesterday, the game had the most upsetting difficulty curve, graphics problems, and just general annoyances that made Karkat's commentary increasingly irate. It was only sheer luck and good fortune that he hadn't been given adequate reason to throw the controller yet. Dave played silently as usual, taking out as many mobs as he could in one swing when they hit huge groups. His tactic was to take on as many as he could at once so he didn't have to keep mashing buttons for each individual mob. He leaned his head back and inadvertently gave Karkat a lap full of his hair. "Maybe," he finally piped up after about twenty minutes, "just puttin' this out there, shit would be easier if you stopped shouting and started paying attention to what you were doing." He said it quietly enough and calmly enough where he knew it would push every last one of Karkat's buttons.

"I am completely fucking calm, Strider you have no fucking idea how calm I am right now Jesus FUCKING CHRIST WHERE DID THEY GET FIRE DAVE PAY ATTENTION." Karkat hammered his melee button and effectively hacked an oncoming flying thing into a few pieces before rounding on the last enemy in the area and executing a random combo via buttonmashing. He had to wait until his character stopped burning, then he turned his attention to Dave again and leaned over him, glowering down at the face in his lap. "Way to go, bulgehump, we're out of potions and we're a fucking Aibatt away from death."

Dave took that opportunity to lean up and press his lips against Karkat's with a little low sound coming from his throat. "Bitch less, play more," he murmured.

Well. That was... Well. It took Karkat a moment to process and then move on with his thought, lips still paused in that surprised purse. He licked his lips on reflex and sat back up, falling silent as he went back to the game, this time listening and doing so quietly. Dave grinned like an idiot as he tossed his hair out of his eyes and continued on with less difficulty than before, using his heal spell to gain almost full health for both of them. His lips tingled with the sensory memory of Karkat's lips and his smile grew. "See, we made it through with no problem. We can get some pots and move on."

Karkat had started to chew on his lip again, muttering, "right...loot...yeah." He shifted some where he sat, planting his heels against the edge of the couch and leaning his elbows against his knees. The rest of the journey to whatever little podunk village they were supposed to find work in was relatively uneventful between bandit attacks, only the occasional frustrated noise coming from over Dave's head.

Dave raised an eyebrow to Karkat's relative scatterbrained behavior and wound up rolling his barbell across the tops of his lower teeth as he continued following Karkat through the game. He grinned and once they DID get to the town, Dave spoke up again. "Time out man. I need to eat." He had only one donut since he woke up, and it was starting to get to him. He stood up and walked to the kitchen, to grab another donut. Karkat looked up, somewhat bewildered when he thought about the fact that he had no idea what time it was. He glanced around for a clock, then eyeballed Dave's phone by the couch and blinked. It was later in the afternoon than he'd thought. Standing and stretching, Karkat paused the game then swatted Dave's arm to make him put down the donut.

"So how about instead of sugar we actually have something filling so you're not running for another one within five fucking minutes, huh?"

"Yeah, because I always eat *so* much, Vantas," Dave said with an eyeroll. He put the donut back and opened the fridge, looking at what was in there. "Hey, fuckstick, would you rather have pad thai or dim sum?"

"It's not the fact that you don't eat anything, it's the fact that all you eat is complete bullshit," Karkat complained as he bumped Dave over to peer into the fridge himself. "Man, I don't even fucking know. I'm just hungry and it's nearly time for dinner anyway so... Dim sum sounds good."

Dave nodded and shoved Karkat gently aside to grab both of the still-fine containers of food and put the dim sum in first. "I don't eat bullshit, dude, I know what the hell I'm eating." He raised an eyebrow in an expression of clear smugness. "I ask for and read the nutrition info for every place I go." Wow, that sounded a little...OCD. "It keeps me from eating shit I'm allergic to," he amended.

Karkat frowned deeply and narrowed his eyes at Dave. "I didn't know you were allergic to anything..."

Dave shook his head. "Why would you? All our food was alchemized." He shrugged. "Yeah, I'm allergic to soy. Not like, deathly allergic, but more sit home for two days with violent stomach cramps allergic if I eat too much. So I keep my eye on what I eat. Really... really anally. I can't eat tons of caraway, either. I get rashes. That was fucking great to find out in the middle of a date." He shrugged faintly before rescuing the dim sum and put the pad thai in there. "Other than that, I'm not going to make a big fuss over what to eat."

"I don't use soy or caraway that I can really remember anyway so I think we'll be fine when I actually do cook." Karkat shrugged then took a seat on the counter again, letting Dave go about heating up the food. He was chewing unconsciously at his lip again, peeling away another layer of the skin and running his tongue over the lightly bleeding place. It seemed to be just as much a tic as his sticking his hands under his arms was.

Dave shook his head. "Soy's in fucking everything these days. If anything says lecithin in its ingredients, I can't eat it. Well, I can, nothing can stop me from trying, but then I'm going to regret it later." He scowled faintly at that, but only for half a second when he saw that Karkat had worried his lip back into bleeding. He bowed his head. "You're going to get chapped lips that way," he murmured under his breath.

Immediately he stopped and sucked his lower lip into his mouth, giving Dave a pout as he leaned back against the wall behind him. "I can't fucking help it ok?" He muttered in return, rolling his eyes some.

Dave chuckled and shook his head. "I used to do that all the time when I was a little snot. I had to carry chapstick with me wherever I went because I'd chewed them until the area around my lips got red and chapped and it hurt to talk." He walked over and leaned down to wrap his arms around Karkat while they waited for the food to heat up, albeit in a fairly relaxed way, bordering on being a joker with it. Karkat remained stoic as he did so, though a flush had started to creep up his ears. He prodded Dave's chest with his fingertip, wrinkling his nose.

"You look fucking ridiculous in those pants, by the way."

"They're my laundry pants and they're comfortable so fuck you, dude." He snorted and pointed at Karkat's pajama pants. "And yours are dumb as shit, so you have no fucking room to talk."

"Hey, Jet Set Radio is fucking awesome so you can just suck my bulge." Karkat stuck his tongue out and looked down at his pants, the rather fuzzy black material with its yellow stripes and stylized japanese graffiti.

"Yeah, well, so is feeling totally ready to nap whenever I damn well want. Because I can." He rested his head on top of Karkat's and watched the microwave count down the last few seconds. Once it hit one, Dave reached over to open the microwave and grabbed his food. "Mm, delicious leftovers."

On reflex Karkat lifted his head up, his nose pressing briefly against the front of Dave's throat until he moved to fetch the food. He slid down off the counter and pulled down a plate for each of them as well as a couple of forks, waiting for the helpings to be portioned out then going for the juice again if only to keep Dave from trying to get him to drink again. He didn't want to test his alcohol tolerance again. Dave, on the other hand, got out a can of soda for himself after doling the food out onto separate plates, and walked to the living room to sit in the chair, legs crossed, and start tucking in silently. He had a lot to think about while he ate, and it showed. He was clearly off in his own brain again.

Karkat settled onto the ground in front of the couch, reaching over and moving the game controllers then laid his plate in his lap, eating just as quietly as he mentally replayed the last few minutes. He supposed it was just because Dave was new to moiraillegiance that he was getting this touchy, not that Karkat really blamed him. He wasn't exactly arguing against any of it and, he had to admit, it was pretty nice to be that close to someone regardless of the implications.

Dave caught his attention after a few minutes, muttering a little before speaking up. "Hopefully tonight you're not going to have to come keep my dumb ass calm. I mean, thanks and all, but getting up in my bed with all that slime wasn't kosher."

"Eh...yeah, sorry about that. I was pretty much still asleep when I did that, didn't really think about the welfare of your blankets. Maybe you should try a higher dose of the melatonin this time around. If not, I can always switch beds with you for the night and let you sleep in the slime," Karkat suggested, sitting up straighter. "I'm pretty sure that by now I'm kind of immune to it, but your skin's so fucking thin I bet it'd knock you out fast."

Dave gave Karkat a pointed Look at that suggestion. "I think I'll pass on sleeping in a vat of drugged up jello, thanks." He finished his plate of food and set it aside, sipping from his soda. "I'm freaked out by the idea of slipping in too much and drowning in that shit. But seriously, no. Thanks." He let his feet down from the chair and stretched out, more reclined than actually sitting upright, moving his foot to grab a controller by its cord with his toes.

"I've been sleeping in this shit all my life and I'm not dead am I? You can't even fucking know you wouldn't like it until you actually spent a night in one. In any case, it's not actually deep enough to drown in unless you sleep facedown and actually stay that way the entire fucking night." Karkat finished off the last of his food when he was done vouching for his slime, reaching out and grabbing his own controller, then edging Dave's a little further out of his reach, smirking faintly.

"I like my bed just fine. It's not my poor bed's fucking fault I'm broken in the head." He scowled when his controller was moved away. "Prick," he hissed and then gave up sitting in the chair, sliding down onto the floor before sprawling out and grabbing his controller. He let out a victorious "HA!" and then started to play once more. "Do not fuck with the king, my friend."

"You're not broken," Karkat murmured and took up his controller, sprawling back in Dave's direction until he was laying over the top of him, resting on his bare back with his elbows on the ground, effectively making himself a comfortable dead weight. "What are you talking about, you're not the king of shit. Except maybe of the douchefucks. Biggest goddamn dipshit there ever was. High priest of the asshats."

Dave's smile went lopsided and he started fighting with a sustainable rhythm, giving it a little bit to let Karkat figure out, though it was obvious he was leading up to something.

"What's that I hear, a little bitch?  
Must be some sort of verbal twitch,  
dissin' me, twistin' me, lookin' like he was wishin' he  
could have a fucking moment in his life where he was this great.  
This little shrimp thinks he's got the style, the flow,  
doesn't he even fuckin' know?  
He can't fuckin' compete with the king."

He had the shit eating grin on his face again as he kept up the beat, while positioning himself in the center of a group of baddies so he could throw down while he grabbed his soda, taking a drink of it. It wasn't the best rap he'd come up with on the spot, but he was preoccupied. Karkat stared up at the tv for a little bit in silence, unsure whether to laugh until he couldn't breathe or just bury his face in Dave's shoulder with the most heartfelt of groans. Instead, he very carefully brushed aside the hair at the back of Dave's neck, leaned down, and proceeded to drag his tongue over the spot, drooling as much as he possibly could. Then just as quickly as he'd started, he was gone, fleeing for his life.

Dave just sat there momentarily, in a state of mental reset. His ears went red and his pulse sped to a fever pitch and then he wrinkled his nose and shot up to his feet and dashed after the troll, shouting, "VANTAS, YOU FUCKING DIRTY CHEATING SHITBADGER ASSFUCK!" He looked into the kitchen, then down the hall, looking to figure out where the hell Karkat went.

"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, YOU NOOKWHIFFING DOUCHEMUFFIN," he yelled from the hallway closet, grinning evilly as he watched Dave's shadow passing in front of the doors from the top of the washing machine. Dave spun around and narrowed his eyes, walking towards the door of the hall closet, and then slid it open with extreme force and speed, fixing his gaze on Karkat with a deadly grin.

"Found you, you anal-incubated fuckstick." He grabbed Karkat by the collar of the shirt and pulled him closer, looking him in the eye. "That was fucking unfair as hell of you."

"I'll maintain until my dying day that it was completely necessary and nothing you could possibly do to me will ever make me take it back," he replied quite happily then pulled a Road Runner and stuck his tongue out, pecked Dave's lips then dropped out of his shirt and bolted away again, taking refuge in his friend's bedroom, diving under the blankets and pulling himself into a tight ball.

Again with the mental bluescreen. He was NOT chasing this little shit around the apartment. He lazily sauntered into his own bedroom, hands in his pockets, then cracked his neck. He looked at his bed, still completely unmade, and sighed a little. Fucking dumbass. He then stretched and yawned, before stepping onto his bed and flopping down straight onto the heap of blankets. "Mmph, this mattress is lumpy!" He put on an entirely surprised tone. "Maybe if I punch out the lumps, it'll get comfy again."

Karkat barely kept himself from wheezing at the sudden weight on top of him, flattening himself out instead and tucking his arms under his body. "Your bed doesn't appreciate that thought one fucking bit," he muffled through the blanket as soon as he could manage a deep enough breath.

Dave chuckled, "My bed sounds suspiciously like Karkat." He peeled back the covers and uncovered his friend's head. "Dumbass." He was smiling sincerely, albeit a little lopsided. He rolled off of Karkat and pulled the blankets over himself. "I'm seriously considering an actual nap right now. Last night was less than restful."

"It's a little late in the evening for an actual nap. Might as well just call it a night," Karkat suggested, rolling upright and sitting up to lean back some against Dave behind him. He reached over and dragged his fingers through the blonde, stylishly messy hair with a soft smile of his own, hoping it would help lull Dave to sleep comfortably enough to keep the terrors at bay.

"Enh, I can make my bed tomorrow," he grumbled. "Stupid rain, fucking up my rhythm, killing the groove." He yawned again, before moving to take his barbell out. "At least it'll give you some time alone in the place. Get used to the feel of it as yours on your own." He kicked the blankets down over his legs as well as pulling them up to his ear. "Seeya tomorrow, Vantas."

Crawling out of the bed gingerly, Karkat took a moment to rearrange Dave's blanket to something a little more comfortable, then headed for the door and flicked out the light. "Night, man," he murmured and went back to the living room to put up the game, digging through his movies instead and putting in one that he hadn't watched in a long time. He grabbed some more juice and a donut then settled down into the couch to watch until he too had dozed off.

Dave slept fairly soundly for about two hours, though when the nightmares started, he stoutly refused to be a part of them and woke up before they could get too immersive and terrible. He rubbed his face and looked at his alarm clock with a little disdain. It was only two in the morning, and he knew he wasn't even about to get back to sleep. He rubbed his face before sticking his barbell back in, and then padded silently to the living room.

He smiled faintly when he saw Karkat sprawled on the sofa, and the TV quietly playing some title screen on loop. He turned off the TV and the player, and then walked over to the corner of the room to grab a blanket, which he delicately put over his friend, before he grabbed his jacket and yanked it on before going out for a cigarette. The rain had finally subsided, and the streets were still flooded, but he figured that by morning, they'd be dry enough to get places, and school would be back on. He perched in his chair as he lit a cigarette and looked out on the city, the flickering lights of downtown keeping him company, and the sound of barcrawling crowds going home filtered out through the air, bringing life to an otherwise quiet night. 

He loved this time of the night. It was the perfect time to people-watch and still be alone and comfortable. He decided whether or not he wanted to go out, and as he stubbed out his cigarette once it was finished, he got up and went to put on some clothes and get his camera, to take some night shots. He left a note on the counter for Karkat.

Karkat turned over in his sleep and tugged the blanket up higher around his shoulders as his face pressed into the back of the couch, his feet hanging off the edge of it. He'd been lulled to sleep not even halfway through Titanic and hadn't even stirred when it had crashed.

Once again his dreams were a mess of colors interspersed between patches of blackness, though now there was a faint green pulse that enveloped everything and suddenly his world was filled with pain, even if it was the imaginary sort. He bolted upright with a huge breath, clinging to the back of the couch and panting like a man just let up from nearly drowning. Orienting himself took a few panicked seconds, nothing in the apartment registering at first. The rain had stopped so everything was muted and with the tv off, everything was black save for the dull dark grey rectangle of the balcony door showing the clouds still hanging low overhead.

Karkat dragged himself off the couch with a low groan, rubbing his face and slouching over to the kitchen to get a glass of water and spotting the note in the process. He had to open the fridge a crack to read it and rolled his eyes.

couldnt sleep snapping some pics for class  
back before dawn  
go the fuck to sleep

Yeah right, he'd be lucky if he got back to sleep before dawn.

Dave had gone walking down the main street of downtown, and then decided, once he got to the bridge that connected the east to the west side, he'd stop and take some pictures of the wide, deep, tumultuous river. He veered off of the sidewalk and took the steep, muddy embankment down to the railroad tracks that the bridge went over, and hopped across them to the narrow walkway, before he took the steel ladder that dropped down to the edge of the river. That's where he found a great scene. He put his telescoping lens on his camera and started taking pictures of the nest of mallards that he saw on the island, framed by the stand of trees, the clouds in the sky, and the large, bright moon. 

Once he'd gotten a good dozen pictures, he climbed back up the embankment and started back to the apartment, and returned around 3:30. He toed out of his muddy shoes at the door and set his camera down. He saw that his note had been moved off of the counter, so he knew that Karkat had woken up. Karkat himself was out on the balcony, the charger cord of his husktop plugged in inside with the door cracked enough for it to lead outside. He was sitting in a thick sweater and his socks with the computer on his lap, listening to music with a set of headphones and singing quietly to himself. It was cool outside, but bundled up as he was he barely felt it and he was able to relax. Dave noticed the cord quickly enough, and he peeked out the door to look at Karkat, smiling faintly. He'd leave him to it, he decided, and he moved back to go grab his own laptop from a bookshelf that was behind the sofa, and plugged it in, dropping himself onto the sofa with it. He went to check on what his homework was for the classes that were canceled the day before. They weren't too hard, and he decided to start work on them, plugging in his expensive headphones into the laptop to listen to his own music, which he started to mouth to fairly shortly thereafter.

He was chilly from the cool, damp air over the course of his walk, and he curled up against the corner of the sofa, dragging the blanket he'd put over Karkat earlier over himself. He wasn't sure how his hotblooded friend was managing outside.

Karkat was starting to doze off again as his playlist cycled into the more mellow music, his head nodding back against the side of the building then back upright. The sky was just starting to lighten up and he had to fight not to groan about it as he got up and stretched his legs, blinking some when he spotted Dave sitting there on the couch. With a small smile he eased the door open as quietly as possible, his husktop closed and tucked under his arm. He put it on the floor beside the outlet then crawled onto the couch and pulled the other half of the blanket over him, curling up against Dave's side with a short yawn then closing his eyes again. Dave looked up from his screen when Karkat joined him, giving him room to curl up near him, and put his arm around his friend, and continued to work on his assignment with his free hand. He turned down his music so that even due to proximity, it wouldn't disturb Karkat, although it was still up enough where the faintest tune could be heard through it. He was working on a project that was cropping photos to make a more visual impact, which he was a natural at. Karkat watched him at this wordlessly, both too tired and too unfamiliar with image editing software to really give any input. The seemingly miniature scratching of the music from the headphones should have been annoying, but instead it simply served to lull him back to sleep curled up under Dave's arm.

Dave smiled once he felt Karkat's rhythmic, mellow breath of sleep against his side and over his shoulder. He played with Karkat's hair as he worked, and once he was done with the assignment, he watched the short presentation for his film class that had been recorded earlier that day by his professor. Meanwhile, he'd had pesterchum on, and kept an eye on who was on. Only Bro's chatbot was on at the time, and he really didn't feel like talking to the AI, no matter how amusing and stilted his responses were.

Then a message was sent from a stranger, reading **Hello, Dave human. ::::)** " He sighed and ignored it, though he didn't put the one who sent it on ignore, too damn tired to really register what was going on. All he knew was that he was immediately repulsed by the off-blue text and couldn't deal with it right then. He was too near to asleep to mess around with random fricks who messaged him. He just closed down pesterchum and went back to the presentation, which was so boring that it tugged him down into a fairly dreamless sleep.

By morning, Karkat was more or less horizontal with his head resting on Dave's thigh, snoring quietly after having grown slightly congested over the course of the night. He was curled up small under his half of the blanket with his knees up at his chest, arms tucked under him and creased with couch textures. When he woke up it was to the sounds of police sirens wailing by down on the street.

"YOU CAN'T BLAME ME FOR SH- ...Hnnn...fuck." His head fell back down against Dave's leg and stayed there for another couple of seconds until he could really bring himself to sit back up, pulling the blanket over his head and bending himself in half so that he was resting flat against his thighs.

Dave blinked awake at the shouting, which was audible even over the music that had been streaming over the entire time he'd drifted off, and he looked down at the lump in the blanket which he knew was Karkat, raising his eyebrows sleepily. "Nngh," he grunted, setting his laptop down on the floor, letting it go into sleep mode as he removed his headphones as well. "Sup."

"Nice ducks, Strider," he muffled back from under the blanket, his hands hanging just low enough to touch the carpet with his fingertips. "I have class at nine, what time is it?"

Dave looked up at the clock and grumbled, "Seven twelve. Mine's at ten, then I have to go in today at two." He rubbed his face and yawned, arching and flexing to wake himself up.

"Which means most likely I'll be going in at two too. So I have to be at the shop right after class lets out." Groaning, Karkat slouched from under the blanket and stood, stretching with half his clothes going north, the other going south and exposing the lightly-scarred expanse of the small of his back until he put his arms down again and scratched here and there as he headed to the bathroom. At least he wouldn't have to take much of a shower after having slept outside the cocoon the whole night.

Dave sat up once Karkat left the sofa and rubbed his face again. "Mmhmm. Good times." He finally pulled himself off the sofa and went to pull the stuff out of the dryer as well as the bedsheets and towels that he'd tossed on top when he threw his clothes in the dryer. He took the time that Karkat was in the shower to re-make his bed and put his clothes away, before making some coffee for both of them and put the dishes away. Something was eating at his mind from before he fell asleep. He decided it was probably nothing and left it alone.

When Karkat got out of the bathroom, he grabbed his clothes and towel and got ready for the day, wearing a fairly form-fitting bleach-designed t-shirt that he made the year before, as well as his favorite pair of distressed button flies once he got dried off from his shower. He noticed that his hair was getting to the awkward length that went from 'looks good' to 'this is out of control.' Karkat was dressed down in a thick, loose black sweater and grey skinny jeans that looked like they'd come from the closet of his 6-sweep-old self, sipping his coffee as he tapped at his husktop to bring up his classes' work schedules for the next week, hoping he could have some time to rest between course work, on-campus bullshit and working at the coffee shop. As he organized his schedule in his head he couldn't help but slump facedown when he realized that, nope, the only downtime that he would have for the next month would be to sleep.

Dave raised an eyebrow as he walked out of the kitchen with his coffee in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other. "Ding dong, what is wrong." He sat down in the chair and started eating, crosslegged and sitting with perfect posture. He had already looked at his schedule a couple weeks ago and was lucky enough to have some time to do whatever he needed - which he'd mentally allotted to working on photography and setting up his film project.

"Don't you even meme at me, Strider," Karkat mumbled then pulled himself upright, rubbing his hand over his forehead then turning to his coffee and finishing it off then snatching a poptart that had been sitting in an open, long-forgotten box in the back of the cupboard. He came back to the living room with it and propped his computer on his knees as he opened a document to be able to better visualize the complete lack of free time he would have for the rest of the semester.

Apparently even if things with this mystery sister did end up working, the only time he would be able to see her would be during breaks at the coffee shop, unless she was a student on the same campus.

Dave, while eating his cereal, started texting his class friends to see if any of them had started work on their projects. Only one had a vague idea what they were doing other than himself, and it made him perk up considerably. Good. He wasn't the last in the pack. "I will meme whenever I want, to whomever I want. You don't own me," he said over a mouthful of multicolored rice flakes. "After my shift's over tonight, I'm going to be going down to the dark room and developing these pictures I took." He was excited to see how a couple of them had turned out. It was a shame, he thought, that film photography was being phased out. Digital photography just didn't have the soul of traditional, he felt.

"By the time you get back I should actually have something made and sitting in the refrigerator for you." Karkat yawned as he started packing up his things, shrugging his broke-ass bag back up onto his shoulder with two of his books crammed inside with his binder and the rubber band-bound collection of writing utensils. "It's just dry enough that I can walk to campus that way you don't have to waste any gas so I'll see you this afternoon, man."

"Hang on, dude," Dave said as he finished his cereal, and stood up. He walked briskly to his room, and came out a minute later with a clean, like-new backpack. It gray and black, with only a single scuff on the bottom of it. He handed it to Karkat and nodded. "You can borrow this until you get a new one." He shrugged. "That way you don't run the risk of fucking up those stupid expensive books." He walked over to his own bag - a black leather messenger bag that had seen better days but was clearly one of the few things Dave really took pride in, judging from how it was customized with vintage patches and dangling ironic keychains. "If you need a pencil case or anything, just let me know, I think I've got one kicking around in my closet. I never use the thing."

"I'm good, Dave. Thanks." Kneeling on the ground, Karkat transferred his belongings to the newer bag and shrugging it up onto his shoulders. It sat better than the old one, at least. He tossed his old bag back into his room then came back ruffled his hand through Dave's so carefully styled hair and jogged out of the door, yelling "See you at work!" as he went. Dave just waved when Karkat went out the door and went to grab another cup of coffee and get ready for his class.

Once class was over, he headed to the cafe. It was a pretty busy day, considering. He figured people needed to get their fix after the past couple days of going without, and went into the back to check in and drop his shit off. He returned in his apron and waved his co-worker off while he started filling orders, moving like a well-oiled machine built out of caustic wit and pretension. He saw Jill sitting in a corner seat, looking out the window and muttered to himself, "Oh boy, he's going to flip several shits if she gets up the nerve." But it was then and there that he decided he'd stay the fuck out of it. Karkat could handle his own damn self.

Karkat walked in a few minutes after Dave had settled in, dropping his bag behind the bar then popping in to see the manager and let him know that he was there for the day. He was handed an apron of his own and told the general gist of what he was supposed to do around the shop, mostly bringing coffees to waiting patrons, cleaning messes, et cetera. Toby was due to be fired apparently, which would open up the second baristo position within the month.

It took about ten minutes for Karkat to get into a swing between fetching, cleaning and actually collecting a tip. He blinked down at the two dollars then grinned and tucked them into his back pocket. He looked up at Dave behind the counter and winked, looking a good deal more chipper than he usually did. Presumably his class had gone well and this was only making it better. Dave watched quietly as Karkat picked up momentum and gave a brief smile at his friend's good fortune.

It was about half an hour before Jill finally found the nerve to slip from her seat and order another drink, giving Dave a coy, shy smile before she sat back down. He fixed it for her and when Karkat came to pick it up, Dave said, "This goes to her." He nodded towards the traditionally attractive, but dressed down girl at the corner table. He mentally wished Karkat the best of luck before going back to taking another order. When Karkat gave her the coffee he stopped when she cleared her throat for his attention, looking down at her in slight bewilderment until she introduced herself. It clicked after a couple seconds and he had to stop himself from looking back at Dave, instead standing up a little straighter as he talked back with her. She asked a couple of questions and smiled when she was able to tell him that she was a freshman too, that she had intended to try and take a breather, and maybe they could share a coffee when he took a break? His responses were equally tentative, and he was visibly forcing himself not to gnaw his lip bloody again, his hands pushing into his pockets to keep him out from under his arms.

Coming away from the conversation felt somewhat surreal. He had a date. Ish. Kind of. With a cute girl. That liked him.

Holy.

Shit.

Dave couldn't help but smile a little for his friend, who seemed to be doing pretty well for himself over there. He wasn't going to be nosy, but he had a pretty good feeling that those two would hit it off. 

Which was why he was confounded by the weird sinking feeling he got. He knew he should've been happy as hell that his buddy just hit it off with a girl, but shit man, it stung. He pushed the thought aside to deal with later, and kept working.

Karkat spent a lot of his time smiling faintly as he went between tables, picking up a few more tips in the process. He wasn't very talkative, but he didn't swear at anyone even when one accidentally spilled some of their hot coffee directly onto his shoe, simply pressing his lips together and moving away to clean himself up and take off his sock to be washed when he got home that night.

When Jill left, Dave gave a brief glance to the door to watch Karkat pull a DAMN slick move. Karkat was there right behind her, laying a hand against the middle of her back as they chatted a minute longer, setting up to be able to spend time talking more during his break times. He turned back to the rest of the lingering customers and cleaned up an empty table, picking up a five and grinning toothily. With the way that Karkat was cleaning up in tips, Dave was actually pretty damn proud of the guy. His own tip jar was nothing to scoff at; he'd been able to eat take-out on tips alone for months once he found just the right balance of witty banter and skill in making orders. He was just surprised by Karkat's way of picking something up immediately and then running with it. Training him would be damn easy, he figured. He was pretty fucking impressed, even though that tug in his stomach made him feel a bit off-put. He looked away to make an italian soda for a customer and shook his head. He needed to stop being so fucking pissy. Karkat was awesome, doing great. That's all.

Once his break rolled around, he took a turnover with him outside to the patio, and plopped down with a cigarette as well. The clouds had dissipated somewhat and the sun was out, warming the pavement and casting shadows of the wrought-iron tables onto the ground. He stretched as he chewed his apple turnover and smiled. Today was going pretty damn well, considering how little sleep he'd had.

When the shift was over, Karkat had made about twenty bucks in tips, folding them together and shoving them into his wallet after he'd hung up his apron. He was lightheaded, having foregone stopping for a lunch break beyond just a small coffee to keep him moving, but he was feeling surprisingly light. Even the coursework that he'd been handed for the week didn't make a difference. His face had fallen into a regular stoic expression by the time they could step out and go home for the day and he was a little less talkative, getting rather thoughtful during the walk back.

Dave was pretty quiet, himself, walking with Karkat back since it was on the way to the campus from where they'd been. "I've gotta go use the dark room for a few. I'll be back around nine." He smirked as he rumpled his friend's hair. "Good job with everything today, dude. I'm glad you two hit it off." His brain was screaming at him that he wasn't really, but he kept a genuine enough facade. He broke off from Karkat before they got back to the apartment to hit the dark room, calling back over his shoulder that he'd be back in a few hours.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly nobody knows how to keep it in their pants. :T

Over the next week and a half, Karkat seemed to find a swing between school, work, homework, and Jill. He wasn't really talkative and didn't get quite as close to Dave as he had those first few days, but he did still play games with him, working through a couple of them in the cupboard when they'd gotten tired of the RPG.

Within another week, Jill had started coming over to the apartment occasionally to try and catch up on assignments, to remove herself from her dorm room and the chatty girls therein. Karkat was still fairly quiet and standoffish, but he was also censoring himself a lot more. He still raged at games, but when it came to banter with Dave, it was a little more subdued. It was as if in a week's time, Jill had managed to calm him further than Gamzee, or Terezi, or even Dave ever had.

One night when they had a holiday from school and a day off from the coffee shop, Karkat had opted to invite her in. He stood in the kitchen and scraped a spatula against the bottom of his massive non-stick pan, talking quietly to her as she asked him questions about how he'd grown up. She asked about his life with crabdad, where he'd learned to cook, general background things that they really hadn't discussed up to then. Dave had tried not to get too terribly put off by things, all things considered; he had no place to say no. Jill was an alright girl and they got along fine, and he'd had his share of friends over from time to time, himself. What bothered him the most, however, was that Karkat was treating him differently. He wasn't as close. He was drifting away and it made his stomach churn when he thought about it. But in his typical fashion, he pushed the feelings aside for a long while, until it really became a huge damn problem for him.

He was in the living room, tuning out their conversation when it became a huge damn problem. Truth be told, it was noticeable that it was a problem long before then to everyone that had interacted with him. He'd started outright hating Jill's visits, and, much to his own surprise, started hating Jill. He knew it was irrational, and knew, logically, there was only one person at fault for his own damn stupid mental workings, but he let it fester.

He was working on a project that he'd been given in his Television Film class when an error popped up on his screen and he lost his goddamn shit. All that shit was flipped, son. He growled and set his laptop aside before throwing up his hands and going out for a cigarette with a growl of "I can't fucking stand this anymore!"

"Unflip your shit, Strider. Food's gonna be done soon, alright?" Karkat yelled from the kitchen. Jill had left maybe ten minutes ago with the promise that he would save her some leftovers, having received a call from her mother that she had to immediately go and investigate in person. He put the lid on the simmering pan and turned the heat down before going to the living room, bending over the laptop to see the error message and rolling his eyes. This was what the noise was about? Jesus fuck, talk about overreacting... He watched Dave skulking on the balcony for a couple of seconds before stepping out and tugging on the back of Dave's shirt.

"Dude. It's just an error. You did remember to save whatever the fuck you were working on beforehand, right? I know you're kind of anal about that shit."

"No. Fuckin'. No, it's not about that, okay?" Dave snapped, spinning around to glare at Karkat. He hadn't taken his glasses off when Jill was there, so they were still masking the scowling eyes. His flared nostrils and tense body more than made up for it, however, as he continued. "You're a fucking asshole, is what. Sure, you might act all fuckin' perfect around her, but that ain't you, alright? Fuckin' get your head back on straight you moron!" He prodded Karkat in the chest as he spoke, and then walked inside, either not giving a damn, or not remembering he had a cigarette in his hand as he stormed off to grab his camera bag. "I'm goin' out. Maybe by the time I'm back, you'll have your head out your ass."

Karkat stood outside for a moment before giving chase, shutting the sliding door behind him and striding across the apartment and grabbing for Dave's arm before he could leave. "Strider, I didn't do shit to you so sit your stupid ass down and tell me what the fuck is going on. If it's not your stupid fucking school project, then what. Is it Jill? Do you want me to just tell her to stop coming over? Is she disturbing your precious fucking fung-shway bullshit?" He snapped, gesturing wildly at the somewhat haphazardly set room with his free hand.

Dave pulled his shades off and pushed Karkat in the same fluid motion, glaring down at him. "No, it's YOU, you dumb fuckin' asshole! It's a buncha horseshit, how you been fuckin' actin' lately, and I'm fuckin' sick of it, all right? You ain't been doin' a goddamn thing lately with me, an' when we DO have shit to do together, you g'on and invite her! That shit ain't fuckin' kosher and if you had your head out your damn ass, you'd know it!" He shoved past Karkat to get to the hallway, stomping off to his room. "So fuckin' goddamn sick of this idjit horseshit," he grumbled under his breath as he stomped through to his bed, throwing himself down on it and balling his hand around the blankets.

In a word, Karkat was flabbergasted. It wasn't something he ever expected to be, and it was such a goddamn stupid word he hated to have to apply it to himself, but it was the only thing that really fit as he stood there in the middle of the living room looking and feeling as if he'd been slapped across the face. He had never heard Dave get that mad. He'd never heard that accent come out of that mouth. Following as soon as he'd heard the springs of Dave's bed stop creaking, Karkat crept to the door and knocked once before easing it open to peek at the seething lump that was his moirail. It didn't take him long to put together what was happening at least on the surface.

"Look...Dave, I'm sorry alright? I'm being a shitty moirail. I'm trying to make this work with Jilly and in the process it's fucking with you. With us. It's my fault. I'll just...tell Jilly we need to take a little time apart, so you and me can actually sit and fucking talk. Alright?"

Dave wanted to scream and destroy everything every goddamn time Karkat said 'Jilly', his jaw clenched shut so he wouldn't wind up saying something he'd regret. His heart was pounding at the rush of adrenaline he'd given himself, and it made his head ache. He sat up on his bed and turned around, giving Karkat a cold, dark look. "Don't fuckin' talk to me like you got a goddamn clue what I've got goin' on in my head," he grumbled. He decided it was worth one more try to go into the hall and try to get out, so he could clear his head, maybe destroy something breakable outside, and get it out of his system. He stood and walked to the door, pushing past Karkat once more.

"Stop fucking shoving me around, you asshole! Yeah you're a lot fucking bigger than me but that doesn't give you any goddamn right, especially over this shit," Karkat snapped, following him once again and pushing some on the small of his back to make him stumble. Then he grabbed Dave's camera case and handed it over to him with a snarl before ducking back into the kitchen to keep their dinner from burning. There was a layer of blackened vegetables sticking to the bottom of the pan, but at least everything else was salvageable. The problem was that now he wasn't hungry anymore.

Dave stomped after him, dropping the case on the floor, and pushed him straight up against the wall, giving half a second to make sure the pan was on the counter so it didn't ruin the food or make a mess. He glared down wordlessly at Karkat for a few seconds, his breath heavy and jaw set, before he leaned in and caught Karkat's lips with his own, the kiss rough, and WAY past chaste. He was fucking done playing around like he didn't want to do this months ago.

Immediately Karkat stiffened up, his eyes flying wide, hands gripping down on the sides of Dave's shirt as his mouth was invaded. This...wasn't a novice mistake made by someone new to moiraillegiance or to troll romance in general. It was forceful and angry but it didn't seem to have the hate behind it of someone waxing black either. Taking a hard breath through his nose, Karkat leaned back away from Dave and snatched the glasses off his face then stared up at him hard for a few long seconds.

Relaxing slowly, Karkat softened and put his head down against Dave's shoulder, swearing quietly and muttering under his breath. He traced his tongue across his lower lip, which had been lightly bruised by the sudden viciousness.

"God...fucking dammit, Strider..."

When Karkat pulled away his brain went from seeing red to 'oh fuck me sideways, what have I fucking done.' He shuddered a breath and let up on Karkat, dropping his arm to his side, though he kept the one he'd planted on the wall where it was to keep himself from falling over, looking down at Karkat with a furrowed brow and apprehension written all over his face. Once Karkat put his head against his shoulder, he bowed his own and sighed. "This wasn't how I wanted this to go down," he half-whispered. "I would've told you but I didn't want to fuck up a good thing. Probably did anyway, 'cause I'm just that good at fucking shit up." He pushed himself away from the wall and stepped back to lean against the counter, rubbing his fingers and thumb together on his right hand as he tried his damnedest to keep his shit together.

Karkat fell back bonelessly against the wall, tangling his fingers into the front of his hair as the other one came up and tucked under his arm, his eyes glued to the floor. So no. They weren't mistakes. He just really fucking sucked at reading intent. He finally forced himself to look up at Dave, his chest tightening down until it felt like the air was being physically squeezed out of him. He pushed himself back up away from the wall and half-faced him, the other hand gripping hard on his sweater sleeve. What the fuck did someone even say to their best friend when they'd just been pinned to a wall and...

"What the fuck, Dave," he whispered thinly, pointing a finger at the other, then turning it on the door, his voice managing to fail. He wheezed quietly as he tried to get enough oxygen back to his brain to form a coherent thought beyond simply 'what the fuck'.

In the end, the only thing he could do was knot his fingers into the front of Dave's shirt, pulling him down until they were face-to-face, the bridges of their noses bumping together as he tilted his head to look straight into his eyes, his own somewhat glazed and the pupils dilated. That was the primal side, the one that trolls everywhere had taken to hiding and trying to snuff out, the one that reacted to violence in ways bordering on the fetishistic.

Dave's adrenaline rush had subsided and left him feeling powerless and nauseous. He watched Karkat as he pushed off the wall, his own face gone stoic and stony once more. He could practically see the wheels spinning in Karkat's mind, trying to figure out what the hell to do or say, so when Dave was pulled down, he didn't struggle or get upset. The way Karkat looked at him, however, made his blood run cold for a split second before his ears turned red and his breath caught in his throat. "I..." was all he could really get out, before his mind blanked. He didn't want to make another move until he knew that his throat wouldn't get ripped out by his best friend. Karkat's teeth were bared, his breath gusting hot against the front of Dave's throat as one hand crept away from his shirt, along the tendon in the side of his neck to his jaw, thumb pressing up on the soft underside of his chin to further expose the vulnerable flesh. He was pressed up flush against Dave's body, pinning him back against the counter and dragging the tips of his teeth along the thin skin. In a single quick move, he could easily bite straight through Dave's adam's apple and leave him to bleed. Dave's heart pounded in his chest, his neck, and reverberated in his head as he stayed perfectly still, eyes fluttering closed as he felt Karkat's sharp teeth and too-warm mouth against his throat, letting out a short, shallow breath at the feeling.

Instead, Karkat let go of his shirt entirely and wrapped his arms loosely around Dave's middle, nose pressed into the side of his neck as he came down.

Once Karkat calmed from the feral fit and wrapped his arms around him, Dave slipped his arms around him as well, burying his face into the troll's hair, brushing his cheek incidentally against one of Karkat's horns as he did. He had nothing to say that was of any value so he stayed quiet, one hand rested at the small of Karkat's back, holding him close. Karkat shuddered some as he relaxed, his eyes squeezing shut as he tucked his face into the side of Dave's neck, tightening his hold on him in slow increments. When he spoke up again, his voice was thin and quiet.

"Why didn't you say anything... I've been here for three fucking months and you didn't say anything..."

"You were happy," Dave whispered against Karkat's hair while his fingertips rubbed idly against the small of Karkat's back. He had no other reason other than that, when every bullshit excuse was taken out of that. He slipped his other hand up Karkat's back and to the back of his neck, his fingers running into Karkat's hair. "And honestly, up until shit started falling apart, I didn't mind how things were." He shook his head slightly. "I didn't want to risk losing that."

"So you let yourself go fucking batshit because you didn't want to tell me that you were fucking hurting... Even though it's my goddamn responsibility to take care of you," Karkat sighed and leaned his head into the touch, his forehead nudging gently against the other's chin. "Because that's what it means to be someone's moirail. I have to take care of you. But obviously I fucking suck at that..."

Dave shook his head. At this point, he chose to finally show how understanding he really was of the quadrants. "Pale wasn't meant to be, dumbass, if you haven't figured that out yet." He dipped his head down to press a slow, gentle kiss to Karkat's cheek. "As soon as I'd said we should try, I knew it was an idiot move, but it's easier for me to say that I was pale and deal with the consequences of losing potential in the flushed quadrant than to admit that I was flushed and lose you altogether for being too fucking forward." He chuckled. "I did as much as I could to stay pale. The only failure on your hands is that you're fuckin' too easy to assume that since I'm human, I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"It's easy to forget that you know more than a lot of humans," Karkat murmured, reaching up and taking one of Dave's hands in his own, lacing their fingers together and gripping down tight, holding the back of it against his chest where the beat of his pulse had slowed but still slammed against his chest like a sledgehammer. He looked back at Dave again with that same slightly drugged expression, but this time he was much more focused, looking as if he were reading Dave's thoughts scrawled across the backs of his eyeballs. Thoughts of Jill's objections flitted briefly through his own thoughts, then burned up as he pressed forward, crushing his lips against Dave's, his free hand gripping down on the back of his neck and fingernails digging some into the skin.

Nearly four years of immersion into the culture did that to a guy. The only other humans in his life for that long were few and far between in comparison to all the goddamn fucking trolls he'd met and learned from. Shit, at this point, Dave was sure he knew more about Alternian and Beforan history than about Earth.

None of that shit really mattered in the moment, however. He smiled against Karkat's jaw when he spoke, squeezing the troll's hand. The heartbeat he felt was comforting. Something made his breath catch again at the eye contact, whether it was the way Karkat's eyes were dilated, the red nearly gone between the yellow and black again, or the sheer intensity of the stare. He caught Karkat's lips with his own as he leaned down into the kiss, letting out a soft sound through his nose at the claws, albeit one that was in no way objecting. He pulled Karkat closer still with a nudge to his lower back, as he parted his lips and slid his tongue out just enough to tease the barbell against Karkat's lips, while his pulse quickened and he felt a rush of heat. Karkat's too-warm mouth had been on his mind WAY too often over the past few months, and it lived up to all expectations. The troll's tongue eased out, tracing over the ball, down the bar and around Dave's tongue, following it into his mouth as he stood on tiptoe to fit his mouth more firmly against his friend's, though in the back of mind he wasn't sure the label really fit anymore. His fingers hooked and tangled back into Dave's shirt, nails dragging along the material. Those at his neck curled into a fist in the hair at the nape of his neck.

One thing that stuck out to him now was the flavor of the other's mouth. As his tongue shoved in and slipped against Dave's, Karkat couldn't help noting how much *better* this tasted than kissing Jill, or even Terezi so long ago. He clung to that thought until he had to come back for breath, face red all the way across his cheeks to the tips of his ears.

'Friend' hadn't fit for Karkat for ages, in Dave's mind. He'd long since reconciled with the fact. His fingers traced down from the small of Karkat's back and played at the hem of his shirt, the other hand had slipped down to the troll's shoulder, while his fingertips left light lines against Karkat's neck. He let out another small noise through his nose at the heat of Karkat's tongue slipping over his own, and he had another rush of heat go straight south. Once Karkat withdrew from the kiss, Dave took a fluid step to the right and turned them around so Karkat could more easily get up onto the counter. He bent down to lightly brush his lips across Karkat's cheek to his neck, where he parted them to trace a line up to his ear with the tip of his tongue. His eyes fell closed as his head tilted up, stretching his neck out to expose it further, his hands moving to Dave's arms and gripping down hard. He let out a shuddering little sigh against Dave's ear as he sat back on the counter, knees parting to grip at the other's hips and hold him there.

Dave smiled against Karkat's neck as he put his hand back into place at the small of Karkat's back and he stepped as close as he could, murmuring, "you didn't say anything either," in response to how clear it was that Karkat didn't have to think very long on how he'd felt. He knew that this sort of shit wasn't a split second decision. There was some definite harbored red feelings there that weren't spoken about. He opened his mouth again to press his lips and tongue against the curve of Karkat's neck. With a quiet, breathy little hum Karkat tipped his head back against the cupboard door behind him, his hands slipping up to rest against the sides of Dave's neck and his thumbs stroking over the edge of his jaw then up along the stretched lobes of his ears. "Thought after long enough with Jill it'd go away..."

"Hn," he murmured, subtly moving into Karkat's touch. His free hand moved up from its spot on the counter to over Karkat's thigh. He muttered quietly, "we're world-class morons sometimes." He huffed against his neck before moving to catch Karkat's lips with his own once more, this kiss far less urgent or deep than the others. The hand at Karkat's back moved up into his hair once more, nails playing over his scalp.

He'd been told by Terezi - and then got a second confirmation from the other girl troll he'd been seeing the year prior - that some trolls had extremely sensitive horns. He didn't understand how that was possible, having thought their horns were not unlike horns of goats or cattle, and in that right, built out of the same thing as fingernails. There were no nerve endings there, unless they were in the core of the horn, which made some sense. He decided to test this theory now, slipping one finger up one of Karkat's horns.

Karkat's brow knitted slightly, shuddering at the sensation that crept down the back of his neck at the touch. Dave's assumptions were more or less correct, the outside of the horns didn't have any nerve endings to stimulate, but rather it was similar in construct to a human's tooth, the outside comparatively thin and protecting some incredibly sensitive tissue. One of his hands move up to lay against Dave's cheek, his thumb running over his lower lip then parting them, pushing between his teeth and running the pad of the digit around the ball of the tongue piercing. The other hand came to rest over Dave's sitting on top of his leg, easing it away in spite of the growing heat and inexplicable sweet scent starting to permeate the air around him.

"Then who better to deal with us than us," he murmured and trailed his lips along the line of Dave's jaw to his ear.

Dave parted his lips and teeth to let Karkat's thumb in, licking a firm line across the underside with a low sound in the back of his throat, the barbell flicking across before clicking against the nail. He didn't mind being rebuffed, just putting his hand back beside Karkat, using it to keep his balance as he arched closer, tilting his head to give Karkat better access. He smiled faintly at a thought. He turned his head to get Karkat's thumb out of his mouth and then murmured, "going to ruin your pants if we keep this up." Dave was having definite tightness issues, himself, button fly biting against sensitive skin. He slipped his hand away from Karkat's scalp and then disengaged slowly, kissing Karkat gently once more.

Karkat lingered there in the kiss for a few moments longer before drawing away again, swallowing hard as he leaned back and slid a hand between them, grimacing some at the moisture he could feel starting to seep through the material of his jeans. He just hoped that he could get out of them in time to prevent them from staining.

When he managed to slip off of the counter, he grabbed Dave by the wrist and dragged him toward his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him and dragging his sweater off over his head before looking back at Dave pointedly. In the last three goddamn months there had been nothing but kisses more or less chaste, nights of horrible frustration, and filled then meticulously rinsed pails that left the bathroom smelling like someone had left a cherry popsicle to melt in the sun. He was tired of it.

And boy, that shit was just a joy to figure out and then have to deal with the mental images of on Dave's end. There was a lot of calling it an early night for him over the past few months. Some were out of sheer disgust at how cute Karkat was with Jill, but the vast majority of them were because he couldn't fucking stand it when Karkat kept licking his lips, or moved in just the right way, or bent over to pick up anything.

When Dave stepped into his room, he was bereft of a shirt as soon as his hand was let go so he could pull it off. He took Karkat's hand loosely in his own as he walked to his bed, having a seat at the foot of it and looking up at his friend as he moved both hands across the beltline of Karkat's jeans before they met at the fly. For a moment it looked as if Karkat was going to stop him, his fingers twitching some before apparently thinking better of it and simply laying his hands on Dave's shoulders. He stroked his thumbs over the sides of the other's neck, scratching a nail lightly over one of his freckles. He let it happen, sucking in the slight paunch of his stomach and looking down at the pale hands on his fly, finally letting himself think about how many times that image had come up in his mind after nights that he'd had to come home from whatever he'd been doing with Jill and hide in his room. One of his hands crept up to lace into Dave's hair, nails scratching gently against his scalp.

Dave made quick work of the button and zipper, showing no apprehension about his movements. He was focused on the task at hand, though once Karkat ran his nails over his scalp, Dave's attention diverted momentarily to lean his head into the touch. He slid his hands over Karkat's hips, under the beltline of the pants, sliding them down from his hips as he pressed his lips against the other's exposed skin. His hands moved around and caressed Karkat's ass while he peeled him out of his jeans, sliding them down off his hips before he moved his hands away to work on getting out of his own.

Karkat had to fight the strange, sudden urge to panic when Dave's hands came away. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the slight struggle in front of him though, and ended up waving Dave's hands away and working open the fly himself. He had crawled up onto the edge of the bed and propped himself on one knee with the other foot still on the ground, weight supported on one hand. Once he'd managed to push Dave's pants down some on his hips he lowered himself down, mouthing over clean skin just above the region of his navel. With a huff of a chuckle, Dave laid back and eased his pants down and off. He groaned at Karkat's mouth against his skin again, mentally praising that exceptionally alluring heat. He coaxed Karkat back up his body with a hand sliding up his back, so he could catch those warm lips again. He'd occasionally postulated that Karkat was still a virgin - at least with humans - and the way the other moved and reacted somewhat confirmed this. And if Dave was completely honest, this was a new experience for him, too, despite the fact that genitals on trolls were all pretty much the same, regardless of gender. He'd never slept with a guy before. But he wasn't going to let that be a detractor for what he wanted to do, or hold him back from his easygoing movements.

Karkat kept himself suspended above Dave's body on his hands, letting his head hang as he returned the kiss, biting gently on his lip then licking over it. He hadn't let his jeans fall any further just yet, predictably nervous regardless of what happened in the kitchen. He sat back up after a few more seconds and sucked his lower lip into his mouth, worrying it between his teeth as his hands slid under the top of his jeans to work them off the rest of the way. He barely gave Dave time to look though, crawling back up and laying down on him gingerly while still wearing his boxers. "Careful, careful," he murmured, though the sting of Karkat's sharp teeth wasn't unpleasant by any means. He ran his hands down Karkat's back before one deviated to move between them. His knuckles brushed over Karkat's clothed bulge before Karkat could lay down entirely, then moved back up to the other's hip once he was settled. "You're nervous," he quietly and calmly pointed out. "Don't be." He leaned up to leave another open-mouthed kiss against Karkat's neck, his tongue pressing against the skin there.

"You try not being a fucking nervous wreck in my position," Karkat murmured in return, then took a breath at the relatively cool saliva against the side of his neck. He shifted slightly and pressed himself down against Dave's hips to get a little relief for the maddening sensitivity that was starting to build up the longer this went on. He dragged his nails over Dave's shoulders when he finally decided he couldn't stand it, sitting back up straddled across his hips and looking back down at him with half-lidded eyes and a blush that crept down his neck. "At least you know what you're doing..."

Dave murmured and rocked his own hips at the sudden pressure against him, his breath going short momentarily, and took an inward hiss of breath at the scratching, arching into it faintly. He chuckled as he slipped his fingers down under the elastic of Karkat's boxers and smiled up at the other. "So I've been told, at least." He slowly pulled Karkat's underwear down, keeping eye contact with him while he did. "I'm told it's almost like having sex with another troll, only we're definitely thicker at the tip, and I don't have a nook." He broke eye contact then, and held up a finger for Karkat to wait. He arched back against the bed and stretched across, fumbling momentarily with the pull ring of the drawer in his night stand, before getting it to open. He pulled out a small bottle of lube. "It's also drier than a bulge is. I'm going to need this." And since he knew he was clean, and that Karkat was a virgin, and also that they couldn't reproduce, not a damn thing in his mind registered as needing a condom.

Karkat pressed his lips together, nodding mindlessly. He knew at the very least that Dave was trustworthy as far as this went. His own knowledge was clinical, a result of school and rumor, and barely sufficed when it came right down to it. He reached a hand to stop Dave though, taking the bottle away from him and tossing it back over his shoulder. Then he stood on slightly wobbling legs and stepped out of his boxers in a rather staggering, un-sexy fashion, still on the bed over top of Dave. Why he'd stolen and gotten rid of the lube was immediately apparent though, as a single red drip started to ease along his thigh, the color of his face nearly matching it. He settled back down after a second and glanced back up at Dave every so often, making sure that he was paying attention as one finger dipped along the fold of skin over where just the tip of his bulge was visible, coaxing the thing out into the open and letting it lace between his fingers.

Despite the tottering start, Dave found the entire sight a huge turn on. Not that he particularly needed the help at that juncture. His own hands busied themselves with shedding the last bit of fabric that he had on while Karkat was standing, and kicked his own boxers aside. The show was definitely met with rapt attention, and he grinned faintly as he moved his hand up the scars up Karkat's thighs and to his hip. He smiled, amused at another thought. "You're not the only one really fuckin' worked up, dude," he said with a chuckle.

"Obviously." Karkat rolled his eyes, starting to once again chew the skin from his lip as he pulled his hand free to trace the tip of his finger around the surprisingly soft flesh at the head of the weird fleshy organ in front of him, grazing over the slit then down along the underside lightly. His head tilted some as he watched the way it moved when certain muscles flexed, touching here and there then poking his tongue from the corner of his mouth and shifted his hips up just a little higher and using his fingertips to guide his bulge to wrap around Dave and squeeze down on him. Dave had propped himself up by the elbow to be closer and to watch Karkat's fascination with his cock. With every pleasurable touch, he huffed a breath or let out a murmur though once Karkat wrapped his bulge around him, he groaned outright and then huffed a chuckle. "Shit I can't do," he said in an almost disappointed tone. "God, that feels good." He pressed an encouraging kiss to Karkat's jaw and moved his hand down to trace his fingers across the coiled bulge around him, enjoying its slick feeling and the scent that the fluid carried. Karkat's breath caught and shuddered some as his hips moved up, legs wrapping around Dave's hips to cross his ankles behind him. He laced his fingers between Dave's and guided his hand down to wrap around both of them, squeezing down gently as more of the bright red material seeped over their skin. It would end up in some bright red stains on Dave's sheets, but for the time being, there were more important things than laundry.

Dave was too caught up with the sensory overload to register the possibility of stains, having trouble keeping his mind from completely blanking at the moment. His hand was growing slick with fluid as he rocked his own hips up against Karkat to brush against the other's sensitive nook. He moaned low in the back of his throat before deciding to keep himself slightly quiet by way of claiming Karkat's mouth with his own once more. Karkat's tongue plunged into his mouth in kind, his hand coming up and smearing some of the reddish fluid across Dave's chest. He had a hard time keeping his teeth out of the equation, nicking Dave's lips every now and then as he rutted up against him. He would need more than this to get him off, that much he could already tell, but he wanted to see Dave completely lose every ounce of his cool.

That cool facade was good and lost about the time Dave had gone out onto the patio earlier in the evening, honestly, and had decided to take a vacation somewhere. But Dave wasn't exactly without a modicum of calm, as evidenced by the fact that after a while of having Karkat ride him, he wrapped an arm around the other and rolled them both, taking control of the situation.

Dave ducked his head and whispered into Karkat's ear, "let loose," and rocked his hips back to get disentangled from Karkat's bulge. Once freed, he slid himself carefully down, teasing against Karkat's nook before slowly slipping in. He had enjoyed the tight grip that Karkat's bulge had him in, but he needed that insane heat all around him. He ran his hand down Karkat's chest, dragging his blunt nails across the other's skin, before he slipped his fingers back over the bulge to try something that came to mind unbidden. The noise that came out of Karkat's mouth was obviously not human, his eyes screwed shut as his arms wrapped around Dave's shoulders, nails raking bright stripes into his skin. His stomach clenched, as did every muscle wrapped around Dave, his bulge writhing against the other's palm and tangling around his fingers. At first it was something like pain shooting up into his core, then it subsided as Dave moved, the subsequent grunts and noises coming from him turning animalistic.

Dave was by no means quiet himself at that point, rocking and occasionally gyrating his hips in a rhythm in time with his pulse. He bent down to press a kiss to Karkat's neck, which opened up into a gentle bite as he moved his hand against the bulge with a slow and steady rhythm. He knew, after six dry months, he wasn't going to last long. He let go of Karkat's skin between his teeth and hissed into his ear, "soon. Going to come soon." He bowed his head in concentration, keeping himself from going over that peak, setting his jaw as he slowed his pace to roll his hips in an indulgent, deep, slow pattern.

Karkat barely registered the words as his nails dug bloody crescents into Dave's shoulders, only to let up some when the pace fell back and he was rocked up with every thrust. He let out a high, breathless sound in Dave's ear then quieted some as that same little reverberating, chirping purr started back up the longer the slow roll kept up. Dave hissed another inward breath at the bite of Karkat's nails, his head dropping back with a low groan after. He sat up and eased up to his knees while continuing his slow pattern, moving his free hand over Karkat's thigh for a moment, and then up his body, mapping the new skin before his hand finally made its way up into Karkat's hair, where he pet and tugged it lightly, rubbing his thumb across a horn. It was a wonderful view, he thought, happy that he was able to pull back from his orgasm for the time being.

Dave was wondering when Karkat would start getting bored, about three seconds before he did. His eyes were dilated as far as they could be, glazed over and staring up into the ceiling as his hands fell to rest against Dave's shoulders. He let his legs fall from around Dave's waist, curling them around his thighs loosely. He was staying right at that easy crescendo, whining occasionally with his mouth half-open. Soon enough though he grew rather frustrated and squeezed down around Dave, looking him straight in the face and wordlessly digging his nails in again. Dave huffed a chuckle and then looked him in the eyes before rocking his hips back slower than he'd been, and pausing there for the moment. He leaned in, brushed his lips teasingly against Karkat's, and then dipped his head lower quickly as he bucked his hips forward swiftly, returning to their original pace. He nipped the lobe of Karkat's ear while untangling his hand from the bulge to move it over Karkat's thigh, holding his leg up against his hip to drive deep into him.

Yeah, at this pace, there just wasn't much chance for him to keep himself from toppling over that edge really goddamn quickly.

At the sudden jolt up and resumed pace, Karkat's breath drew in hard and loud, one hand flying up over his head and tangling into the sheets. He was blanking out completely and it would only be a matter of a few more hard, well-placed thrusts before he lost himself and ended up in a massive puddle of red. For a few seconds he was a gibbering mess, spewing harsh, jagged-sounding words until he finally latched onto one, repeating himself several times: "Bucket. Dave, Bucket. Bucket now. GIVE ME A FUCKING BUCKET YOU ASSHOLE."

Dave hit his peak about the time Karkat started stringing together useless syllables and was in a state of shivering and gasping for air when the first instance of 'bucket' came filtering through the haze. He bolted upright again and moved away swiftly, reaching under his bed and fumbling momentarily before grabbing the wire handle he'd been looking for, and produced a bucket that he'd had tucked away, and handed it to Karkat before slipping beside him and nipping his neck. 

There was a time in his life he was unprepared for this, and that was a very messy, expensive time, indeed. He'd been saving money up for a tattoo and wound up having to buy a new goddamn mattress instead.

Supporting himself on one wobbling arm Karkat lamented briefly the feeling of emptiness after Dave had pulled out, one hand wrapping around his bulge and pressing his fingertips into a specific place on it that made him lurch forward, the first pulses of thick, sweet-smelling fluid flooding into it and coating the sides until finally they'd tapered off. His chest heaved as his elbow came unhinged and he nearly fell forward, managing to throw his weight to the side and lean into Dave instead. He stayed there, his head down, still leaking a few traces of bright red and staining the sheets. Dave eased the bucket out of Karkat's hand, setting it beside the bed before wrapping his arms around Karkat with a contented smile. His mind drifted off as his breath and heart went back to a slower, more relaxed pace, and he reveled in the cloying cherry scent that permeated the entire room. He had been cheating himself out of this for three months, and he was a goddamn idiot for it.

He buried his face into Karkat's hair with a chuckle. "So like I was saying, I'm just a little jealous and flushed. No big deal." He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Such a douche," Karkat murmured as he nudged his head back against Dave's, smiling faintly and reaching around for one of his hands. He fished one up and tangled their fingers together loosely, dozing upright. His bulge had retreated and his thighs were sticky and, when he chanced a look down at Dave, he couldn't help but smirk as he thought about the fact that the skin all the way around Dave's crotch would be stained pink.

If Dave had cared about his thighs being stained, he would have slathered himself with copious amounts of vaseline beforehand. As it stood, he was content with the situation, wrapped around Karkat and happy. He did, however, notice that he left a pretty conspicuous love bite on the curve of Karkat's neck, and he grimaced, but he figured that the guy would probably just wear a turtleneck and he calmed down again.

After a little longer in companionable silence, Karkat leaned back and hooked his chin over Dave's shoulder, looking back at the scratches over his shoulder blades and giving an amused little hum. Then he laid his hand against Dave's chest and pushed him down to crawl over the top of him and settle down, curled up half on him quite comfortably. Dave could feel the heat and sting of the scratches and points where Karkat had dug his nails straight in when he laid down on them. He knew that he'd likely have them for days to come, which gave him a reason to smile.

"How long?" He asked in a murmur, draping an arm over Karkat, searching out his hand and lacing his fingers with the other's, his eyes slipping closed. "How long've you been trying to push the feelings down?"

Unlike most of his responses, Karkat stopped to think about this. He was quiet for a long while before starting quietly, his voice rather hoarse from his volume. "Honestly...I don't really know for sure. Since a little while after I started going out with Jill I guess." Oh fuck, Jill... Telling her that he'd have to break it off was one thing. The possibility that she would see him with Dave was more than he could bring himself to contemplate. "Jesus fuck, how am I going to do this without hurting her?"

"Carefully," Dave replied quietly. "You care about her. She's a great gal. Make it out to be all my fault if you want; I can handle spiteful exes pretty well." He squeezed Karkat's hand. "Jase already knows how I feel. Called me out on it, actually. Said he's not looking forward to the day I sack up and say something to you, because that'd be the day he'd have to go over and listen to her cry for a while and agree with her that I'm a prick." He shook his head. "Though, I don't know, dude," he opened his eyes and looked out the window at the street lights. "I don't know if you know this, but a couple weeks ago, she came up to me and said something about 'that ship sailing' in relation to her and me, when she wasn't the one I was ogling." He shrugged, eyebrows lifting briefly.

That gave Karkat a bit of pause. Up until now, he'd never heard of her being anything less than polite, sweet and generally very likeable. He frowned deeply and shifted some, bringing Dave's hand up and starting to fidget with his fingers. "So it was obvious to everyone but me, huh..."

"Nah, she thought I was looking at her, not you. She was just as out of the loop as you were. Jase just knows me better than that." He slipped his free hand away briefly to grab the water from his bedside table, taking a sip of it. "Mmph. No. She's great, dude, I don't know. Good FOR you, too. I mean, other than you drifting away from me and censoring yourself, she was keeping you from getting your shit wound up so goddamn tight you snap." He sighed and ran his hand through his hair once he set the glass back down. "I'm sorry I'm such a fucking shithead dude, but I probably would've done something fucking drastic if I held it in any longer."

"Well yeah, it's not like this counts as fucking drastic," Karkat snorted, lifting his head off of Dave's chest and looking at him with the most sarcastic-looking eyebrow he'd ever achieved. He huffed quietly and folded his arms under his chin on top of Dave's chest, legs stretched out beside him. His expression softened after a little while and he reached up, pinching Dave's nose to bring his head up some. "Don't start regretting this shit now, Strider."

Dave opened his eyes and looked at Karkat from over his hand. "I'm not regretting anything, man, I just got a hang up about being a dick to someone who doesn't deserve it. She's been nothing but fuckin' awesome." He moved one hand down to slip into Karkat's hair. "No man, I'm happy." It was the first time he'd actually used that adjective to describe himself in a completely sincere way in at least ten years. Karkat leaned into the hand on his head with a soft sigh and closed his eyes, pressing his cheek against Dave's chest and drawing his knees up until his feet were level with his backside. He tucked one hand under his jaw and once more began to fiddle with the ends of Dave's fingers, obviously thinking long and hard until finally, something occurred to him.

"Dave... Why don't you care?" After a moment, he amended what obviously sounded terrible to anyone that could possibly hear it, continuing, "about the marks..." Now that he was really considering it, he realized that Dave's hands had repeatedly run over them, completely unconcerned. He knew that they had to have been noticed, especially given the fact that this was Dave Strider.

"I'm used to seeing shit like that, dude. I learned that it's not okay to ask why, or how. Just to accept that they are, and that there was a reason and a time for them. I'm just happy none of them are new, and that you've had the strength to go without for so long." His voice was amazingly sarcasm-free. He moved his free hand down to trace his fingers across the scars. "They're just a part of you."

After taking a moment to let that sink in, Karkat dragged his fingertips up along the length of Dave's arm and along his collarbone, taking his time tracing out the lines and angles that made up his moirail-come-matesprit and deciding that this was something that he could live with, without questioning it as he did everything else. "Thanks..."

Dave didn't remove his hand from Karkat's hair in the time that he took to map him, though he did wind up getting the chills at how damned gentle and attentive Karkat was being. "This body is subject to change at any given time," he murmured in a flat tone, "I'm planning on getting some ink done eventually." Once Karkat had settled and spoken again, he shook his head. "For what?" He honestly didn't know what he'd done to be thanked. "For fucking you? Yeah, you're welcome, glad to be of service." He grimaced and grinned at the same time, chuckling at his own bad joke. It earned him a swat across the side of the head and rolled eyes.

"It must be physically impossible for you to not be a tool for any fucking length of time," Karkat muttered, then lifted his head up and crooked his arm around to rest his chin on it, looking Dave in the face. "Thought you were good with just the piercings. What do you plan on getting?"

Dave chuckled again, his toothy grin stretching wide. "Oh come on, I can only hold it back for so long before it comes boiling back up to the surface. I'm the goddamn Ol' Faithful of bullshit, you gotta have known that by now." He calmed down and looked up at the ceiling. "Nothing spectacular, honestly. I sketched up a crow design. Hang on, let me grab it for you." He stood up and looked at his hand, which had dried fluid, on it and he sighed. "I'm going to wash my hands first, then I'll get the drawing." He grabbed the bucket and walked to the bathroom, washed both his hands and thighs off after he set the bucket in the tub, and then went to go get his portfolio from his messenger bag.

He returned moments later with the portfolio, and dropped back down on the bed. "Are you ready to get your mind blown by my wicked mad artistic skills?" 

Karkat had managed to sit up and grimace at the stain and stiffened material of the blankets, then pulled them around his shoulders, looking thoroughly harassed when Dave returned. His eyebrow immediately arched up as the rest of his expression deadpanned, clearly waiting for the punchline as up to now, Dave had never shown any artistic ability outside of his photos. He scooted along the edge of the bed and leaned against Dave's side, just waiting for the reveal. "Just try and fucking dazzle me. There's a scoff just waiting to happen."

Dave grinned as he opened up his portfolio, which was mostly photography, but on one side of the folio was a flap that held some drawings he'd done. The first one was the drawing in question, which he pulled out gingerly to show to Karkat. "Behold the majesty of the thing that's going on my body at some point in the semi-near future."

Karkat took the drawing with a soft frown, handling it gingerly as he scanned over it. Highly stylized but beautifully detailed, completely the opposite of anything he would have expected Dave to put out, based on his previous lack of giving any such shit about traditional art. He handed it back after a moment then leaned up, pressing his lips to Dave's shoulder. "It'll be beautiful as long as you get an artist that can do it justice."

"I've scouted around. The best bet is a place up in the city," Dave said as he tucked the drawing away before flipping the photos over his drawings. "It's a couple hours drive and at the size I want it, it'll be somewhere around two grand, but he's going to be the centerpiece of my eventual expansive back piece." He smiled as he ran his fingers over the protective cover on the photo he had taken of Karkat in the mill, which had come out absolutely perfect.

The subject tilted his head as he spotted it, realizing what was going on and staring for a moment. Did he really look that...tired? He leaned over to get a better look at it, reaching for Dave's hand to get it out of the way. He remembered that day. Every last part of it. "You said we would get a cat..."

"Mm, I did, didn't I?" He smiled faintly as he reached for Karkat's hand, holding it. "Those kittens should be pretty big, by now." He felt a little apprehensive about calling the ASPCA up and getting Tavros on the line, but his initial thought was to adopt one of *those* kittens.

"Should be weened by now, yeah," Karkat hummed thoughtfully, his fingers tangled between Dave's as he looked down at the photo, then turned the cover over with the hopes of seeing some more of Dave's work. He'd already seen a little bit of it but hadn't exactly taken much interest after his time had been taken up by everything else. Since it was Dave's school portfolio, the subject matter varied extensively. There were primarily black and white photos. The one directly after the one taken in the mill was a photograph of a very old, very worn-down looking old man at the cafe, sitting on the patio, looking out into the street with sad, deep eyes. The lines in his face were made to look far deeper due to the angle of the sunlight hitting him just right, and the way the sun had caught the man's eyes made them seem so profound. He framed the picture in such a way that it gave a sense of mental distance. The man's gaze was locked on something out of frame, and everything around him was slightly spread away from the subject.

Dave slipped the portfolio off his lap and onto Karkat's, letting him peruse the photos at his leisure as he leaned over to get his pack of smokes and lighter from his pants pocket. Karkat scooted back some on the bed and started to flip through the rest of the photos, recognizing some of the locations and even the occasional person, rather taken aback by just how good a lot of the work was. He could really see why Dave had chosen to stay with this as his major; not only was he good at it, he really seemed to love his work and it showed in the images. Now he was really curious to hear just what Dave had planned for his final even though that wouldn't really need to get underway for another couple of months.

Dave lit a cigarette and pulled his ashtray out of a side table that he'd tucked away in a corner near his closet. "I'll give the ASPCA a call tomorrow," he said after a long drag of his cigarette, leaning over to open the window a crack and blow the smoke out of it. He looked down at the street and watched people as they walked past. It wasn't even midnight yet, and the crowd was in full swing.

After reaching the end of the portfolio, Karkat flipped back to the first photo, the shot that Dave had taken of him with his face up just outside that dusty shaft of sunlight. He wasn't sure why, but just seeing that shot and knowing it was part of something important, at least to Dave, made something in his chest tighten. He'd felt like this for that long... That had only been the third day since they'd met each other again. Laying the album aside, he stood and went around the foot of the bed, picking up and pulling on his jeans as he walked out.

The pan was still sitting forgotten on the counter and Karkat couldn't help but blush lightly as he returned it to the stove to heat back up. The food was still perfectly edible, and he was extremely hungry after the fight and subsequent barrage of feelings, and then one of the strongest orgasms he'd ever had (not that he'd tell Dave that, his ego was already the size of the fucking moon).

Dave hadn't been entirely honest about how he felt to himself, much less anyone else, until he'd already made a decision. It was a shit decision, but in the long run, he figured it balanced itself out. He slipped the window open a bit more once Karkat left, having only had it open a crack because he didn't want Karkat to get cold. He leaned out of the window slightly, folding his arms under his head as he looked out at the street. The brisk late-autumn breeze felt good on him after working up such a sweat. He was off in his own little world.

It was another fifteen minutes before he stepped out, wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants in lieu of anything denim, and walked into the living room to go see what he could do to make the error on his computer stop being so...fucking...error-y.

A plate of vegetable stir fry was placed in his lap over his keyboard to distract him from it, a bottle of beer set on the end table without comment. Karkat fetched his own dinner after that, grabbing his husktop and opening it to his next due assignment, which he had all of another three days to complete, tapping on it with his fork hanging out of his mouth. Dave looked down at the food like he'd just seen the face of God. He grabbed his fork and started to dig in, deciding instead of trying to figure out what caused the error, to just work from his last save. He looked up over his screen to Karkat and smiled faintly, before going back to work and completely losing track of time. 

The next time he looked at the clock, it was two thirty in the morning. "My god, what the shit just happened. I stop paying attention for five goddamn seconds and it's two hours goddamn later. I blame Gary Busey." He heard his phone buzz and he scowled at it like the phone itself was the single most rude thing in existence. "Who the shit is that." He checked who was texting him, and made a terrible, loud sound, chucking the damn phone across the room into the chair. "Geeughhh!"

Karkat gave him a look like *he* was the single most rude thing in existence then went to fetch the phone, flicking his thumb across it, then freezing and dropping it on the spot as if he'd just picked up a gigantic spider, which honestly wasn't far from the truth. "What the absolute tap-dancing FUCK..."

"I KNOW RIGHT??" He stared at the phone like it had come alive and grown big, nasty teeth, leaning back into the corner of the couch with a wrinkled nose. He pointed at it and shook his head, "OH HELLS NO," He exclaimed, before slipping away from his spot on the sofa, picking up the phone again, before pulling down his pants and taking a photo of his nuts, sending them off. "Fuck you, Serket." He shook his head. "That shit isn't fucking cool."

Karkat stared at him for a few long seconds, his mouth falling open. "Strider. Strider what the fuck. Do you realize that you're still bright fucking red down there and you just gave her a shitton of ammunition with which to fuck with both you AND ME? What the fuck, man. What. The fuck."

"So? You saw the message, she already fucking knows." He didn't know HOW she knew, but she did, and it almost pissed him off as much as he had been earlier. He got a message right back that casually berated both of them and then asked if he had some time free to say hi. He scowled at the text and looked over at Karkat. "I hate this bitch more than I hate most bitches I've known. And that is a pretty big feat with so little personal effort."

"The gift of being a Serket," Karkat muttered, then snatched the phone away from him and sent back a caps-locked, thoroughly nasty, insulting reply then turned the phone off and shoved it into his back pocket to keep Dave from having more reason to get thoroughly pissed again. He went so far as to put down his computer and plunk himself down against Dave's side, leaning up and nuzzling against his neck. "She's not worth it."

"No, no she ain't," grumbled Dave, who wrapped his arm around Karkat. He heard his Pesterchum ping and he used his foot to close the laptop and make it go into sleep mode. "Urgh, how did she even get my screen name and number?" He tried to go through the possibilities and could only come up with one. "Sollux. Gotta be." He shook his head and pulled Karkat closer still.

"Sollux likes sitting back and watching this kind of shit unfold. Just...don't think about it," Karkat muttered, lacing his fingers between Dave's and bringing his hand up to kiss the knuckles thoughtfully. Then he smiled faintly and quirked an eyebrow. "You realize how fucking goofy you sound when you get mad?"

"Yeah," Dave grumbled, "I know. Blame my living in Houston for most of my life, dude, I'm fuckin'... I can't help it, it's just a thing that happens. Stupid rednecks, talking all like a fuckin' hillbilly 'n' shit, gonna find them and throw 'em down a canyon."

"You just sound dippy as shit and it's kind of fucking hilarious, even if you're raging," Karkat shrugged and turned to lean his back against Dave's side with a quiet yawn. "Fucking boring holiday weekend..."

"Mm," Dave agreed to the first, "When I get quiet's when you should get your shit out the door." He put his arm around Karkat once he tipped into him, and nodded once. "It hasn't been all bad, but with the exception of about four hours, I'll agree to that shit." He ran his fingertips over Karkat's side gently as he ran through what had happened earlier. He still felt a little shitty about blowing up like that, but he had no desire to apologize for what he'd done, especially considering the outcome. Without his shades, it was infinitely easier to see what was on Dave's mind and Karkat sighed when he glanced up to see the obvious melancholy. He reached up wordlessly and ran his hand over Dave's cheek, then let it fall away as he leaned his head back on the other's shoulder. Dave looked down once Karkat's hand cupped his cheek, and he smiled faintly. "The good news in all of this is that there is absolutely no way I could possibly be feeling anything else behind this shit. Took me this damn long to come to terms and it's been stable like this for a while." He turned just enough so that he could easily wrap both arms around Karkat. "I mean shit, okay. I fuckin' know you're my friend, that shit's natural, easy as hell for me. But then there's this sexual shit that's been there since basically day five." He shrugged. "Okay you know what? I don't fuckin' get how trolls can compartmentalize their emotions into one quadrant per person."

"Sometimes we can't really handle our shit either," Karkat snorted and laid his hand over one of the arms on him. "That's why we tend to get vacillation between quadrants. Like you hate whoever you're with like a proper kismesis and then suddenly all you want to do is get close and take care of them and shit and it's like you never wanted to dropkick them into the sun. It's a little more common than people let on."

Dave nodded as he took that information in. "Yeah, but that shift in feelings is on the whole way slower and more obvious than ours. Like. Okay. I could easily go through all of those quadrants in a day for you no sweat. You got this narrow view of human romance like we only see things as simply love-hate. Dude, no. We just play all four parts in the same dichotomy. Well, I do. Dunno about others, gotta be honest, there. I don't know many humans who appreciate a good hate-fuck." He shook his head. "You know, I don't think I've ever talked more about this shit than with you. Fuckin' camp counselor Vantas."

"My lot in life has apparently become being the repository of quadrant-related shit for humans." Rolling his eyes a bit, Karkat glanced down at the computer still on the floor, his stomach sinking slightly as he came to a disturbing revelation. "Vriska's psychic, Dave. She's always been a fucking manipulative bitch and on top of all of that, she's a fucking psychic. That's how she knew."

Dave's eyes snapped back open at that, after he'd just been lulled back into some comfort. "Aw fuck, I completely forgot about that. Now I'm going to think some really loud gross thoughts to get her to back the fuck off." His smile went tilted; he didn't really TRY gross-out tactics, because once he was reminded that she was psychic, he also immediately remembered that Vriska was also telekinetic, and was able, at any time, to make him hit himself for that. "You had some really fucking fantastic friends there, dude. Like. Best goddamn group of miscreants and fuckholes ever."

"I'm just a social fucking butterfly like that," Karkat snorted then tipped his head back to look up at the ceiling. So they had ideas of where the majority of their group was. Aradia was a complete fucking mystery at the best of times so there was no telling what she would be doing these days. Maybe off in some remote location digging for the best route to China. Everyone else...he simply didn't know. And now on top of everything, apparently they were in the telepathic range of one of the most dangerous assholes he'd ever met. "I wonder if moving to Thailand is an option..."

"Not this week, sorry." Dave laid his head back down on the arm of the sofa and closed his eyes. "You're the one who said it, dude, she's not worth the mental strain." He pressed a kiss to the corner of Karkat's jaw. "And we don't have to deal with her tonight. She'll get bored of us and come back to us when she's done terrorizing small children or whatever it is she does for fun these days." And with that, he stopped giving a shit about it. "Let's put in a movie and crash out here. I'm drained. Seems as if some little asshole wore me out."

"You had enough energy to spike your phone," Karkat pointed out, but smiled faintly as he stood up, stretching with a soft groan. He scratched a bit around the grubscars down his right side as he went, searching through his movies for something light, not overly sugary to keep Dave from complaining. He smiled faintly as he picked one out in a three disc set, holding it up with a small smile. More Will Smith movies. He slipped the first of the trilogy out of the case and started the player, bringing the remote back to the couch and rearranging Dave so that he could sit between his legs and recline back against his chest comfortably.

"You're lucky as hell that I don't hate Will Smith, dude, or we'd have serious problems." Dave grinned as he moved for Karkat to get comfortable, draping his arms over the other's shoulders and against his chest as he leaned back to get comfortable, himself. He'd seen MIB a million goddamn times, though not through any actual effort on his part. He just happened to keep it on whenever it was on TV, or if he was at a friend's place, and they had it on. He liked the movie well enough, and Rip Torn being in it had its definite perks. "I'd totally be an agent," he said with a smirk as the dragonfly flew across the screen, "already know a shitload of aliens, got killer shades, got no problem destroying interstellar evil, speak crocodile." He shrugged. "Okay, so my qualifications are kind of slim."

"Nak." Karkat chuckled as he stretched his legs out over the couch, his ankles crossed. He was relatively quiet throughout the movie, smiling and obviously enjoying himself even if he had seen this movie even more than Dave had.

Dave got bored about ten minutes in. He was watching, sure, but the gears in his mind were spinning pretty fast for someone who looked like absolutely nothing ever went on his his head. His lips pulled into a lopsided, tiny smile coincidentally at the same time as an amusing line on the movie, but it was not due to anything Tommy Lee Jones had said. 

Dave waited another couple minutes before setting his plan into motion. His fingers moved idly up Karkat's chest, and then back down, slowly, gently. He repeated the pattern a few times, easing his fingertips over the other's chest, and then lower, down to where his navel would have been if he were live-born. He then arched his fingers to lightly drag his nails up Karkat's body, still passing off as idle play. At first, the touches barely registered as anything more than mindless fidgeting, making Karkat squirm a little bit when Dave's fingers passed over his stomach. He leaned his head against the side of Dave's chin and laid a hand over his arm, thumb stroking over the skin lightly. Over time though, the color started to creep up in his face again, though he was trying not to let it look too obvious.

Dave glanced down to see the red creeping into Karkat's cheeks, and slid his fingers closer and closer to the belt line of his pants. He bent his head down to leave a warm, lingering kiss to Karkat's neck, brushing his lips against the love bite he'd left there earlier as his fingers traced a line across the other's hips. He didn't do much more than that for a while, simply leaving light kisses against Karkat's neck and shoulders, before he started in with the quiet whispers of all the things he'd been thinking of doing over the course of the past three months. They started out on the tame side, praising Karkat's body and the way he moved, getting progressively dirtier and further into what absolutely turned him on in irrevocable ways. He nibbled the lobe of Karkat's ear and murmured, "I would get between those legs and praise that nook of yours like you wouldn't believe. I'd get in there and lick every fuckin' inch, wrestle your bulge into submission with my tongue."

As he kept talking he had to keep a mental check to keep himself from getting too worked up. It wasn't exactly working.

Karkat had to fight tooth and nail to keep himself from moving and either attacking Dave right there on the couch or else retreating to the bathroom. He knew what Dave was doing and it was a damn dirty maneuver, and he was vaguely ashamed to admit that he wanted to hear more. He closed his eyes as he leaned back into Dave's chest with one hand wrapped loosely around his wrist.

"You're a lot of fucking talk, Strider," he murmured, trying hard to keep what little cool he had left. With a cocky smile, Dave wiggled out from under Karkat to move over him instead, slipping between his legs. He undid Karkat's pants button and then bent down over him, running his fingers firmly over the front and inseam of the other's pants.

"Am I? Really. You think I wouldn't fuckin' make good on any of that?" He was damn glad that he was wearing baggy sweatpants just then, because had he been wearing anything nearly as restrictive as Karkat had on, he'd be in severe goddamn pain just then.

Karkat's lips pressed together to hold in the little sounds he wanted so badly to make, looking down at Dave with slightly narrowed eyes. He was still somewhat sensitive from the first time around, and the only real upside he could see to Dave getting back to it now was that if he did manage to come a second time it wouldn't be nearly as much. He reached down, tangling his fingers into Dave's hair. "Oh I know you're good for it. I just don't know if it's going to end up being spectacular enough to hold either of our attention before we finally pass the fuck out."

"That sounds suspiciously like a challenge," Dave said with a quirk of his eyebrow, unzipping Karkat's pants. "Like I'm ever boring. This mouth doesn't *stop* bringing the quality freshness." He moved Karkat's pants down off his hips, and pulled them down as far as mid-thigh before he just eased them off one leg, so he could lean down and leave a trail of open-mouthed kisses and licks down Karkat's body, squeezing the other's thigh with a firm grip.

"Your mouth is going to be completely the opposite of fresh, dipshit," Karkat murmured, though it lacked a lot of the hot air that usually went to such comments, his bare leg lifting then hooking over Dave's shoulder, eyes turned toward the end credits of the movie as they started to roll. This was another one of those images that had driven Karkat to retire early to his room every so often over the last months, and now that it was happening it felt rather surreal.

Dave trailed down and gave a final glance upward before his mouth descended finally to Karkat's nook. His tongue slipped out, every movement calculated, rhythmic, and firm, first working the sensitive, delicate membranes then up and deep inside. His nose pushed against the sheath of Karkat's bulge, though he used that to his advantage. He didn't mind the fluid getting on his face - in fact, if he was completely honest, he found a perverse kind of pleasure in it, knowing that tomorrow morning, he was going to have to scrub his face to get the stain off.

Dave didn't relent in his movements, slipping his free hand up to coax Karkat's bulge out and to life, letting it curl and lace around his fingers as he moved them to maximize the friction and sensation. Karkat's head tipped back against the arm of the couch, eyes half-closed as his hips moved up some and pushed against Dave's mouth in return. He'd never before had anyone get this intimately acquainted with his nook and he found himself regretting that the longer it went on. Already he was getting worked up enough to start dripping over Dave's tongue and down his chin, his bulge tangling around those long fingers and coating them in sweet fluid again. The hand that had dipped into his hair moved to the back of it, cupping his head and scratching at the nape of his neck. Dave thought okay, this was good, this was going really damn well, but by fuck, he wasn't being five-star amazing, so he redoubled his efforts, the hand on Karkat's thigh encouraging him to move as he buried his face deeper, groaning at the sweet cherry taste that filled his mouth. He was getting goosebumps at the way Karkat scratched his neck. He knew he didn't have much longer to do what he'd put into motion - he wanted to get Karkat off before the credits were finished rolling.

Karkat's chest heaved some as his breath picked up, quieter than the first time, though not by much. He clamped his free hand over his mouth, breathing heavily through his nose. He was already extremely sensitive, and Dave was predictably talented with his mouth. There was absolutely no way Dave would let the credits roll out and have the menu screen pop back on before he got Karkat off, that was just not a possible thing that could happen, he decided. He groaned through his nose before moving his mouth upward to take the place of his fingers, and moved his fingers, effectively switching up technique, getting Karkat's bulge to wrap around his tongue so he could bring what he could fit into his mouth, letting out another entirely pleased and wanton groan from his throat and through his nose. His fingers were just as attentive as his mouth, moving over each sensitive inch that he could reach without bringing undue pain to his matesprit.

Karkat swore vividly and tightened his legs some around Dave's shoulder, pushing up into him harder then letting his hand fall away, warning him that either he'd have to swallow or deal with another mess then humping up into his mouth while Will Smith rapped about being an agent. He let out another needy little moan then bit down hard on his lower lip as he came once more. Dave was expecting, maybe even encouraging it, as he gave a subtle nod and let his jaw go slack to prepare for the rush of fluid that was seriously far too pleasant-tasting to be bodily fluids, he thought. Once Karkat had finished, though, he slipped back and swallowed the last of what had gotten into his mouth, wiping off his face with the back of his arm as he sat back and smiled, his eyes half-lidded and clearly hazy with arousal. Karkat's hands were over his face as he shuddered through the aftershocks, whimpering quietly as his bulge withdrew again. His leg fell slack and came down from Dave's shoulder to stretch out along the couch while the other hung off the side of it. He seemed to be having difficulty forming a coherent thought, thoroughly spent and dozing somewhat on the spot. He reached up to grab Dave by the back of the neck, pulling him forward and wrapping his arms loosely around his neck.

"Why do I get the impression you enjoyed that more than I did..."

Dave laid back down beside Karkat and shrugged faintly, still worked up over what he'd done as he caught his breath. "Might have, I dunno," he murmured, bringing one of Karkat's hands down to hold it in his own. "I'm not saying I enjoyed it more or anything, but I sure as shit won't say that I wouldn't be perfectly happy doing that for an hour or two." He guided Karkat's hand down to the elastic of his own pants, and took a deep breath, sighing it out before kissing Karkat's neck.

"And then you get lockjaw and you're fucked." Snorting quietly, Karkat turned in place and hooked his bare leg between Dave's as his hand slipped under the waistband of his pants and traced his fingers up along the shaft of his cock to flick off the head. For the time being he was content to use just his fingertips to find the most tender spots, watching Dave's reactions closely.

"Have you met me? I'm constantly jawing. Get plenty of damn practice, it probably wouldn't wear me out." he muttered, arching up to give Karkat better access as he parted his legs just enough to give the other room to explore. He was caught off-guard every so often with Karkat's attentive exploration, gasping sharply as his hips rolled of their own accord. But after a while, Dave couldn't handle the teasing and gentleness of Karkat's touches. He moved his hand down Karkat's arm and followed it down to into his pants, where he wrapped his fingers around Karkat's, and then around his erection with a groan of relief, rocking into the grip.

Karkat wrinkled his nose and slapped Dave's wrist sharply with the other hand. He could handle this shit by himself, obviously. The slap earned Karkat a huffed chuckle of amusement, but Dave relented, slipping his hand away to brush his thumb across the other's jaw. Karkat switched his grip slightly and pressed his thumb into one of those spots he'd managed to find while his fingers squeezed down around the stiffening shaft. It was dry and made his fingers running over the skin a little more difficult as he tried to keep from pulling it, eventually resorting to taking his hand back and running his fingers through the still moistened entrance of his nook. When he went back to stroking Dave it was much easier, and he squeezed down more tightly in the hopes of making him buck.

Dave wasn't put off by Karkat's inexpert ministrations, though once the other slicked his hand over, Dave was more comfortable, letting a low, quiet groan escape as he buried his head against the crux of Karkat's neck. He rocked his hips into each stroke, first in a way that was barely noticeable, but he picked up steam as his pulse started to race and his breath sharply caught in his throat.

Karkat tilted his head up some to let Dave's face settle comfortably against his neck, bowing his head to press his lips to the curve of Dave's shoulder then lick over it lightly. He gave a quiet hum and bit in gently until he could taste coppery blood seeping from the pinpricks. He tightened his hand down every so often, milking Dave for all he was worth.

Gasping with the bite, Dave's hands, which had idly rested against the cushions of the couch and Karkat's side, curled up and tightened down. He dug his nails into Karkat's side as he let out an altogether lustful groan of Karkat's name, his hips pitching forward. He shuddered a breath before retaliating in kind, biting Karkat firmly at the side of the neck, though it was brief and he replaced it with a firm sucking, brushing his tongue playfully against the skin there. 

He wasn't going to be much longer, so he relented and let up on Karkat's neck to hiss into his ear, "Faster. Get me to come." The weight of his words almost seemed like a challenge. That hickey would raise some questions that he didn't think he really felt like answering, but for the moment, Karkat was preoccupied enough with Dave's hands that he would have to think about that later. He rolled his eyes at the challenge and twisted his wrist some, starting to vary his grip and dragging the blunt nail of his thumb over the slit at the head of Dave's cock, smearing precum over the soft skin then teasing over the bunched skin at the frenum.

Dave groaned loud against Karkat's neck again and grit his teeth, feeling his peak swiftly approaching. He gripped Karkat's side again as he came, his breath caught in the back of his throat as his jaw quivered. Once the rush of orgasm subsided, he practically melted at Karkat's side, moving his legs so they tangled with the other's. "Jesus fucking christ," he slurred, chuckling sleepily, "shit hit me like lightning."

"I'm just going to assume that means 'thank you for the quality handjob, Karkat' and say you're welcome," Karkat mumbled then pressed his lips to Dave's temple, pulling his hand back and looking down at the film of thin white fluid coating the webbing between his thumb and forefinger. He brought it up and touched it with the tip of his tongue, then made a face and let it hang over the edge of the couch instead. "So, shower now or in the morning?"

He half-chuckled again and shook his head. "Yeah, humans are nasty tasting, I'm not even kidding." He sat up a little to let Karkat up. "You go ahead," Dave yawned, before stretching. "I'm going to take a longer time than usual tomorrow, so you'd better get as much hot water as possible right now." He scratched through hair and stood, albeit on weak legs.

"I think I understand why human males are so obsessed with getting their dicks sucked," Karkat said thoughtfully as he pulled his jeans back on straight, "they have to actually fucking try to get someone's mouth near this shit." He held his hand out away from himself as he stood up on tiptoe right in front of Dave, preventing him from moving for a moment and giving him a sleepy look then hopping up to peck his lips before heading to the bathroom to shower off. He wanted to bring Dave with him and scrub the hell out of him so that he wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning, but it looked like he was about to fall asleep standing up as he was. He kept his shower relatively short, then dried off and stepped out into the hall with his jeans in hand, a towel around his waist, looking back and forth between his room and Dave's.

Dave took the time to at least change out the dirty sheets for clean ones from his closet, before flopping down into the mattress, sprawled out under the covers. He took a moment to take out his barbell and set it on his side table before fumbling uselessly for his light's switch, finally hitting it with a grumble of "fucker, get back here." That done, it wasn't even two minutes before he was out cold.

That night, Karkat opted to sleep in his cocoon, turning over what he was going to say to Jill when he saw her the next day. He'd have to take care to keep Dave out of the conversation, and try and keep her from assuming that it was because she wasn't "putting out"; he'd assured her more than once that it was completely ok with him that she wanted to wait. Thinking about it was making his stomach turn nervously and he tried to ignore it in favor of at least a few hours of sleep.

He didn't wake up until around noon (going to bed at half past 4 am obviously wasn't the best idea he'd ever had) and as soon as he did, he decided that he really just wanted to stay in bed, his body aching in places he wasn't familiar with, dreading making the call to do the breakup in person. Of course, it eventually turned out a moot point as, around one in the afternoon, Jill came knocking at the apartment door with her purse under her arm.

Dave, it should be said, had what equated to an atomic clock for circadian rhythm, and was up at 8:30 like usual, coffee brewed and work started. He had more energy than usual, as his dreams had been almost absurdly pleasant for a change. Once he finished his work for his TV Film class, he looked around the living room and realized what a goddamn wreck it had gotten to be, and started cleaning up.

He didn't stop there, going so far as to clean up the hallway, his room, and what little mess there was in the bathroom, before hauling all the trash down and coming back up to see Jill standing there at the door, bouncing slightly in the chilly hall. He kept his calm though and let her in. "Karkat's still asleep I think, he was up all night like a goddamn crazy person. I'll see if he's not awake in that cave of his," he joked, offering her some coffee. He knocked on the door lightly and opened it to peek in. "Yo nubby, your girlfriend's here." He was good at putting on a show, even when he knew this was a pretty tough time for Karkat. "I'll be on campus if you need me. I got to go grab a software disc and some proofs I left there." He then looked over his shoulder to make sure Jill wasn't RIGHT THE HELL THERE, which she wasn't, before adding in a hushed tone, "good luck, man, if you need me, just call."

He took off after pulling on a jacket and taking his camera and messenger bag with him, quietly crossing his fingers as he left the apartment. This was NOT going to be a fun time for Karkat, and it sort of broke his heart to leave him on his own like this... but he really didn't need to get involved and say something extremely stupid that got both Karkat and Jill pissed at him.

When he heard the door close behind Dave it was all Karkat could do not to just try and crawl out of his eternally-curtained window in nothing but his skin in order to avoid this conversation. He was silently cussing a storm at his roommate for leaving him there alone even as he pulled himself upright in his recuperacoon to come face-to-face with Jill as she crept in, apparently hoping to surprise him. He gave her a look like a deer caught in an 18-wheeler's headlights, hoping the slime was covering the scratches and bites and knowing that it wasn't. They were in places that couldn't be excused as having gotten into a fight, further fucking him over as he stood there in silence in front of her as he watched the smile slip off of her face.

"Jill, I-" was all he could get out before she'd promptly turned around and marched back out of the apartment with a white-knuckle grip on her belongings. He sank back into the slime and put his forehead down against his knees.

Dave had been in the back stairwell, pacing and arguing with himself to do something, anything to help out. He heard the slamming door and the stomping of small feet down the hall towards him and his eyes went wide as he just stood there. Shaking himself out of it, he walked out the door of the stairwell towards the furious Jill, who stopped him and shouted at him as he just put his hands up, having absolutely nothing to say. That was when she slapped him and he grit his teeth, watching her storm off as he felt the sting and heat of it blooming across his face. He shuffled back in and closed the door quietly behind him, locking it. He just stood in the entrance of the apartment, looking stunned, unable to say anything.

Karkat emerged from his bedroom with his sweater on, the neck stretched up as high as he could manage it, his hands tucked under his arms as he kept his eyes on the ground. Out of every scenario he'd thought about before falling asleep, this hadn't been in them and he didn't really think he knew how to deal with it at this juncture. He hadn't quite heard what Jill had screamed at Dave, but he didn't think he needed to to get the gist of what had happened and he couldn't bring himself to look Dave in the face just yet.

"Shit...I'm sorry," Dave muttered as soon as Karkat walked past him, feeling his heart drop like a ton of dead weight into his stomach. He dropped his things into their place near the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room and fell into his chair, leaning forward to put his face in his hands. He didn't say a goddamn thing after that, and after what felt like a lifetime, he sat up and went out to the balcony. Fuck. He blew it.

Karkat lurked in the kitchen for a while, starting a small lunch for himself and Dave numbly, his hands working on autopilot. He didn't know whether he should be upset or relieved that it was over that fast, but he knew that she was hurt. Badly. And that she would most likely never want to see him again, even as a study partner. He crept outside when he was done and stood beside Dave in silence, holding out a plate holding a pair of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with one hand, his own held in the other.

Dave hadn't even lit the cigarette that was in between his fingers, and he was half-sprawled across the table as he tended to do when he was deep in thought or sulking. At this point, it was a little of both. He looked up at Karkat once he came out and sat up, taking the plate and setting it aside before putting his arm around Karkat's waist from where he sat, pulling him closer to just hold him.

Karkat held his plate up out of the way, turning and facing Dave and wrapping an arm around his neck, pulling his head forward to let it rest against his chest. He dragged his fingers through his matesprit's hair, scratching gently at his scalp then simply letting his hand rest against the back of Dave's neck. He was immediately relieved and slipped away after a few moments to look up at Karkat with a browquirk that spoke for him. Shit was okay on his end, only when and if it was okay on Karkat's. He leaned back and took his sandwich, setting down his cigarette. He didn't have anything to say, still, because every time he got the notion to speak, it was something entirely dickish.

He realized, then, that once upon a time, he just would've said those things anyway. He looked over to Karkat and with a weak smile, he said, "If I have to get slapped every day for this, it's a fair fuckin' price."

Karkat didn't have anything to say to that. He bent to press his lips to Dave's forehead, offering a soft almost-smile and leaned back against the rail of the balcony to take a bite of his lunch. He put the plate down after a few bites though and rounded the table again, plunking himself down into Dave's lap and sitting there as if it were the most natural thing in the world, simply to be a nuisance, as well as to (hopefully) indicate that he was ok. Dave silently watched him and with a quiet 'oof,' he let Karkat onto his lap, wrapping his arm around his matesprit.

"Mm, I called up the place," he said, meaning the ASPCA, "and they've got over a dozen cats ready to adopt, and there's still three from the mill there, though they had to put down a couple because of respiratory problems." He cleared his throat before continuing in a mockery of a familiar voice, "They, um, were really sick, and didn't, uh, have much of a chance." He shrugged. "But the other ones were just fine."

Snorting quietly at the Tavros impression, Karkat settled his arm around Dave's shoulder and picked his sandwich up again. "So we're going and picking up one of them today, right?" It wasn't really a question.

"And some cat-related products, yeah. I did a little reading up on it this morning and pretty much they're easy to take care of. We've gotta keep the one we DO get out of your room, though. Sopor slime is poisonous to cats. And I'll have to move that plant in the bathroom out to the patio, shit's dangerous to them, too." He leaned in to kiss Karkat's neck. "But other than that, all we'll need is a litter box, collar, food dish, and to be prepared to have my shitty furniture completely ruined."

"I'm pretty sure we might have already ruined your shitty couch," Karkat pointed out, trying very hard and mostly failing not to turn red. "I already leave my door closed the vast majority of the time anyway so it's not going to get in there unless I'm there first. Also, did they fix the kittens or are we going to have to have that done as well? I'd just rather avoid the potential for screaming cats."

"They got fixed a couple weeks ago," Dave said with a cocky grin still in place as he looked inside to the sofa, which, from even out where they were, was obviously stained. "Okay, we're getting a couch cover thing too, get that incriminating evidence covered the hells up, and have something washable for the next time." He leaned back, looking at the sky. "Gonna get all that shit first, before we get the cat. That way we don't have to deal with worrying about the cat while we shop."

"The fact that you're assuming there's going to be a next time is pretty fucking amusing there, Strider." Karkat adjusted himself on Dave's knees and crossed his own rather primly. "From now on this shit stays in your room, or mine. Or somewhere with a readily-washable surface."

"Sofa. Cover." Dave enunciated clearly, as if Karkat hadn't heard him the first time. "You know, the kind with the stain resistant fibers and shit. I'm not saying it's not kinda fuckin' disgusting on a biological level having stains and shit, but at least yours can be blamed on dropping a fuckin' pie or some fucking thing." He pressed a kiss to the corner of Karkat's jaw. "You got a good point though. Try and keep shit clean..." He suddenly regretted being too wiped to share the shower with Karkat when asked.

Karkat pressed his lips together at the mention of pie, rolling his eyes some and slouching back against Dave with his arms crossed. "At least you're not just saying 'flip the cushions'."

"Um. No. That's nasty. I'm a slob but holy shit dude what do you take me for. I'm a little offended at your implications that I'd do that." He wrapped his arms more comfortably around Karkat's middle, closing his eyes as he smiled. "Well, we could sit here all day but I have this strange feeling you're more interested in getting a cat."

"I've left a lot of fucking parties because of the whole "flip the cushion" thing ok? That shit's just so gross no matter what it is you've spilled on it." Leaning back against Dave, he stretched his arms up over his head with a soft groan then crammed the last of his lunch into his mouth. Then he picked up Dave's and took a bite out of it as well before removing himself from the other's lap and heading back inside to fetch his shoes, wallet, and a huge bottle of water that had been sitting in the freezer for the last day and a half. He put this latter under his armpit to warm up, aware that he was slightly dehydrated after last night.

Dave stood and strolled behind Karkat, finishing his own sandwich in short order while tucking the loose cigarette behind his ear, while the pack and lighter went in his jacket pocket. He grabbed his keys and wallet, tucking them in his pockets as well, before slipping his shoes once more. "You want a girl cat or boy? That shit actually matters with cats, apparently. Boy cats spray, even if they're fixed." And on a baser level, Dave could connect to that- he'd piss on everything that was his if it was socially acceptable. And also on things that just pissed him off.

He walked down to his car and dropped into the driver's seat, getting buckled in and starting the engine. "One of these days, we're going to have to see about getting you a beater car. I'm glad you fucking adore Dave's Taxi, bro, but I'm not going to play your fuckin' chauffeur for much longer. This is cool 'cause it's us doing shit together, but man, I'm about to blow my fucking top about you wanting to take the fucking car everywhere."

Karkat rolled his eyes as he pulled the seatbelt into place then slouched down with his arms crossed. "I wouldn't want to fucking use the car for everything if it wasn't cold as shit outside, asshole. Now would you just fucking drive?" Just like that, it was as if Karkat had never changed, surly and grumpy and mouthy as fuck. It was just what Dave wanted to hear. He propped his chin on his hand and looked out of the car window as the city passed, wiping the fog off with his sleeve.

"You know they've got some fucking things that help with that, like this new invention they just made, it's called a coat." Dave grinned as he pulled out and made the trip to the big supercenter first. They grabbed all the things that were necessary. Cat food, a bowl, litter and the box, a collar (after arguing about the pattern,) and some cat toys. He also bought a sofa cover, even though it had been established that they'd be staying off the sofa for their later trysts. He just didn't want that damn stain welcoming every visitor they got. Once they were done there, he drove to the pet adoption center, where he parked and went in.

The place was clean and well-lit, and he could hear dogs in the back barking and birds off in a different room. They were approached by Tavros, and Dave's memories of his dream bubble encounter with him came straight to mind. Sick fucking fires. He cracked a smile, though it was lucky that it seemed to be to something the troll said. Karkat's hands shoved into his pockets to keep him from taking hold of Dave's hands as they were led back to the cages, animals rushing to the fronts of them while others shuffled to the backs. It was complete chaos and could have possibly counted as noise pollution. He knew to duck just slightly when Tavros turned to avoid getting whacked by a horn, shaking his head at the apology then blinking at the kittens when they'd finally stopped. They were getting big, looking rather fat and of course healthy, all of them crowding forward and mewling at them. Karkat bit some on his lower lip and reached a finger into the cage, cracking a small smile when they all started nosing at it. One had reached up and batted at it then tried to bite, only to fall backward as it overbalanced.

"The female there. The clumsy little shit," he decided immediately, looking pointedly at Tavros, half-hoping that some memory or realization would come to him the longer they interacted with one-another. Dave narrowly avoided getting bashed in the neck with the long horns with a graceful limbo, and waved it off quietly before watching Karkat play with the kittens. He started making smalltalk with Tavros, asking subversively pointed but still on-the-surface normal questions. He watched as Tavros started getting more and more aware of who they were. He grinned as Tavros got the selected kitten out of the cage, handing her to Karkat.

"Dude, that little girl is precious as some goddamn cavedwelling gemstones right there," he commented, stepping closer to Karkat, using his fingertip to scritch behind her ears.

"I know a florist that would be tickled as shit to meet her," Karkat replied as he let the kitten sit up cradled in the crook of his elbow, sniffing at his nose then rubbing her face on his chin, purring quietly. He glanced back at Tavros as he held the kitten taking care not to get too close when he remembered the allergy, though it seemed to have faded somewhat over the years.

Dave's smile went lopsided at that. "Damn dude, you're right, Nepeta would love the fucking hells out of her." That caught Tavros' attention, and Dave narrowly avoided the horns again. He grinned cheekily when he watched the memories come filtering back.

"Yo," he said with a wave, before returning his attention to the kitten.

Unfortunately, Karkat had been too preoccupied with the kitten to see the horn coming and ended up being thwacked in the back of the head, clutching at the spot with his free hand and hissing. "Jesus bulgefucking christ why the fuck-" He paused when he spotted the change in Tavros' expression, his own softening slightly when he spotted the bronze flush creeping up that he knew was an alert to some extreme fluster on the other's part. He offered a crooked little smile, then stumbled slightly when he was suddenly enveloped in an unexpectedly strong hug. He had to hand the kitten over to Dave to keep her from being smothered, easing out of the grip and laying his hands on Tavros' shoulders. "Don't like the sudden touching, remember?" He picked his hands back up then sighed internally as Tavros started stuttering questions, trying to answer everything, but still running into a couple of blank spots. He still didn't know where Vriska was even after her messages, and Jade was still AWOL. But now that there was at least one more of them that remembered, maybe they could make some better connections. Dave helped out with the answers that Karkat didn't have, and chuckled as he got hugged, passing the kitten back to Karkat, his own posture awkward and stiff at being hugged by someone he didn't absolutely adore. He was free and he ruffled Tavros' hair before they were led out with the kitten to start the paperwork process. Tavros asked what they'd name the cat, and since Karkat had picked her out, he piped up first: "Her name's Esmerelda." The name just came bubbling out of his mind, and he didn't even know what prompted it other than his prior comment about being a jewel.

Karkat's eyebrow arched at that, but he didn't feel like questioning it just then, too focused on the fact that he was involved in a transaction regarding a kitten with someone that until three months ago didn't even exist to his mind anymore. He made a point to exchange contact information with Tavros as well as giving him a comparatively mild warning about the possibility of Vriska harassing him, then took the kitten in hand instead of asking for a carrier. He hooked the fingers of the other hand around Dave's as they walked out without particularly caring who might see. He was genuinely content with the way his life was going, at least for the moment.

Dave's ears went fairly red at the contact of Karkat's hand in his, but he didn't protest. He wasn't usually the kind for public displays, but this barely qualified. Once back in his car, he didn't even start the engine until he was certain that Karkat had the kitten securely held. He drove home more carefully than usual, and brought all the things up, leaving kitty duty to Karkat. "Esmerelda's a mouthful," he said as he unlocked the door. "Em's good and short." He let the door swing open and let Karkat in with the kitten first, before closing the door and locking it. He started putting the things away - the litterbox went into the bathroom, which was promptly filled before the food and water dish was put on the floor of the kitchen and also filled. The cat food went into one of the lower cabinets that he didn't use, then he tossed the cat toys around the living room. The kitten herself had flopped over onto her back in Karkat's arm, sleeping with her paws curled up around her face purring contently. The sound was matched by Karkat himself as he sat down with her carefully, toeing off his shoes and crossing his legs in front of him on the couch. She could play with her shiny new jingly shit later.

Dave sat down after, careful not to disturb the kitten, and wrapped his arm around Karkat. "See, now you can't ever say I don't keep my word." He pressed his lips gently to Karkat's cheek and whispered, "Thanks." He was happy that Karkat had gotten back to himself, and that, even though shit went pear shaped with Jill (as Dave's cheek casually reminded him, girl had one hell of a swing!) that everything was still just as cozy as it had been late last night. He was content, and the mellowness showed in how he held himself. His shoulders were down, his body was loose and relaxed, and he was very sincerely smiling for more than a half-second.

"I didn't do anything," Karkat murmured, shifting Em until she was in his lap, curled into a fluffy, buzzing ball. He leaned against Dave's side and tipped his head back, yawning widely even though it was only halfway through the day.

Dave smiled and shook his head. "For not rejecting me. For taking a big risk and having the titanium fortified balls to look Jill in the eye today. Shit, for even moving in, I don't know dude, take your pick of the gold-plated amazing shit you've done over the past few months and get back to me on that." He leaned his head against Karkat's once he'd finished yawning, taking the other's hand into his. "I'm sorry I left you to deal with that shit, by the way. I didn't want to be a third wheel on that and wind up saying something so outrageously fucking dense that I'd create a black hole of moronic verbiage."

"You still managed to get caught in the crossfire," Karkat muttered, nudging his head against Dave's cheek gently then looking back up at him, frowning softly. "If that shit counts as amazing, you've apparently lost more brain cells than I'd originally projected. But you know what? I'll take it. I'll take it and fucking run with it until my legs scream for mercy. Y'know, since it's coming from you." He tangled his fingers loosely with Dave's, looking down at the kitten in his lap as she shifted, then turned over and tried to hop down onto the couch, stumbling and faceplanting in the process.

"Mm, good, finally something good about you is getting through, your self-loathing is the Hoover fucking Dam of keeping compliments from hitting your brain." He watched as their kitten tried to escape, only to be met with a face full of carpet and a confused look. She shook her head as she recovered, and then set about grooming, because she totally did that on purpose. Dave snorted quietly and then shook his head. "She rolled for dexterity and got a one. I approve of your choice in cats."

"My cat will be the best fucking cat you've ever seen, if only for the entertainment value," Karkat nodded then turned some in place as she went after one of the jingling floor toys, tackling it and rolling then rabbit-kicking the crap out of it as she wrestled with it. He faced Dave and reached up to trace the tips of his fingers along the faded handprint Jill had left, wondering what Tavros had thought of that one. Dave was certain that if Tavros laid any judgment, it was likely that he'd deserved it - which was by large true whenever he got slapped - and left it at that. He looked at Karkat with a sidelong glance before turning and catching his matesprit's lips with his own, glad that he could just because he wanted to, whenever he really felt like it.

"You can call her yours all you want, but then you get the responsibility of training her. I'm not having that cat get up into my bizznasty while I'm taking a shit, dude."

Karkat snorted at that, rolling his eyes and biting on Dave's lip briefly. "Fine. If I'm box training her, you're at least going to help with feeding her. Refill the bowl every couple of days, shit like that."

"Sounds pretty easy," Dave said with a nod, before he took his phone off the table and turned it back on to be greeted by four messages from Vriska, two from Bro, and three from various other friends. He deleted the ones from Vriska and continued on. "My buddy's coming over tonight to drop off some baking. He made too much again." That was usually the extent of Cassidy's visits, to come drop off food, shoot the shit with Dave, and then scoot. He was no culinary genius, but he could bake pies and cookies like nobody's business, and got through college without work by way of selling brownies of the special variety to those who asked for them. "Aaand Bro has told me I'm coming home for my birthday. No questions asked, e-tickets for two are in my email." He shook his head with a smile. "I don't know who he thought I'd be dragging along. Fucking psychic brother."

If there was anything Karkat knew about Bro Strider, it was that he knew everything and that questioning it wasn't something that happened. He shook his head, then groaned quietly at the prospect of Cass. He never really knew what to think of the guy or his casually offensive pastry. He laid down on the couch with his legs flung over Dave's lap, one arm resting over his eyes. "And what about Christmas?" He asked, knowing there was bound to be something even if he himself didn't celebrate it.

"Fff, dude, I haven't celebrated that since I was ten. We've got the day off but I don't know what I'm doing other than using that time to work on my projects. Probably going to a show or two." He leaned back into the couch and put his arms behind his head. "Do you want to do something?"

"Not really," Karkat shrugged. "It's a stupid holiday and pretty much pointless between the two of us. I think I'll just get a head start on reading the material for next quarter. I'll be able to drop one of my classes at least, since apparently I've managed enough credit hours with the other ones that it's no longer really necessary and it was kind of irrelevant anyway."

"Sounds like a good plan. I've got to keep that photography class, no matter how fucking brain numbing it is, just so I can use their dark room. I'd whip something up in my room if I had the space, but mm, nope. No dice." He stretched again as he watched the kitten start to inspect her new home, sniffing everything in the living room.

"I was thinking about something earlier ok, so just listen for a second. It might actually work out with your dark room problem. What if we kind of rearrange your room and fit my cocoon in there somehow and turn my room into a dark room?" Karkat suggested, propping himself up on his elbows and looking up at Dave, waiting for some argument.

Dave looked at Karkat with a browarch. "Dude, I thought you told me that the sopor isn't even affecting you anymore. Anyway, that's a shit plan. I can barely fit my bed in that place. It'd be easier if I moved my bed into your room, actually." He blinked at the fact that they were seriously discussing it. "We could put your dresser and desk and shit in my room, put my bed in your room, make a dark room in a corner there. It'd fit easier that way." Sure, it was a little sideways of an approach but it'd fit better, regardless. "I'm the fucking tetris champion of furniture, dude. We had two fucking full turntable setups in a one bedroom apartment."

"We could just get rid of some of the furniture," Karkat pointed out when he was rebuffed, then shrugged a shoulder. "Or we just leave the setup as it is and forget about it. That works too." He laid back down at that, putting his arm right back into place over his eyes.

Dave blinked at that. "Hey." He looked down at Karkat before leaning over and moving Karkat's arm away from his face. "I'm just saying that your cocoon isn't going to fit in my room, dude. I'm not saying no." He smiled weakly and looked into Karkat's eyes. "Let's do that shit up. Find a way to get it so we don't have to go far, huh?"

"We don't have to, it was a stupid idea to begin with," Karkat muttered, putting the other arm over his face instead. "We'll just leave my shit in my room and I'll just move between the two rooms as I see fit."

"Hey, fuck you, it's a great goddamn idea, you just got a shitty spacial perception," Dave huffed, prodding Karkat in his grubscars, before standing up and stretching. "I'm going to start moving shit now, you can help when you want."

Karkat spluttered some and clamped his arms against his sides at that, glaring at Dave for a moment then rolling his eyes and sitting up again. "Your room's a fucking mess, remember? How are you even going to get the cocoon into your room while it's still full? Forethought, Strider, Jesus."

"Who said anything about moving your damn slime bowl?" Dave grumbled, though he wasn't in any sort of bad mood. He looked around his room once he got there. He sized the room up and calculated the size of the furniture. He'd cleaned his room earlier that day, having had more energy than he knew what to do with, so that wasn't a problem. It was cleaner than Karkat probably had ever seen it. "Yeah, I don't know, maybe if I moved my bed to that corner," he muttered under his breath, rubbing his jaw, his other hand on his hip. "Could put the cocoon in the other corner. Hang the TV up on the wall..." He scratched his head. Yeah, that wouldn't be too terribly hard, now that he thought about it. A little cramped, sure, but definitely doable. Karkat followed him after a few seconds' lingering in the living room nudging the kitten around gently with his foot, leaning against Dave's back as he looked around the bedroom with a raised brow. He listened to him muttering to himself for a little longer then wrapped his arms around Dave's neck from behind, pulling him back and nearly unbalancing him until he could reach the back of his neck, which he pressed a light kiss to before letting him go again. "You're going to need help scooting your shit around your room."

Dave was glad that he had decent balance, or he would've been a heap on the floor from that. He smiled regardless and turned to kiss Karkat in turn. "I can do it, unless you're actually offering to help. This is nothing dude, it's when I need to move that goddamn sofa is when I have a problem." His lips pressed against Karkat's again before he rumpled his hair and walked towards the bed. He put his foot in the center of one side and just shoved it over. Under his bed, there lingered a few pieces of trash, a few magazines (only one of which was dirty, surprisingly; he thought he'd had way more under there, though he had a stash of them elsewhere) a box of extra film shit, and some dirty shirts. He ignored those for the time being and shoved the bed with his foot again. "Get that side table over there with the TV out of the way," he directed lightly, pointing to said side table. His bed was going that way. Karkat nodded and shifted it to the other side, picking up the mess from under Dave's bed when it was done. Between the two of them, this would be relatively quick.

Moving his desk in turned out to be awkward but doable, sticking it against the wall opposite Dave's bed out of the way of the door, leaving more than enough walking room from the door. There wasn't much else to move aside from the small dresser and his smaller collection of clothes, and his desktop computer as he left his husktop in the living room. He was about to go to fetch that, until there was a loud squeaking from underfoot and he had to stop himself awkwardly mid-step to keep from bringing his foot down on top of Em. He sighed and picked her up, nosing back at her when she butted her head up under his chin.

Dave couldn't help but smile warmly at that. "Holy shit I can't fucking stand it, you're too fucking adorable, it's gross," he flatly said, though there was no way that he was being serious. He pet Em with a small smile, murmuring, "who's gonna be the most badass little ball of fluff on the planet?" He turned to Karkat and smiled faintly. "Bro and I had a cat when I was little, he taught her how to high five. You could walk past her and she'd stick her paw out for a casual five, it was awesome." He slipped behind Karkat and left a kiss on his neck, looking down at the cat. "Yeah, she's totally yours. The pointy teeth give it away."

Karkat turned his head some and grinned toothily, then looked back to Em and nudged his nose against hers before setting her back down on the floor. Instead of scuttling away, she started to harass his foot, hopping back and forth and batting at it then falling over bonelessly when he scooted it forward, her forelegs spread to latch on if it came too close. "She's completely ridiculous," he chuckled quietly, leaning back some against Dave on one foot as he hovered the other one just above her until she did that peculiar little flip-float-spazz thing that all cats are apparently capable of and bolted back to the living room.

Dave laughed as she darted out of the room. "Completely ridiculous is how you roll, though." He shook his head faintly, before looking around. "It's looking good so far. We'll get this figured out soon enough." He wrapped an arm around Karkat's waist, leaning down to nip his ear gently. He'd been thinking about how things went the night before, and how he could have handled things a hell of a lot better both last night and when Jill showed up, but then his mind had gotten sidetracked and started asking the big questions: Was Karkat able to keep up with his libido? The answer to that one generally was 'no, are you fucking shitting me right now' but he had a strange feeling that it wasn't going to be the case.

"Yeah, just look at everything else in my fucking life these days. Jesus fuck do I really know how to pick my lot or what..." Leaning back his head against Dave's shoulder, he glanced up and stretched an arm over his head to thread his fingers into the other's hair and press his lips against his temple.

He smiled against Karkat's warm neck and murmured, "dinner?"

"Got any ideas?" Karkat asked in reply.

Dave's smile went toothy for a split second before he blinked. Oh. Was that a serious question? He looked down at Karkat and gave him a kiss. "Yeah, I've got ideas for days." That said, he slipped away from his matesprit and to the other room to see if there was anything else that needed to be moved. When Dave moved away Karkat had to pause and mentally settle himself, following after him and glancing around his room, which now seemed so much emptier with everything out of it except for a few books stacked up beside his recuperacoon. He glanced at this, then up at Dave, settling against his side.

"It doesn't work like it used to was what I said," he commented, continuing an earlier conversation. "I'm not always going to be able to sleep without it..."

"Shame they don't make slime in extra strength," Dave said, his tone faraway, though he wrapped around Karkat as a sort of second nature. He knew that trolls technically didn't need the slime, but if they didn't sleep in it, they had the tendency to wind up going feral, or otherwise ballistic. He had long ago chalked Gamzee's epic bloody killfest up to being so in need of sopor slime after ingesting it as well as sleeping in it, that he just snapped. He didn't want Karkat to have to suffer the same mental break. 

He wasn't really focused on that, though. At that juncture, he was having difficulty putting to words what he wanted to say. "You said your room or mine. Pretty soon there's not going to be a choice, since we're gonna have an 'ours' there."

"I'm aware," Karkat muttered, laying his hands over the arms around him. He decided that now was about the time he should actually educate Dave about the slime and his misgivings about it. Taking him by the hand, he pulled him forward then bent to reach into the recuperacoon, scooping out a handful of the sopor and holding it cupped in his hand so that it couldn't drip out. Holding it up in front of Dave, he started to explain about the nightmares, the horrorterrors' whispers, the innate bloodlust that the sopor quelled. He explained about Gamzee's status in the blood caste and why he did what he did when he ran out of slime, as well as why it was unsafe to consume. Then he smudged a little on Dave's cheek around the handprint, demonstrating the painkiller-like properties.

"I've also heard that it's pretty... _interesting_ when people decide to fuck in it."

Dave wrinkled his nose when Karkat put the slime on him, though the way it quelled the stinging helped him from getting too upset. "Yeah, there's still no way you're getting me in that stuff, inferences of sex or no." He was grateful, however, for the lesson in what the slime helped. "I mean, I can think of maybe two ways I'd wind up in there," he said, giving Karkat a sidelong glance before looking back into the cocoon. "One's if I'm ever drunk, and you actually talk me into it," and then he slipped closer again, leaning against the shell of the recuperacoon as he put his arms around Karkat. "The second one is if I suddenly get brain damage and forget about how fucking gross gel and slime and all that shit is to me."

"I think I'd rather avoid either one. I don't want you potentially throwing up in my bed. And I think I like your brain the way it is," Karkat muttered and turned in place, leaning back some to look Dave in the face and reaching to brush his bangs up away from his face. "So I heard you mention you had ideas."

Dave didn't generally enjoy getting his hair messed with, but Karkat knew better than to fuck with it too badly. He smirked faintly as he leaned down, pressing a kiss to Karkat's jaw. "Yeah, I had lots of ideas. Once we're finished getting everything in place," he said as he looked over at his bed, then back at Karkat, "we'll need a shower. And then by the time we're done in there, it should be about time for you to teach me how not to burn something for dinner."

"I still don't see how the fuck you've survived this long without being able to cook anything without setting it on fire," he snorted and planted one foot against the recuperacoon, lifting himself up so that he was a few inches taller than Dave and looking down at him with an arched brow and half-lidded eyes. He bent to press his lips to Dave's forehead, then pecked his way down to his lips and lingered there.

"Delivery food and pre-made food, entirely," Dave murmured, putting his hands on Karkat's hips as he kissed down, before eagerly leaning into his matesprit's lips with his own, his kiss just this side of rough. There wasn't much that could have worked him up quite like the look that Karkat had given him, and it showed in how he responded, catching one of Karkat's wrists in a firm grip, before he pulled him into a position that made him unlikely to pull away from the snogging. Karkat's free arm wrapped around his neck as he pressed back into it, supporting most of his weight against Dave and biting on his lower lip until he opened his mouth then slipping his tongue in to explore increasingly familiar territory. Dave was more than eager to open his mouth to let in the fine-tasting, too-warm tongue, groaning through his nose as he traced the tip of his own tongue across it, while his other hand moved from its spot on Karkat's hip to his ass, pulling him closer still, rocking his own hips firmly up against his matesprit. When he pulled back it was only to take a breath then lean up and very gently bite on the lobe of his ear, carefully avoiding the plug.

Once the kiss was broken, Dave shuddered a breath, enjoying the sharp nip to his earlobe with a groan. He slipped away carefully, making sure Karkat was firm on his feet before he led the way to the bathroom, his hand still around the other's wrist.

Karkat eased the door shut to keep the cat out of the bedroom, then likewise closed the bathroom door with his foot before promptly stripping out of his sweater, dropping it into the hamper he'd hung up on the back of the door about a week after moving in. He wasn't going to deal with clothes or wet towels on the bathroom floor for any reason, and getting the large white net bag was his solution. Without waiting for permission he slipped his hands up Dave's sides to slip his shirt off, leaning up and pressing his lips to the space between his shoulderblades.

Dave watched as Karkat slipped out of his sweater and took in the sight, looking at each mark he'd left on his matesprit the night before. Once he was being disrobed, however, Dave helped along with the process, leaning into the kiss as he undid his pants, first flicking the top button open, before simply pulling and getting each subsequent button undone in the matter of a second. As he did, he caught the reflection of the two of them in his mirror and moved to put his hand on Karkat's waist, trailing his fingers over the other's slight belly before catching the fly between his index and middle finger, working it open. "We even look good together," he mentioned, his tone low and quiet. Karkat's eyes flicked down to the hand on his fly, then up to the mirror, pausing as he realized that Dave was right. They were complete opposites in every last thing, but looking at the two of them framed in the mirror, it felt perfect. As if this was the way it had always been meant to be. He softened some and leaned back against Dave, a hand running over one of the marks on his neck then falling back to the other's arm and squeezing gently on his wrist.

"Yeah," he murmured, pulling a half-smile and looking up to Dave's eyes through the reflection. Dave looked into the mirror as well, into Karkat's eyes, before leaning down to brush his plush lips against Karkat's jaw, murmuring the other's name as he inched closer to the shower, easing out of his jeans with a subtle roll of his hips. He left a line of open-mouthed kisses from the corner of Karkat's jaw down to his shoulder, while undoing the rest of Karkat's fly and sliding his matesprit's pants down, taking his underwear with them. His own boxers were still on, but he'd left them on simply for Karkat to enjoy the simple pleasure of removing clothes.

After stepping out of his clothes and nudging them aside with his foot, he turned and pressed himself against Dave's front, his hands slipping down into the hem of his shorts and taking a moment to squeeze and appreciate the lean muscle of his ass. With a soft, sly little smile he leaned up and bit lightly on Dave's chest as he pushed the underwear down until they could fall the rest of the way down his slender legs to rest around his ankles. Dave smirked at the squeeze, though he didn't go on to say what he was thinking - yeah that's right I have one don't be hatin' - while he turned on the tap to the shower behind him and waited for it to heat up. He moved his hands around to hold Karkat close, enjoying the sensation of skin against skin, until he got bit, which prompted him to gasp and then groan, looking down at Karkat with narrowed eyes and a toothy smile.

"Just get into the shower, cockbite."

He started the shower then, making sure it wasn't too cold for his own tastes - which was anything under Karkat's approximate core temperature, coincidentally - before stepping in and getting his hair wet, slicking it back and out of his eyes.

"Don't give me a reason to make that idiotic insult a reality," Karkat threatened casually, stepping into the shower just behind Dave. He reached up and dragged his fingers through the sodden blonde hair then scratched his nails down his back, around his waist and settling his hands just below the ridges of his hips. With a murmur of pleasure when Karkat's nails hit his scalp, Dave reached to grab the curtain, pulling it closed before keeping his hand on the curtain rod, chuckling at Karkat's threat.

"I don't want your goddamn shark teeth anywhere near my junk, Vantas. That is a horror story waiting to happen." He put one hand over Karkat's wrist, trailing his own blunt nails down the other's arm. "Probably for the best, anyway. It's not as pleasant the other way 'round."

Karkat made a point to give Dave a large, toothy grin and ran his hand up along the plane of his stomach, pressing flush against his back. "It would be a hell of a thing to have to explain to the emergency room crew. But you'd be pretty hard-pressed to get my mouth anywhere near your ridiculous human dick anyway. That shit tastes like chlorinated seawater and I don't want any goddamn part of it."

"No arguments here." He ran his fingertips down Karkat's thigh from his place in front, scratching back up once, before he turned around to lean forward and kiss Karkat again. He had enjoyed being held, but he needed to shut up and kiss Karkat at that point. His mind had rushed over the possibility of proposing that Karkat top and his ears went red at the option. The only trouble behind that was the height difference. His complexion only went more red when his mind went ahead and filled in with mental images. "Jesus," he muttered against Karkat's lips, "I think my imagination's trying to kill me."

"Dare I ask?" Karkat mumbled in reply then canted his head to press a firmer kiss to his lips, his hands running up Dave's arms to rest at his shoulders. He dragged a thumb over Dave's flushed cheek with a small frown.

"Mm, maybe next time," he murmured against Karkat's lips, before his fingers trailed down Karkat's slick skin, across his sides. He rested one hand at Karkat's hip, then slipped his other one between them. "It's not feasible in here. But," he murmured as he dipped his head down to nibble his neck, "I could push you into that corner and lift you, fuck you against the wall." He had the strength for it, so long as Karkat held on. The color flared in Karkat's ears as he tilted his head back to expose more of his neck, teeth going to worry at his lower lip.

"Get the fuck out of my head," he muttered, then dragged his tongue up along the curve of Dave's ear and flicked it off the top arch. He pressed forward a bit and stood up on tiptoe to try and test the traction of the textured floor; the last thing they would need would be for Dave to slip and end up hurting both of them in the middle of it. The bottom of the shower was sufficiently grippy.

Dave slicked Karkat's hair away from his neck as he continued to kiss and lick every inch he could reach. He inched Karkat closer to the corner, one hand going up to the other's inner thigh, murmuring quietly, "glad we're on the same page." His fingers teased their way between Karkat's legs, brushing against his nook. "If it hurts, tell me," he not-quite-asked in an airy groan. "I'm not in this to get you seriously injured." He knew that he'd have to be careful not to let Karkat slip down too far, or to thrust too deep.

"Just do it and I'll let you know, Jesus..." Karkat huffed quietly against Dave's ear and lifted one of his legs, curling it around the other's hip and once more wrapping his arms around his matesprit's neck to help support himself. "You don't have to pussyfoot, if that's what you're trying to do."

Dave huffed and pushed Karkat against the wall more securely as he put his other hand back on Karkat's thigh, before hoisting him up. He was moderately surprised how relatively light Karkat was as he positioned himself carefully. "No pussyfooting, dude. I just want to make sure that I don't accidentally rupture something, s'all." Once Karkat was in position, he rocked his hips upward with a groan. Gravity helped considerably, as did the water of the shower, which slicked him over before he'd gotten anywhere near Karkat's junk. He started a rhythm that was easily far more gentle if it weren't for the position. As it stood, it was just on this side of rough, and he kept one hand on Karkat's thigh, while his other arm wrapped around and supported his matesprit by the waist, holding him close and still against the wall.

With a heavy groan Karkat gritted his teeth and wrapped his legs around Dave's hips, crossing his ankles as his nook tightened down around Dave until he'd gotten used to the penetration. With the weight and angle it was easier for Dave to go deep, hitting the end of the canal after a few harder thrusts and causing Karkat to groan out loud and tighten his arms around the other's shoulders. His head tipped back against the shower wall, eyes squeezed closed and mouth wide open as he let out a quiet diatribe of curses. Between them, his bulge had started to creep into the open, snaking over Dave's pelvis then curling downward and wrapping around the base of his cock.

Dave had always liked Karkat's colorful and creative profanity, and hearing it turned into something clearly positive made him tuck his face into the corner of Karkat's neck and huff a breath of amusement over his own arousal at it. He knew it wasn't supposed to be sexy, but damned if it didn't come off as that to him. He put his head back up to whisper dirty praise in Karkat's ear while he sped his rhythm, only stopping to groan as he felt Karkat's bulge finally slip between them and then around him. He hissed another whisper of, "fuckin' look at you, goddamn. Never thought you'd look good against a wall." The way that they were going, however, it wasn't going to last too terribly long. Between the dirty talk, the way that Karkat's nook squeezed against him, and his bulge twisted around, he knew his peak would hit him swiftly. His legs were still just fine, he had no trouble keeping Karkat up. He wasn't going to run out of steam or strength any time soon, which he supposed was a good thing, despite the problem of his imminent orgasm. Karkat turned a half-lidded, dilated stare on him as he bounced up with the rhythm, not quite able to get out a full sentence just yet, not that he really wanted to the longer it went. He was reaching his peak and staying at that steady high note, whining in the back of his throat, his fingers twisting into Dave's hair and clenching down tight to keep him looking up and into his face. He would have been the absolute last one to admit just how much he enjoyed Dave's laundry list of filthy suggestions and ideas as they were muttered into his ear, but it was undeniable in the way Karkat reacted, breath hitching and shuddering then letting loose in louder groans punctuated by sharp gasps.

The way Karkat pulled his hair and stared at him made Dave groan again, and he kept looking into Karkat's dilated eyes as he bucked harder still, sure that if Karkat could handle what he'd been doing, that this wouldn't be too terrible either. His lips finally caught against Karkat's in a rough kiss, his tongue snaking out to tease against his matesprit's as he felt himself coming to his own peak, which he reached moments later, both his hands gripping Karkat tight where they were. It didn't take long however, before he slipped away slowly, moving one hand between them to help his matesprit finish off altogether, removing Karkat's bulge from his dick to find that one spot that he'd seen the other manipulate right after shouting at him for a bucket. 

He wasn't aware of it, but his expression was tender, caring, and honestly loving.

Karkat sucked in a huge breath and clenched his eyes shut at that, his nails hooking into Dave's skin as that last bolt of pleasure sent him over the edge and a flood of bright, sweet fluid burst from him and flowed over his legs, down Dave's and followed the water down the drain. He twitched up and shuddered as it finished, his head tipped back against the wall as it spun slightly with the humidity and the rush of orgasm slowly coming down. His legs loosened around Dave's hips and slowly he was able to bring his feet down to the floor, standing unsteadily in front of him and leaning on him heavily.

When enough of his faculties had returned, Karkat laced his fingers loosely between Dave's and leaned up to nuzzle against the underside of his chin. Dave held him close, petting his hand over Karkat's damp hair and then pressed a kiss to the top of his head. He used the arm that wasn't wrapped around Karkat's waist to reach up and adjust the showerhead, to spray between them and rinse them clean of Karkat's fluids. "You need to stop being so goddamn amazing or I'm going to start getting serious amounts of stupid over you. I'm talking, failed out of kindergarten level of stupid."

Karkat took a moment to clear his head by tipping his face up into the shower spray, using it to slick his hair away from his face then wiping his hand over his eyes, looking back up at Dave with an arched eyebrow and sarcastic little smirk. "You say that as if you're not already absurd amounts of completely bulgefucking retarded in your daily bullshit," he chuckled and dragged his fingers through Dave's hair once more, shoving his shoulder a little to get him to back up, reaching around to snag one of the bottles of shampoo sitting on the edge of the shower. "Kneel, Strider."

"Wow, I am just so thrilled to hear that you think I'm full retard, nubby, I'm just fucking glad as shit." Dave took a step back and then raised his eyebrow. "Oh you have to be absolutely fucking kidding right now." Though he protested outwardly, he sat down, back straight, facing away from Karkat. "I'll have you know, you're the first person in a long time that I'm trusting with my hair other than my own self, dude. If you even remotely fuck it up, I will end you."

"You really think I care about fucking up your precious hair? Give me some credit here, you asshat." Shaking his head, Karkat squeezed the shampoo into his palm and rubbed it between his hands before starting to massage it into Dave's scalp, nails scraping over it gently as he worked it into a fragrant lather that he smoothed away after he'd manipulated Dave's head enough to be able to reach every angle, spending a little extra time behind his ears and around his neck. He smoothed the hair back away from Dave's face and bent over him to find a bottle of conditioner, knowing he'd likely throw a shitfit if the procedure wasn't completed properly. Dave scowled faintly as he sat in the tub, though once Karkat started in with the scalp massage, the sour look softened into something completely content, and he moved his head wherever Karkat needed it to be. While Karkat grabbed the conditioner, Dave pulled the showerhead down and rinsed his hair out, smiling a little.

"When we go down to Houston, I'm going to need to get a trim." He looked over his shoulder at Karkat. "Maybe you'll want one too, since you've got the freshman longhair going down."

"I wasn't aware you gave half a shit about my hair," Karkat replied conversationally as he poured some of the conditioner into his palm, waiting until the shampoo had been rinsed out before starting in again with the scratching, rubbing and smoothing, his legs against the back of Dave's shoulders.

"Someone's got to, you sure as shit don't," teased Dave, leaning back against Karkat's knees, resting his arms up on the other's thighs. "You know, this is pretty damn nice. You're going to spoil the shit out of me this way, though. You give me a scalp massage and I'll be that stray dog you fed that one time, following you around, wanting more. I am a pervasive sonofabitch, too."

"Gotta do something to repay you for letting me live here rent-free, right?" Karkat shrugged and rested his hands against the top of Dave's head, looking down at him with a completely neutral expression. "And it's not like I don't want to do it anyway."

"You keep me fed," Dave shook his head. "Keep me company, keep me from crawling entirely into my own head. Shit helps whether or not you believe it." He patted Karkat's leg. "You know, after I woke up in the hospital, I didn't talk for nearly three months? Didn't see any fucking point, for one. I was too busy trying to piece shit together, for another. I just...didn't give a shit anymore. Lost all my friends from before the game, lost all my friends from the game, lost my fuckin' desire to rap so meeting anyone new just..." He shook his head. "Bro snapped me out of it, told me to get my head out my ass, start doing something that lets me move on."

"Remind me to thank him," Karkat said quietly, crouching down behind Dave and wrapping his arms around his neck loosely, bowing his head to press his lips to the space just behind his ear then hooking his chin over Dave's shoulder. "I didn't have to wake up with anyone new poking at me, at least... I woke up at home, my lusus still alive, older and feeling like I had a hangover the likes of which Rose would have cringed over. And then I realized that I couldn't think about anything that had happened to me before that point. It was all just...gone. As if nothing had happened and I'd been asleep for three solid fucking years. Spent the next two trying to get it back. Emptied out every fucking cent I had in an account that I don't remember ever setting up for a lot of useless therapy. And then you happened."

"Therapy. What a fucking joke that shit is, like I need to have a complete douchebag stranger judging me for what I know. Give me drugs to try and make me forget," Dave grumbled. He smiled slightly, grabbing the showerhead to rinse his hair out again. "So I graduated, wound up coming here. Threw myself into my photography about six months after I woke up." He stood and put the showerhead back up, holding out a hand to help Karkat to his feet, before turning off the tap. He grabbed a towel from the rack on the wall and wrapped it around his skinny hips and tossed another one over his head. "By the time you came into the shop, I was convinced I'd just dreamed the entire thing. I'm really fucking glad I didn't, even though that was shit for a life."

After standing, Karkat took the time to give his hair a quick wash and rinse, shutting the water off then grabbing one of the remaining towels to ruffle through his hair and wrap around his waist. "What do you think might have happened if I'd ended up somewhere else? With Egbert maybe, or completely isolated from any of you."

"I don't want to think about it," Dave said after giving it a moment's thought, realizing how miserable he'd still be. "I don't know why we were put together, if there even is a reason. I mean, I don't know if anybody is in Houston, where I woke up, but the weird thing is, I had my choice of where to go to school, and this place just stood out." He wandered into his room to get on a clean pair of pants and shirt. As he dressed, he continued. "I just went on my gut feeling that this place would make a difference, it'd... fix me." He dried his hair once his shirt was on, and set to preening it into place from the gravity-defying puff it had been. Karkat followed, nodding thoughtfully as he dragged on his clothes, reaching into Dave's closet in the hopes that he had something warmer and thicker than what was in his own wardrobe. What he drew out, he nearly dropped, his lip curling at it. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to laugh or cringe.

"Uh huh, yeah, hate to interrupt you there, but what the ever-living son of a fuck is this?"

Dave turned around, almost worried that Karkat had dug deep enough to find the stash, but was glad that it was just his hideous and fucking awesome teenage mutant ninja turtle sweater. "That is the most godly, fuckawesome sweater ever created in the history of the planet, and you had better fuckin' recognize." He grinned. "It's warm as hell, and soft, too." He moved between Karkat and the closet, pushing aside a few hangers worth of clothes, grabbing another couple sweaters, equally hideous and ironic. "Here, have these, too. Bro knitted them all."

"Jesus fuck..." Karkat looked between each of the sweaters, each one even worse than the last. But by the feel of the one in his hands, they were well made and, as Dave had said, quite warm and comfortable. Steeling himself for the teasing, he pulled the Ninja Turtles one over his head, looking down at the sleeves as they fell over his hands. Well, he wasn't planning on going out that day anyway...

"Looks better on you than me," Dave said with a critical eye, before he heard a knock on the door. "Oh now who the everloving goat-blow is that?" He turned around and grabbed a set of sunglasses off of a table as he walked to go answer the door. As he answered the door, his friend Cass walked in, and like he had sixth sense, went directly to the kitten with a delighted, "Kitty!" and left the strawberry rhubarb pie, plate of cookies, and a single cellophane-wrapped brownie on the counter before picking up and snuggling the cat. 

Dave shook his head, "Yeah, dude, I promised Karkat I'd get a cat for him a couple months ago and I only just remembered last night. She's gotta have an inner-ear thing or whatever, she is clumsy like I've never seen any cat be." He turned to look at Karkat with a smirk. "Hey dude, Cass is here, go introduce your cat at him before he thinks it's okay to abscond with her."

Karkat muttered an exasperated "oh no" when he heard the invasion, rubbing a hand over his face as he emerged from the room with his hands tucked under his arms in a vain attempt to hide the ridiculous sweater unsuccessfully. He stepped forward with his hands raised in case Cassidy actually did decide that he could steal her, grimacing and looking up at him with a peevish expression. "You do anything to my cat and I'm dropping you off the balcony to see just how big of a fucking splat you make."

"More like a rattle than a splat," Cass said as he cuddled with Em. "Don't worry, she knows whose she is." He handed the cat off and grinned at the sweater. "That is a fine sweater, mate, looks like you had an 80s saturday morning vomit on you. Good stuff." He turned to Dave, who just smirked and went after a cookie. It didn't take Cass long to catch up with Dave before he was waving and walking out the door again, leaving as quick as he arrived. 

"Now see, that guy is all right, for a weirdo from England." Dave said over a bite of cookie, still leaning against the counter, having long since grabbed the remote and started channel surfing. Karkat still stood there looking somewhat harassed after Cassidy's retreat, holding Em as she kneaded the sweater, purring like a very small motor. He grabbed for one of the cookies himself, eyeballing the brownie and coming to the conclusion that when he made dinner that night he'd have to make an extra couple of servings to curb Dave's inevitable munchie attack. He chewed at the edge of the cookie he'd picked up as he watched the channels flicker by, rolling his eyes.

"Every fucking time he comes over here it's like he gets less mature. He's like a fucking third-grader as it is."

Dave paused mid-cookie bite to wave the cookie at Karkat. "You don't like him because you get overdosed on the awesomeness when we're around you, that's all." He smiled as he pushed off the counter and sat down on the sofa, still flipping channels, until he came to a show on the stories behind various horror movies. "Humor me," he muttered over the remainder of his cookie.

"If you say so," Karkat muttered, following him to the couch then settling himself at the other end, stretching his legs out along it as he propped his head against his hand on the arm next to him. He arched an eyebrow at the connection between Ed Gein and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, scratching at Em's head with the cookie hanging from his mouth. Dave was rapt with fascination for a good few minutes before he grabbed his notepad and started scribbling down ideas some more.

"So here's what I'm thinking," he said as he kept his attention split between his notepad, the documentary, and Karkat. "You know that story of the Sufferer? That'd make one hell of a short."

Karkat blinked as Dave broke his train of thought, looking around at him with a small frown. "You're going to do your final project on the Signless?"

Dave set his notepad on his lap and looked over at Karkat. "Can you think of anything more visceral and disturbing? Something that would make anyone want to curl up and die?" He had a lot of very strong mental images that he could very easily put to reality if he had the right props and set. It was all a matter of getting it out there.

"I still know the Final Sermon by heart," Karkat said thoughtfully around another mouthful of cookie, looking down at the kitten as she curled up to snooze on top of his stomach and scratching some at the back of her head. "One of the units we went over that we'd be getting into the beginning of next quarter was on the Sufferer and his teachings and the parallels to human Judeo-christian ideology."

"Doesn't surprise me," Dave said to Karkat knowing the final sermon, though it did give him a little hope in his grand scheme actually pulling through. "Yeah, there's some pretty strong parallels, listen dude. I need you to help. There's only one dude I know who could play the Sufferer, and I'm pretty sure trying to find another one would be pretty much goddamn impossible." He scratched his head. "I mean, he's your ancestor, and I don't mean disrespect of you or your culture or nothing like that dude, I just. This story fucking owns my brain sometimes." He scratched his head as he looked down at his notes, before looking back at Karkat. "I'm out of line, I fucking know, but this shit is important."

Karkat was silent, deep in thought as he stared blankly at the tv, too lost in his own world to register what was happening on the screen. He'd started to chew at his lip again, worrying it bloody as he stripped the skin away. He looked back at Dave after a few moments, speaking quietly as if hoping to find the answer himself before he even finished the question. "How do you intend to pull this off?"

Dave flipped the notebook to the first page and handed it to his matesprit. In it was written how every scene would be played out, with lighting and framing side notes, camera filters, what he'd need in terms of props and costumes, and potential places where he could film. It was clear that he'd been preoccupied with the idea since Karkat had suggested something that triggered the memory of the story months ago. 

He fidgeted with the pen and turned to watch Karkat, watching for any change in expression that could give him an idea of what he was thinking. His frown grew deeper over time the more he read, flipping the page when he got to the bottom and continuing until he'd found the end. They would need a Disciple, a Psiionic, a Dolorosa... And apparently he would be the one to play the part of the Sufferer. Fitting, really. Now there was just the matter of finding trolls to play the others.

"Do you even have a set budget for this?" He asked as he handed the notebook back, wondering if they would have to actually do this completely independently. He knew that Dave could do the directing and sound and already had the script more or less finished, but this was a pretty big undertaking.

"Dude, look at me, do you ever see me worrying about money? Bro's already said he'd foot the bill for my final projects, and told me if I don't get the highest mark in my class for this, we're gonna have words." He scratched his arm nervously. "I know a girl who already said she'd play the Disciple if we couldn't find another one. Put a wig on her and she'd do all right, I guess - her acting is... well, let's just say I've seen better acting out of a plush toy." He stood up and went to the kitchen to grab something to eat. "I'm stuck as fuck at the other two, though. I don't know anyone with a double-set of horns outside of Sollux, who isn't here, and well, fucking god, you try finding someone pretty enough to play the Dolorosa. Ain't happening." He grabbed a soda and started mentally waffling between a sandwich and the brownie that Cass had brought over. Karkat continued to chew at his lips as he considered potentially trying to get into contact with Rose himself, on the off-chance that she had any information at all on Kanaya's whereabouts. If anyone would play the Dolorosa, it would be her, for obvious reasons. It was the same with Nepeta, though he knew that she was even less likely due to her apparent lack of memory. Perhaps that was better though. He could potentially ask around his classes, talk to some who had taken interest in the Signless and his followers.

"When do you want to have everyone? I can try and find someone if you can't," he said, finishing the last bite of his cookie then putting Em on the floor, sitting up again with one hand up and scratching some at his hair. "As for the horn issue, it's possible to mold temporary prosthetics for some, as long as the troll wearing them has smaller horns themselves. We can't really have someone with horns like the Handmaid play the Disciple."

"Yeah, you can't really digitally render those out with the resources I have," Dave said as he started making a sandwich. He decided both sandwich AND a quarter of the brownie would do him well. "I'm going to start going over the scenes with the actors and helpers in January, filming in February. It'll be a six week shooting schedule, then I'll edit it, and it'll be presented at the end of the year." He looked up from his sandwich-making and raised an eyebrow. "But maybe you've met some people I haven't, I dunno. It'll be a hell of a time." He came back with two plates with two sandwiches, a piece of brownie, and his soda, and handed one plate to Karkat. 

"Regardless of how fucking awesome it looks in my head, we're going to need a fucking angel looking over us to get this shit to my standards."

"I'm willing to bet that your Bro would have the resources," Karkat pointed out, in spite of knowing that this was probably extremely unfeasible for whatever agreement that the two had come to. "But yeah, I'll just ask around. There's one girl in one of my lectures that looks like she would fit the part, and she seems fairly interested in the material. We'll just have to see whether she looks at me like I sprouted a dick from my forehead when I talk to her about it."

"You go ahead and do that, man, I'm... wow, yeah, this is great that you're going to help me with this, I'm not going to even fuckin' lie." He took a large bite of his sandwich. He _had_ considered a different thing that reminded him of the game, though a film about LOHAC was just out of the question; it'd be surreal as shit and nobody would know what to do with themselves over the sight of a million fucking crocodiles. He smirked. "Dude, if you need any help with your shit, you know I'm down for that." He popped the piece of brownie into his mouth and washed it down with the soda.

Karkat sat back with his own sandwich, munching as he listened to Dave and rolling his eyes some. It wasn't that he didn't think Dave was smart or capable enough to be able to help him, it was that so much of it was tedious, book-based, writing and lectures and things that would put him to sleep at the drop of the proverbial hat. "You want to make an impact and this is some pretty important shit you're working with. Who better to help you get your shit right than someone studying the material?" He shrugged, getting up to fetch himself a can of soda and popping it open with one hand as he sat back down.

Dave raised his eyebrows. "You got a point there. Shit man, I think this'll be in-fucking-sane if it comes out the way it is in my head." He took another drink of soda and pulled his legs up onto the couch, crossing them as he turned to face Karkat. "Like okay, if this goes down the way it's supposed to, and if your reaction to the script I've got going is anything to go by, I'm going to have exactly what I want. Something so fucking disturbing that people will leave the theater changed on a fundamental level. I want people to see this and fucking shatter like a baseball went through their fucking windowpane souls."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Karkat warned him around his mouthful of sandwich, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Focus on actually getting your shit together first. Then we can think about the rest."

"Yeah," Dave agreed, "you're right man, gotta actually set shit up first." He looked at the clock, and then down at the sleeping kitten who had nestled herself down in the blankets in the corner, and nodded to her. "She's dreaming, look at her paws." They were twitching periodically, and she was purring. Karkat smiled some as he watched, curling his hand under his chin and chuckling quietly.

"Good to know she's already this comfortable in a new home," he said then looked back to Dave, giving him a lopsided grin as well. "Shit's finally working out, huh."

Dave paused mid-sip of his soda at the realization. "For the moment. Honestly, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing ever works out this well without some heavy level bullshit in its wake for me." He finished off his sandwich and then sipped his soda again. "We'll see how the rest of the year goes. If shit doesn't hit the fan in a very huge way between now and new years, maybe I'll trust it." He set his plate aside and leaned back against the arm of the sofa. "But with us? I trust it. If there's one fucking thing in the world that I know isn't going to screw me over, it's this."

"Maybe for once we can afford a little bit of fucking optimism, have you ever thought of that?" Rolling his eyes again, Karkat put his plate on the floor and crawled across the couch, inserting himself between Dave's knees and sitting there leaning against him as if there was nothing more normal in the world.

Dave smiled as he sat up just long enough to wrap his arms around Karkat and pulled him down to lay atop him. "Maybe, but that's a tall damn order for me to fill. I'm not exactly Mr. Glass Half Full, if you haven't noticed." He put his hand through Karkat's hair, smiling faintly despite his reticence to believe that things would pan out like they wanted it to. "I'm fuckin' factory-full-of-rabbits-feet lucky though. I mean, aside from getting my shit shaken up by Jill earlier, today's been damn illuminating."

And how often do you get to fuck your best friend against the shower wall, Karkat added mentally as he leaned his head into the touch, relaxing to lie bonelessly against Dave and glancing around to try and figure out what time it was. All he really knew was that he'd woken up around noon and then spent most of the afternoon dealing with his personal problems without the aid of alien LSD. It wasn't even time for dinner yet. "When classes resume I can see about people to try for a couple of parts. There's a guy in one of my classes that could pass for the Psiionic if we got him some contacts and a smaller set of horns like his regular ones."

Dave continued to pet through Karkat's hair as his body started alerting him that he was going to be stoned in about twenty minutes, his arms and legs feeling heavier than normal. "That'd work, provided he can act. I'm not halfassing this." He suddenly had the mental image of Karkat wearing the robes of The Sufferer and then, moments later, not wearing a goddamn thing except cancer-shaped shackles. That was unnecessarily erotic.

"I'm going to need to bug the fashion classes for costumes, maybe hit up Jase to make a good pair of prop shackles and shit like that for me."

"They'd have to be able to glow red," Karkat reminded him, wondering how someone might pull that off, immediately thinking about LED lights or else some glowing material that could more likely than not be found on some fetish site with a little searching. He pressed his lips together at that and tried not to let the train of thought take him too far, half-aware of Dave starting to slow down in his high. Laying his head down on Dave's shoulder, Karkat once more turned to face the tv, but didn't really feel like paying attention to it, favoring listening to Dave's pulse or his breathing or voice when he spoke up again.

Dave, of course, had gotten sucked back into the TV. The documentary about horror movies was over and it had switched to a show about the most infamous serial killers in history. This particular episode was about the Death Hotel, which was pretty morbid, if not kind of awesome in its own twisted way. Dave idly rubbed Karkat's back as he watched, eased into a state of complete comfort by his matesprit's heat and weight. His mind bounced from thought to thought again as he watched the show, and then reminded him of something.

"You know, I honestly thought you and I would never get along when we first talked? You were just this shouty prick that I had no time for." He grinned as he continued, "now I can't help but adore that. You don't hold back. At least with me, you don't. That's... Dude, thanks." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's temple. "Then again, I'm surprised that you even fuckin' bothered with a tryhard like me. Kept my shit fucking level. Called me out on shit."

Karkat held his silence for a bit after that, his eyes falling closed as if he'd fallen asleep. He laid his hand against Dave's arm and stroked his thumb over the pale skin, running his tongue over his lips before starting, "who else, if not me?" He stopped, pulling his thoughts into a coherent order before continuing. "Throughout that whole fucking game, I was pretty fucking alone. Even when everyone was alive, they all had their own things. And that was fine. They were ok. But it just got worse the longer we went... More of us died, we pulled away from each other, and I lost...pretty much everything. Even my best fucking friend. And through it all, I was the universe's biggest shitstain to you, and Egbert, and Jade. And yet after all of that, when I was at my absolute fucking lowest, you came and you fixed it. You saved us. You saved _me_."

He paused and took a breath, frowning deeply as he spoke up again. "That was the last time I hurt myself, before you got there. It was deep as fuck and took a lot longer to heal than the others, but after that, I never did it again. Because you guys were there. And you gave a shit about me. Even if we were just bitching at each other about petty bullshit like pathetic doodles. So...that shit about keeping you level? It's nothing compared to what you did for me, or what you're still doing for me. So I guess it should be me thanking you."

Dave listened through it and momentarily wrapped his arm tight around Karkat the longer he spoke. His brow furrowed deeply as he shook his head. "Don't sweat it, dude. Nobody should have to go through the shit you did. You fuckin' owned by keeping yourself together as well as you did, given the situation." He shook his head and muttered, "better than I fuckin' did, that's for damn sure." He'd lost a lot of himself in the game. With Bro's death, he was fucking lost in his grief, even though he hadn't let it show to the others. He even said once, that he didn't love his brother. That was a load of horseshit. And to not give that Dirk guy a chance just because it would've opened the wound of loss was shitty. And seeing Rose descend from her pedestal and go lower and lower killed his hope; if she couldn't keep her shit together, what chance did any of them have? Dave was just glad John stayed pretty much himself the entire time. Even if he and Vriska did... whatever it was they did together. He sighed. "You pulled me out from the quicksand. I was sinking then. Fucking...I had every damn ability and chance to just drop myself into a doomed timeline and stay there. Thought about it a lot. Then you gave half a damn and reminded me that holy shit, there might JUST be a fucking happy end to it."

"Maybe this is our happy ending, then. This was what we were meant to do with ourselves. Live a real life in a stable world where there are dumbshits that still need to be told that their heads are rammed so far up their asses they're breathing through their navels. And you know what?" Sitting up, Karkat pushed himself onto his knees and looked down at Dave sprawled out in front of him, his hands resting against the other's knees. "I really can't say I would want to have it any other way. Well, except maybe to have some of the others around to shoot the shit with."

Dave grinned at that, and bonked Karkat's hip with his knee. "There you go being a fucking ray of sunshine, you little shit. And hey, you gave Tavros your number, maybe he'll actually get around to calling the damn thing. And...well, as much as I want to strangle her and tell her she's literally the worst kind of person on the planet, Vriska's...around." He scratched his arm. "I don't know, dude, having them here just... It's enough for me to know they're _real_. Having them around..." He shook his head, his expression dropping sadly. "Man, that's a fucking laugh, who'd want to do that sort of shit if their lives are so good? Talk to people who were in the worst part of their lives, or a part of their lives they don't even fucking remember?" He wanted it so badly to happen, however. It would make things feel _right_ again. It'd make him feel a sense of closure and completeness. But it was near fucking impossible to hope for.

"My point is that maybe having the others to talk to about this kind of shit would make it easier to live with. Let them know they're not the only ones if they do remember. You saw how fucking excited Tavros got when he hit home. Maybe the more of us wake up, the easier it'll be for all of us to deal with. Look at us, for instance. You and me," Karkat gestured between them, sitting back and stretching his legs out on either side of Dave's waist. "You wanted to know you weren't insane. And I wanted to know what was missing. And now, we both have that. Do we like all of it? Fuck no. But this was three fucking years of our lives. We learned a hell of a lot that otherwise, it would have all just been myths. And because of this, I'm here. In this stupid apartment that takes too many stairs to get to, with an inner-ear-challenged cat, a fucking twig for a matesprit and a college major that will get me every inch of fucking nowhere in life. I wouldn't give any of it up for any fucking thing that could possibly be handed to me. I've been a god. It's not really worth it."

When Dave listened to Karkat, his frown gradually receded back into a smile with every passing moment. Hearing 'matesprit' come from Karkat's lips made his heart leap and his ears burn. He wasn't sure why, but just hearing it confirmed something in his mind that this wasn't just a fucking thing that would die in a few months, leaving him back at the beginning again. "Shit's not perfect, shit never should be," he agreed. "Man, where's the fun in perfection? Where's the realness of it? No goddamnwhere. Shit, dude, I couldn't be happier than I am. Everything right now exceeds every fucking expectation I had, even if the ideals I'd set up were the complete goddamn opposite." He nudged Karkat's foot and shook his head. "Even right after we met again, when you first moved in, the plan I set for myself absolutely pales in comparison to what came about. I used to set my sights fucking low so I couldn't be disappointed, but at the beginning of the year, I said fuck that. If I'm getting anywhere in my fucking life, I need to set some lofty-ass goals and stick to 'em. Those goals I set? Are complete shit to what I've got going right now. Between you being... you, as aggravating and amazing as you are, school, having my fuckin' art mojo back? I'm doing better now than what I thought was a lofty goal." He noticed he was rambling and chuckled. "Whoops, I'm baked."

Shaking his head, Karkat leaned over him and planted his hands on either side of Dave's head, lowering himself to peck at Dave's lips a few times then standing and taking his hands, hauling him up off the couch with a grunt. "Come on, you ridiculous fucking waste of space. Let's just get you to your room so you can be toasted there where you won't hurt yourself."

"Has the sofa suddenly become some sort of hazardous place to be?" Dave asked, his tone bordering on sincere as he leaned up to retaliate with a long, slow kiss, before laying his head back down and smiling. "No thank you, couch and I are pals for life, no matter how life-threatening it is." He wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist, pulling him closer. Karkat tipped his head back and let an exasperated groan at the ceiling at Dave pulling this silly shit, then laid back down with him with his head resting against the other's sternum.

"Careful or I might actually get jealous of a fucking couch."

"Only you could say that in all seriousness, Vantas." He put his hand back into Karkat's hair with a chuckle. "Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm pretty fucking in love with you, that's not something that'll just..." He paused, trying to think of the word, before shaking his head, "nah man, this shit's permanent."

"You're certainly eloquent when you're stoned," Karkat snorted, adjusting himself some to lie more comfortably between Dave's legs and curl his arms loosely around his waist. He smiled though, reaching a hand up and laying it against the crook of Dave's elbow. "I don't really think just that one word encompasses all of this, but if it's what makes you feel better about this, I love you too."

"You've got a narrow understanding of human romantic love, I think," murmured Dave, running his fingernails against Karkat's scalp as he yawned faintly. "It's all the quadrants in a single person. A...person you can trust entirely with being everything. Best friend, worst enemy, levelheaded counselor, and lover. That's... That's what I mean by that." He turned his head to bury his face in Karkat's hair. "But yeah, it does. It makes me feel hells of better."

"Every quadrant in a single messy pile. Doesn't seem like it would work out, but...well, look at us. Fits pretty fucking well, huh." Smiling faintly, Karkat took one of Dave's hands and pulled it close to him, pressing his lips to the knuckles then tucking it against his chest just as he had during that first altercation in the kitchen.

Dave flattened his hand on Karkat's chest, smiling a little as he leaned down to kiss Karkat's cheek. "When did we get so fuckin' sappy, dude?" His smile went tilted as he continued, "not that I'm complaining, but we're...man, if we saw us, we'd be laughing our damn asses off."

"Maybe when we realized we could actually fucking afford to?" Karkat shrugged then bit gently on one of Dave's fingers.

"Mm, got a point, nubby, got a real point." He wrinkled his nose at the bite, if only to cover up the fact that it felt better than it should have. Dave closed his eyes for a little bit, simply enjoying the closeness of his matesprit, the quiet rambling of the TV keeping the room from being fully silent. He murmured, "I still can't believe it, a little bit. You don't even know how goddamn often I spent just fucking thinking how damn good Jill had it. How jealous I fucking was. I'm surprised I didn't up and turn green."

"Now you can stop thinking about it, right? You made your move. Damn good move it was, too," murmured Karkat as he fiddled with the ends of Dave's fingers then pressed his lips to the tips of two of them.

"Thank you, Vantas, I'll remember that pushing you around and pinning you to a wall is an acceptable form of proposition," Dave joked after taking a shivered inward breath with the kiss to his fingers. "You're going to turn me on doing that, man." He warned, albeit in a vague enough tone that it was unable to be told whether or not he was joking. Karkat didn't respond to that. Instead, he chose to drag his tongue over Dave's fingertips, sucking them briefly then letting them go with a smug little smile.

Dave, for all his effort to keep a calm facade, let out a small sound from the back of his throat and kept eye contact, even as he narrowed his eyes. "Do you really want to be playing this game right now?" He murmured, "because I don't think you've got what it takes, Vantas. You don't got the fire to keep up with this."

Still Karkat said nothing, deciding to make a game out of it. He looked back at Dave with that smug look still in place, deliberately opening his mouth and running his tongue over Dave's fingers then between them, drawing them back up into his mouth and sucking lightly. Dave's facade faltered again, with his breath catching. He slipped his hand away with an, "oh no, you fucking don't." He leaned forward to catch Karkat's lips with his own instead, moving one leg around Karkat's as he moved his now-free hand down to grab the other's ass. The little shit started it, now he had to reap the consequences.

"You have no self-restraint, Strider," he muttered against Dave's lips then bit on the lower one just hard enough to make it bleed, dragging his tongue over it then licking his lips.

Dave outright gasped at the bite, before moving his hand away from Karkat's ass and laying his head back down and looking at Karkat. "Watch me." He murmured, turning away and back to the TV, putting both hands behind his head, the very picture of casual self-restraint. "I can do this for a very, very long fucking time. Don't test me." With the challenge put on the table, he was going to try his damnedest not to react.

The smirk on Karkat's lips only grew wider at that. It was just what he wanted and made it that much sweeter to crawl up a little higher and mouth at the underside of Dave's jaw, dragging his teeth over the tendon in the other's neck then sucking at the skin softly. His objective was to try and get Dave to come without ever touching his dick, and judging from his sensitivity in general, it wouldn't be too difficult.

Dave steadfastly tuned out Karkat's mouth against his skin, although he already was regretting the challenge. He felt like he was cheating himself out of a really great time, but then he mentally shook himself out of it; this was a damn decent way to show that he DID have restraint. And furthermore, it was fun to see to what ends Karkat was willing to go. He kept watching TV, tuning out everything around him. Karkat seemed to be enjoying himself quite a bit, just worrying at Dave's neck and sucking little, fast-fading spots along the base of it and dragging his tongue along the lines of his collarbones. One hand sneaked its way up into Dave's hair, scratching gently at the nape of his neck then up along his scalp until Karkat's fingers tightened down and pulled just hard enough to draw his head back and expose the underside of his jaw to further harassment.

Dave did a fine job of ignoring Karkat's lips for the most part, but when his matesprit started playing what he considered to be dirty, he closed his eyes and stoicly tilted his head up, giving Karkat the room to do as he wished. It was clear though that he was tuning those licks, kisses, and bites out as well. "I'm thinking about getting another chair or two for the patio," he said, sounding for the life of him like nothing was going on.

"That sounds like a good idea, means I won't have to stand while you sit on your ass the whole time," Karkat murmured, growing somewhat frustrated at the complete lack of reaction. He had hoped that Dave would have been more receptive after the initial comment, but now it was becoming a test of his patience more than anything. He craned his neck to take the lobe of Dave's ear into his mouth, careful to avoid the plugs as he did so. That broke his facade again, and Dave let out a sharp little gasp, and his fingers curled under his head before he shook it off as best he could, not able to completely hide the lower, heavier tone in his voice.

"That's what I was thinking. Although you're allowed to sit on my lap whenever."

The crack was encouraging. Karkat smiled inwardly as he continued, dragging his tongue up along the cup of Dave's ear then letting a soft breath into it. "You might like that a little too much and end up making an ass of yourself out there on the balcony."

Dave huffed, giving a brief smile. "What, like bending you over the table and fucking you right there, while people on the street don't even know what's going on?" He pulled one arm out from under his head to rumple Karkat's hair. "I don't know which one of us would enjoy that more." He slid his hand down to the back of Karkat's neck and kneaded there for the moment. His ability to ignore what Karkat was doing was crumbling fast, so Dave decided that if he got any more worked up, it'd be best just to mess with Karkat in kind.

"Something like that," Karkat murmured as he turned his attention to the spot just below Dave's ear, nosing there and pressing his lips to the fragrant skin. One of his hands crept down to settle over Dave's chest, his thumb grazing over where he could feel the other's nipple, nail dragging over it experimentally.

Yep, that did it. Dave's breath caught for a split second, before getting let out in a quiet groan. He moved his hand down across Karkat's back and then over his side, teasing just below a grubscar, as he fumbled for the remote to shut up the TV. "Haven't won yet, Vantas," he mentioned.

Karkat pressed his lips together to hold in the undignified little squeak that tried to escape, subtly shifting just enough to get away from Dave's hand as his own turned some, catching Dave's nipple between two of his fingers and squeezing down some when it perked up just enough to be able to catch. "I'm not done yet either," he murmured then flicked his tongue off the lobe of Dave's ear again.

With another shuddered breath, Dave closed his eyes and murmured, "Um. Not sure if you're doing what I think you're trying to do, but I've gotta warn you," as he moved his hand up Karkat's back, scratching lightly, leaving no trails. "I don't think it'll work."

"And I take it you're not about to give me any hints," Karkat grumbled, flopping down on top of Dave. Of course this would be a fruitless endeavor given how little he actually knew about what Dave liked; everything he'd tried had been a result of what he already knew, as well as a little bit of projection based on basic human anatomical knowledge. He decided to lash out instead, taking the nipple between his knuckles and squeezing down then twisting rather roughly.

"I'll give you hin--" Dave got cut off with a sharp inward breath before he slapped Karkat's hand away. He took that same moment to wrap his other arm around and pull Karkat down against him and roll so that he was on top. "No," was what he had to say to that shitty tactic. "Unless you plan on tying me the fuck down, you won't do that without retaliation." He leaned in and kissed Karkat roughly, catching both of his matesprit's hands and holding them against the arm of the sofa. Karkat pulled at his hands for a few seconds, then paused and grinned darkly against Dave's lips. This was good. Positive feedback. He bit down on Dave's lip and held it between his teeth as his legs hooked around Dave's thighs, pulling him up sharply and allowing Karkat to slip down beneath him. Without bothering to worry about pulling his shirt out of the way, Karkat leaned up and dragged his tongue over Dave's nipple then pinched his lips down tight around it. He wasn't expecting that sort of power play, but it wasn't unwanted or undesirable by any stretch of the imagination. Dave slipped out of his shirt while Karkat was busy with his nipple, groaning at the sensitive skin being messed with.

"Not too long or it gets less good and more annoying. That's why there's two," he joked quietly as he ran his fingers down Karkat's neck and the bit of his shoulder that he could reach without having to slip his hand down the sweater's loose neck.

"The human male nipple is intrinsically useless," Karkat muttered, then dragged his tongue over the slightly swollen, tender little nub, moving over when it was as hard as it would get then mouthing over the other one. He was careful to keep his teeth out of the way, in case one of them might move wrong and end up slicing the thing open.

"Mostly, yeah," Dave shivered, dragging his own nails across the back of Karkat's neck, before sliding his fingers into his hair and brushing against his horns. "They're only there to be erogenous zones, basically." He noticed how attentive and careful Karkat was being, and bowed his head down, before slipping way just enough to brush his lips against Karkat's. "You had it right with my fingers and my hands, but that's just playing unfair," he muttered into the kiss. "You don't know what that does to me." Mostly, it made his mind short out and make him feel slightly freakish because of how hard something so simple made him. "And my neck. But I was trying to tune you out with that. You had it all right."

"You're just trying to make my life difficult," Karkat groused, but pressed back into the kiss, open-lipped but more or less chaste. He nudged his nose against Dave's and nipped at his upper lip, his fingers gripping down between the other's knuckles.

Dave murmured, "Yup," against Karkat's lips as he squeezed his matesprit's fingers with his own. "There's other things," he continued, his voice low and quiet, "but I figure the easier stuff's good for now." He didn't have the higher mental capacity at the moment to fully articulate that if his chest was scratched in just the right way, at just the right speed, he lost his shit. Or that he really, REALLY fucking liked lasting marks. That would be explained in time, but not now. "You said no couch," he mentioned as he slipped out of the kiss to nibble Karkat's earlobe, whispering, "going back on that, or should we move again?"

"I'll learn, I guess," Karkat hummed quietly then laid his head back, stroking his thumbs along Dave's and looking back up at him with a small, sleepy smile. "That's right, we never did pick up that couch cover. But I didn't exactly intend to be the one getting off this time around, you ever think of that?"

"Nah, it's here," Dave said, nodding to a bag on the floor, before the latter part clicked and his eyebrows shot up. "Oh. Well." He shifted to lie down beside Karkat, kissing him briefly. "Hadn't even thought about that." He was so caught up in wanting mutual pleasure that being wholly selfish had never occurred to him. Karkat's lips once more curled into that smug little smile and he pressed back into the kiss before nuzzling back into the space just under Dave's jaw, taking one of his hands and starting to toy with his fingers once more. He turned his eyes up to look his matesprit in the face as he slowly brought the hand up between then, his tongue darting out and running across the tips of Dave's fingers then slipping between them. Gradually he sucked more and more of them into his mouth until he had the first two fingers of Dave's hand enveloped up to the second knuckles, sucking down gently as his tongue slipped between the digits. He made no motion to slip his hand away this time, even though with every passing second of Karkat's tongue dancing over his fingers and his mouth slipping over them (with no trace of teeth, even though a little bit of them wouldn't scare him or hurt in a terribly bad way) Dave's ears went red, and then so did his face. His pulse sped and his breath turned shallow as he forced himself to keep watching, making the entire sensation that much more intense.

With as little ability as he had to speak, scraping together the few words he did between the shuddered breaths should have earned him a damned medal. "Can you _please_ knock that shit off?" He rocked his hips against Karkat's torso, his erection readily apparent, and Dave was extremely needy for something to be done about it.

"Why would I do that? You obviously fucking love it," Karkat growled quietly around the fingers in his mouth, then decided to take it up an extra notch. Rather than paying any attention at all to the hardon digging at his stomach, Karkat eased those fingers further into his mouth until his teeth were grazing Dave's knuckles and the back of this throat was working slightly against his fingertips.

"Because?" His tone was a needy moan, which threaded out into a defeated sigh. Dave moved his free hand to the back of Karkat's head, scratching his nails lightly against his matesprit's scalp. He knew that as good as Karkat was doing, and as delightfully sensitive as his hands were, he'd be needing to move one down to get off pretty damn soon. It was almost unbearable at this point.

Karkat's eyes rolled some as he sucked down on Dave's fingers hard before letting them draw out of his mouth and fall away. He licked his lips then leaned up to press them to the front of Dave's throat, sucking lightly at the skin until it had started to grow sensitive, only to draw his teeth over the other's Adam's apple and leave light scratches. Dave put his hand up and out of reach, over the side of the sofa, and he tipped his head back, giving Karkat more room while he dragged his nails down from Karkat's neck, down to his back. "You're," he managed before groaning due to Karkat's teeth against his Adam's apple, and his hips rocked once more, though through no premeditation, and he tried again. "You're going to tell me all the things you like next time." He was getting increasingly irritated by being so close to his peak, but it seemed like a million miles away, the way Karkat was stoutly refusing to just stroke him for a minute. Fucker.

"I'd rather you try and hunt them down yourself," Karkat murmured against his throat, opening his mouth a little wider and biting in again, sucking harder at the skin. One of his legs lifted up between the two of them and pressed into the front of Dave's pants, rubbing up against him tortuously slow. Dave let out a choked little sound once Karkat put his leg up, and he moved one arm up around the other's shoulders, gripping his upper arm tight. He rocked down against Karkat's leg and bowed his head to nip and nibble at his ear, hissing, "you're driving me fucking crazy here."

With a soft chuckle, Karkat let go of his throat and dragged his tongue up along the curve of it then off his chin before taking his lips and invading his mouth. He braced his foot against the other arm of the couch to give Dave something to press back on, letting him do as he pleased. "Mission accomplished then."

It wasn't enough for him to rock himself against Karkat's leg, and with a needy kiss in response, Dave pulled the sweater that Karkat had put on, scratching his back. He groaned once again once Karkat broke the kiss and looked up at his matesprit with an intense expression. "Finish what you start." 

"How about you try and be a little fucking nicer about that," he hissed, pressing his leg up into Dave's groin harder, returning the look with a slight snarl that exposed his teeth.

Dave gasped sharply and, between the haze of the weed, the need of release, and the fiercely assertive look on Karkat's face, he couldn't help but hiss, "please" as his hand moved up to grip tightly on the arm of the sofa.

He swore he could hear his pride fly straight out the window. He didn't give half a shit.

"Thank you." Karkat grinned and slipped a hand down between them and cupped the outline of Dave's dick through his pants, squeezing down and rubbing his palm against where he could feel the head, breathing against his neck. Dave could obviously hear the sarcasm in his voice, but as it stood just then, he didn't care how Karkat spoke to him, just so long as he kept up what he was doing. He let out a loud groan, rocking up into Karkat's hand initially, putting his arm back around his matesprit to hold him tight as he buried his face back into his hair, his breath shallow and shuddered, punctuated with groans of the other's name. Without bothering to push down on Dave's waistband, Karkat's hand slipped and cupped around him and dragging his nails along the skin of his pelvis. He rubbed his palm over the head slowly as he pressed his nose into the hollow of Dave's throat and gave a soft chuckle. "Come on..."

Dave didn't need the encouragement, having felt the pressure in the pit of his stomach start to come loose a moment before he heard Karkat's voice. He came almost directly after that, practically clinging as his sight went white and his body completely tensed. Once his muscles relaxed, he shivered a moment, and burrowed his face into Karkat's neck as he caught his breath, chuckling despite himself. "Fucking christ, thank you, finally, Jesus _hell_."

Karkat couldn't help but laugh at that with his nose pressed against Dave's cheek, arms draping loosely around his neck, the slicked hand held just so that nothing could drip onto him. "You're so fucking needy, Strider..."

Dave huffed a chuckle and pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "You're the one who got me to that point, man," he murmured before sitting up and rubbing his face, grabbing the shirt he'd shed and handing it to Karkat. "Clean up, jackass." He considered momentarily what he was going to do in retaliation while he leaned over to grab his soda, getting a long drink of it. Discarding the shirt, Karkat stood and stretched his arms over his head with a quiet groan then headed to the bathroom to wash his hands, considering what they might do for dinner that night. He could easily make one of the frozen pizzas, or they could order in, or if Dave was willing to wait he could make a full meal that would hopefully curb the munchie attack when it struck. For now, he was simply being indecisive.

"Feel like giving me some hint as to what you actually want to eat or do you just expect to get through the night on that one sandwich?" He asked as he returned, drying his hands on the legs of his jeans. Dave shrugged as he used the shirt to clean off his stomach of what Karkat hadn't caught, before tossing it in the washer along with other clothes he'd picked up from around the apartment earlier that day. He started the machine and went back into the living room to put the cover on the sofa.

"Fucking listen to you, you're asking the guy who is very, very fucking baked what he wants to eat. Everything. The answer is everything. But mostly I want to go down to the corner shop, grab a slushie, and then get some sushi." He blinked at the revelation he'd just had. "Dude, Karkat. You haven't had the sushi from that place across town, have you. Oh holy fuck, you poor neglected person."

"No, Dave I've never had the sushi from the place across town because I've never fucking had sushi. I don't see the appeal in eating a raw piece of fish that will empty my fucking bank account." Rolling his eyes some, going to Dave's ( _their_ , he amended) bedroom to grab a shirt for each of them to change into. At the very least they could go out and get slushies to drink with whatever they ultimately decided on.

"You have to be fully shitting me right now," Dave deadpanned as he followed after Karkat to grab a pair of socks. "First off, sashimi is the shit that's raw, that's an entirely different thing. Sushi is usually cooked, though there's some rolls that have uncooked fish in it, some that have roe on or in them." He shook his head. "How the hell have you lived on this plane of existence without eating sushi? Okay, there's this one, right, this fucking teriyaki shrimp roll that comes with a sauce that, I'm pretty fucking sure? Is actually the best thing I've ever tasted." He mentally corrected that to second best, but didn't say that. He pulled on his socks as he waited for Karkat to pick out a shirt. "And if you aren't into the sushi, they've got shitloads of other stuff there, too. I'm taking you there one night."

"What, you actually intend to fucking wine and dine me or some shit?" Karkat snorted and crossed his arms over his chest, taking a rather haughty-looking stance as he watched Dave trying to pull on his socks. He stripped the absurd TMNT sweater off over his head and tossed it onto the foot of the bed then pulled a long-sleeved undershirt on in its stead, followed by a loose tshirt with a faded Cancer sign in the middle of his chest. He looked back at Dave with a small smile then reached out and started fussing with his hair, which was rather out of sorts after the episode on the couch. "Jesus, I don't know what I'm going to do with you..."

Dave grabbed a shirt out of his dresser which he'd made a couple years ago, with Sweet Bro on it, tugging it over his head before Karkat came over and started preening his hair. "I don't know, Vantas, maybe you could just appreciate that sometimes I actually want to do things for you." He combed his fingers through Karkat's hair in return, getting it out of his face. "Maybe I just want to, I don't know, treat you like you deserve. Someone should."

"Like I deserve, huh," Karkat murmured, shaking his hair back down over his forehead then looking back up at Dave with a raised brow. He wouldn't say anything else on the subject, at least not to Dave, but he took the other's hand and held it loosely as he nodded back toward the door. "Come on, let's get your stupid slushie. Then we can figure out some actual food for tonight."

Dave didn't reply to the first comment. He shook his head. "I completely take back what I said about the slushie, I think... You know what? I think I want to take you there. Now. Like... right now." He grabbed his keys and put on his glasses, before slipping into his jacket that had the broken record embroidered on the back. "It's not like you got any better plans for dinner or anything." He said as he slid his wallet in his pocket.

"You're high as fuck, Strider. We're not going out like this. Christ..." Karkat reached into the pocket and picked the wallet out again, wrinkling his nose at Dave and shaking the wallet at him. "Tonight, I just want to stay in, maybe watch another movie, plan what I need to do for my assignment next week. We can worry about actually going to this place when you're sober. Alright?"

"I'm fucking fine, dude," Dave scowled and looked down at Karkat, pursing his lips in aggravation. "How impaired do you honestly think I am? Nevermind. Why the fuck do you want to stay in?" He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. Jesus fuck, this guy. "Okay how about this. I take you there on Friday night, after you're done freaking out about your pile of assignments? I'm going to do this shit up right. Dinner and a movie. No fucking joke. You can humor me for one goddamn date, right?" The peevishness had given way to his usual stoic straight face. "But since you're being a little shit about stuff, you get to choose the dinner, and I get to pick the movie."

"Fine. One date. It's not really necessary but we can do this as soon as I'm not worrying about my shit," Karkat conceded, then laid his hands on either side of Dave's face, his thumbs stroking lightly over his cheekbones. "You know I have every fucking right to be concerned about you now can we just please go get your chemically fucked gas station swill to go with dinner? I can call Domino's or something and have that here by the time we get back."

Dave started to protest - did Karkat even know how often he'd spent self-medicating in lieu of prescription drugs? And how easy it was for him to function in this state? - but let it go. Fuck it, it wasn't worth it. He bowed his head slightly and sighed. "Fine, but if you say another dissenting word about the greatness of the ambrosia that is a slushie, I will pee on all that you love." He got a brief, amused smile, before grabbing his wallet from Karkat's hand and pocketing it once more, opening the door a moment later. "And what's your deal with dates? I don't care if it's not necessary, shit's fucking boss."

"Never been on a good one," Karkat shrugged, keeping his face a careful neutral as he followed Dave to the door, pulling a coat on and half-zipping it as he toed on his shoes. He glanced at the car when they'd stepped outside, almost hoping that they'd be able to take it even though the gas station was barely a couple of blocks away, but with the end of the year, the temperatures were starting to plummet and Karkat fancied he could see his breath the instant he'd walked outside.

"Come on dude, it's on the corner of this fucking block, don't be such a fucking wuss," Dave said as he led Karkat away from the car. He shook his head as he put his arm around Karkat's shoulders, pulling him closer. "For someone with such thick skin, you're huge goddamn baby about the cold. You're going to fucking love Texas. It's sick how warm it is." He kept his stride slow and short, so Karkat didn't have to jog to keep up.

"Outside temperatures affect me a lot fucking more than you think because of my core temperature, asshole. The temperature difference right now for me is basically like plunking your bony ass down in twenty-degree weather with nothing but a windbreaker." Karkat tucked himself under Dave's arm even as he complained, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of the coat.

"I'm getting Bro to make you a fucking hat, you goddamn wuss," Dave decided, pressing a kiss to the top of Karkat's head as they walked to the corner store. Once there, Dave waved to Jase, who gave him a 'sup' nod, then a far more formal nod to Karkat.

"Couldn't have been that bad of an afternoon, you're still friendly to me," Dave said as he walked over to the slurpie machine. Jase just shook his head and sighed, "don't get me started. You two are in deep shit with her."

Karkat opened his mouth to argue back immediately, that Jill hadn't even given him time to say a goddamn word before she'd run, but he closed it again and crossed his arms with his hands tucked under them as he followed Dave to the fountain drinks. He grabbed for one of the smaller cups to fill with the blue slush, capping it with the bubble lid and taking it to the counter, not quite looking Jase in the eye as he waited for Dave. He remembered after a moment that he'd promised to order pizza and took out his cell to do just that, placing a quick order for a supreme so that they wouldn't have to argue about toppings. Dave wasn't picky about his toppings on his pizza to begin with; he only ever argued about them to get a rise out of Karkat. He returned to the counter with a large slurpie grinning at Jase, getting the news about Jill - she'd come in just to say hi, but wound up seeing marks all over Dave at first, and then on Karkat, and she put two and two together and split, but not before putting Dave in as much pain as she could. Dave shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah, well, if it makes her feel any better, I'm sorry it happened to her. Sucks that she's actually a good person." He put his fist on the plexiglass window that separated the cashier from the customer, and Jase responded in kind before handing Dave his change. "C'mon, Vantas, don't be a slow-ass," Dave said as he walked to the door. Karkat scuttled after him with his drink in hand, glancing back at Jase with a grimace before they'd rounded the corner out of sight. He walked close to Dave and sipped some on the drink, shivering a little at the compounded cold.

About five minutes after they got back to the apartment and settled back in, a knock at the door brought Karkat out of his lounging on the couch and he opened it to pay for the pizza balanced on the delivery girl's hand, throwing in a couple of dollars as a tip then waving as she left. The least he could do, he'd decided, was try and lighten up a little in general and hopefully keep Dave from worrying or asking questions until it was necessary. He brought it to the counter between the kitchen and living room, propped the lid open, and licked his lips as his stomach gave a quiet growl.

Dave had planted himself in his spot on the sofa again and was quietly texting when Karkat went after the food. He hopped up and came to get a couple slices. "So the plan is set. We'll be heading to the airport to catch the plane at one PM, two Saturdays from next," he said as he walked back to his seat. "And we'll be picked up at the gate at three. Bro said he's been scouting hotels that have recuperacoons so you don't have to flip your shit." He took a big bite of the pizza and chuckled to himself. "He's curious as hell about you. Your shit is ruined, man, he's going to grill you."

"Well that's just fucking fantastic. Exactly how I want to spend my holiday, under a microscope." Rolling his eyes, Karkat picked one of the pieces for himself and folded it to take a large bite. "And what if I don't meet his specs?"

Dave shook his head, "S'not like that," he assured. "He just wants to know what kind of guy it is that managed to drag me out of the closet." He grabbed what was left of the soda he'd gotten himself earlier, taking a drink. "And I dunno. I think he might make you strife. Shit, he might do that anyway," he said with a furrow of his brow. "He's uh. He's big on that."

"And I'm guessing I won't have the option to abscond, huh." The prospect of going head-to-head with the elder Strider wasn't exactly an appealing one, but if he really had to, he could find his sickle and put an edge back on it to at the very least defend himself. "We can worry about this shit when it comes to it, I guess."

"Yeah right, that fucker can flashstep. Absconding is impossible. But don't worry, it's usually friendly. He knows when to let up." He looked amused still. "And even if you don't live up to his expectations, he doesn't get a say in the matter. He doesn't run my life." He looked at the new text that came up, made a face, and turned off his phone again. "Fucking persistant bitch."

Karkat grimaced and reached for the phone, looking up at Dave then flicking through to the message from Vriska. "The fuck does she want from you anyway? Even she should know when to give it a rest."

The message was moderately less insulting than usual - **when you two are done fondling each other's 8ulges, we need to talk** \- but Dave shook his head. "Shit if I know, man. I don't *want* to know what kind of freaky hardon she's got for me." He finished off the first slice of pizza and started on the second. "All the fucking loopy alien babes just want a piece of my action, I guess," he said over a bite.

"She's got some kind of fucked up agenda, that's all I know. That's all that ever happens with her. We get roped into some patented fucking Serket-style bullshit and there's jack-all we can do about it. At least this time around we can actually ignore her shit," Karkat muttered and started on his second slice as well, setting the first crust aside in the lid of the box.

"Irons, fire, blah blah blah. I don't know though. Why the fuck would she even bother with us? I mean, obviously if she's got some shit going down, she already probably has hells of minions to deal with it for her." Dave shook his head and took another thoughtful bite as the phone buzzed again. It was another text: **Look, you fucking ingr8s, we need to talk in person, it's urgent. It concerns you, too.**

"'In person', huh..." Karkat shook his head and handed the phone back so that Dave could respond however he wanted. "If she's so fucking concerned about whatever the fuck it is we're doing why doesn't she just come herself? She hasn't even told us where she's set up her lair."

Dave rolled his eyes and grabbed the phone, sending a reply, **what the goatdicking hell is so goddamn urgent that we need to see your psychotic face in person** and then sighed. "Look, we'll never get rid of her until we fucking play her stupid game. We might as well get it the fuck out of the way and get back to reality, where she doesn't matter." The response was swift.

**Real8y is fucked, Dave. We're fucking it up 8y knowing it's not real. You fucked up hard, Strider.** He was in no goddamn mood to put up with her stupid shady riddles and put the phone aside. "What do you suggest?" He looked up to Karkat with a browarch.

"For now, keep going with life as usual. If she wants to keep it up, that's her prerogative. She wants to shit around with the powers that be, she'll be the one taking the fucking fall. No skin off my nubs." Reclining back into the couch again, Karkat sucked on the blue slush that had started to sweat in the warmth of the apartment. He wiped his palm over the ring of wetness it left behind in the side table then scrubbed his hand against his pantleg as he looked up at Dave with an arched brow. "If you really want to actually humor her, we'll figure something out and meet up somewhere public so she has less chance to pull shit."

Dave considered Karkat's suggestion versus the nagging feeling that Vriska actually had something to flip out about as he finished off his second slice of pizza, and got up to get a soda. "Man, I don't fucking know what I want to do right now. I got a feeling that as annoying and shitty as she is, she's got a reason for this betrayal of privacy." He sat back down after opening the can of soda, and noticed the new text: **Thank you, Dave, for 8eing the somewhat reasona8le one** \- and he sighed. "I'll sleep on the idea, and we'll figure out what to do with her tomorrow. For now, I need werewolves and vampires. You up for Underworld?"

"Sounds ok to me," Karkat shrugged and slouched down into the couch, stretching his arms some over his head then crossing them over his chest as he looked toward the tv, then back at Dave. "If we find out that she's just being an overdramatic fuck and there was nothing important to what she's going on about, I'm going to drop you like a ton of fucking bricks that just had the foundation demolished underneath them."

Dave didn't show how the threat actually affected him, and simply nodded. "Noted," he muttered. He didn't recall any time that Vriska was ever overdramatic as well as wrong - when she overreacted, it was out of a good goddamn reason - at least from what he recalled of her. He shook off the feeling of dread as he stood, grabbing the movie and putting it in, before dropping down beside Karkat, arm wrapping around him after the movie started. "Let's just not think about it for now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the sheer amount of smut (maybe kind of not really) but I guess you can think of it like a dam burst. This is where we get some of that juicy headcanon action though, re: troll junk, and CH and I both ascribe to, [there on the right](http://datscoot.tumblr.com/image/62897476549). If you don't agree with it, that's just fine, you're welcome to have your own headcanons, but don't go shitting on anyone else's, alright? Alright.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the speciesist cockbites. You'll see them littered around everywhere.

Work in the coming week was just short of nightmarish when it came to just how crowded the coffee shop was getting, especially when coupled with Karkat's loathing of strangers touching him. He'd had to stop in the middle of working and retreat behind the bar to get a minute of peace to calm down on more than one occasion, preferring the loss of tips over the potential panic attack and subsequent theatrics and Youtube stardom. The cold was forcing more and more of them inside, then keeping them there. This was their prime season for income and working during the holidays had the potential for bonuses and better tips as everyone got into the giving spirit. Even the trolls that didn't have any actual background with it seemed to be trying to keep up appearances, and a few times Karkat was told he should try smiling a little more by regular patrons that knew him just well enough by now to know how to dig at him.

The first day it started to snow outside slowed Karkat down considerably as he was forced to weave between tables with his hands in the air, stomach sucked in as if that would help anything. He looked out at the large, fluffy white flakes and glowered at them when he reminded himself that he would be walking home in the slush.

Dave, for what it was worth, found winter to be a pretty novel thing. He'd given up his entire collection of sweaters to Karkat, just to make sure he stayed warm, and even saw to it that his matesprit had a hat to wear when they had to walk to and from their apartment.

He didn't particularly mind the crowd, especially today. He'd been in a pretty damn good mood, even considering the frequent pesterings from Vriska, and the increasingly cagey attitude of Rose. He finished making a hot cocoa for a customer when he heard the bell over the door ring and looked over to see if it was a person coming or going. His ears started to burn and he motioned for Karkat to take his place so he could disappear into the crowd and bus for a while.

Karkat looked back at him and mentally whimpered, but he let Dave go; he'd been more or less carrying them through this shift and deserved a break from scrambling to make the perfect half-cream-cinnamon-soy-whatevers for picky hipster girls, even if it meant that he himself had to face the crowd alone. He took a place behind the bar and started putting together the first order that he was given. Over the past couple of months, he'd managed to pick up quite a bit about working behind the counter, and while he wasn't as efficient as Dave, he was getting there. He glanced up at the girl that had just come through the door and started toward him, biting on his lip as he passed over a finished drink and the change then turning to the next one in line.

The girl finally got to the front of the line and smiled brightly. "Wow, hey, you're not Dave," she stated, shaking her head

"What gave it away? The fact that I'm not human or the fact that I'm not seven fucking feet tall?" Karkat snorted, pouring her coffee and starting to hand it over until she spoke up again.

"I could've sworn I saw him at the counter. Anyway, I'll have a black americano, no frills. Is he around? I just moved and I found a pair of his sunglasses when I was packing, so I thought I'd bring them to him." She held out a pair of aviators as proof. "Wait... You're his new, err, what's that word... Matesprit, right?"

Karkat eyed the shades that she was holding up, arching an eyebrow at them. They had to have been a spare pair that he'd left without thinking. The only way he would do that would be if he knew the girl personally. Karkat's lips pressed into a thin smile as he handed over the drink, holding out a hand for the glasses. "I can return those for you," he said, neglecting to answer the question of matespritship.

"Oh my god, you ARE him, wow. So..." She said, her smile sly and secretive as she leaned in, "how did you land someone like Donkeycock Strider? You must have some secret." She bit her lower lip and looked over at Karkat expecting a good answer.

Karkat had to try very hard to ignore the way his ears had started to burn at that, unsure what part of that statement to focus on and instead making a valiant attempt at ignoring it entirely. He slid her receipt across the counter and plucked the aviators from her hand, his lip curling slightly to show just a hint of tooth. "Can I get you anything else?" He muttered through clenched jaw, glancing around to try and see just where Dave had hidden himself.

She pouted a little at his refusal to even give her a sarcastic response, and paid him. "No, that's all," she said before smiling sharply, and walked off, out the door. 

Dave returned after a minute and rubbed his face, grumbling, "don't ask, don't say a fucking word, Vantas, or I will shove a flavor bottle so far down your throat that you'll be shitting creme de menthe for a year." He sunk to lean against the counter, hiding his face in his arms, making an undignified, unpleasant groaning sound which was muffled by his shirt sleeves.

This was a first. Karkat couldn't quite recall the last time he'd seen Dave looking so thoroughly humiliated. It was different and somewhat amusing, no matter how the initial interaction had made him feel. He bumped Dave with his shoulder, nudging him over a little on the counter and lowering his voice. "Guess what we're very pointedly *not* talking about right now, Strider. Get the fuck up and do your job. We can discuss the apparent size of your dick when we get home."

Dave held up a finger to signify to give him a minute to collect the shit that he'd clearly lost. He took a few deep breaths before standing up and preening his hair back into place, looking more dignified than usual. "That was Amanda. And thank you for dealing with that for me." He slid back into place and started taking orders once more, barely saying a word for the next hour, until it was break.

When he went out for a cigarette, he kept close to the space heaters strategically placed around the covered back patio to keep the place somewhat warm. Only a few customers knew about the place, so it was mostly empty, save for a middle-aged fellow who had his headphones on and was typing away at his laptop and a hunched old man nursing his cup of coffee and reading a book. Karkat lingered in the shop, bussing the tables until there was nothing else to do, tucking tips into the pocket of his apron then taking a moment to grab a coffee for himself. He stepped out onto the back patio once he'd made sure that nobody would need anything for a little while, lingering close to the doorway just in case. He licked a drop of foam from the edge of his cup, holding it in both hands at his mouth as he glanced sidelong at Dave without saying a word.

Dave had taken a seat at a table and was stretched over it, looking out at the alley, taking long, calming drags of his cigarette. "Achievement unlocked: near-mortal embarrassment. I suppose that was inevitable. You've seen at least six chicks I've slept with but then SHE comes in. Urgh, I'm fucking dying here."

"That's what happens when you can't keep it in your fucking pants, dipshit. I don't want to say you deserve it, but you kind of do." Karkat stepped up behind him nonetheless and rested his hands against Dave's shoulders, rubbing his thumbs into the back of his matesprit's neck.

"Excuse me for having a sex drive," Dave grumbled. "I'm not saying she's bad people. Far from. She's just..." He teetered his hand in the air instead of explaining. "She's the one I convinced to go prodomme. It didn't take much convincing." He took another drag of his cigarette. "She's had it bad for me since that night, and I just. No. You know? No." Even if Karkat hadn't come into his life, he still wouldn't have considered it. 

"But now it's over, I can move on. Got a lot of day left ahead."

"I didn't know you were lifestyle," Karkat mused as he dragged his fingers through Dave's hair and scratched some at his scalp, giving him a wholly unreadable look. "Looks like I'm learning all sorts of interesting shit about you... But yeah. Let's go before some people start flipping all our shit because we weren't there to give them their caffeine fixes." He took a second to lean down and press his nose against the top of Dave's head before retreating back inside, finishing off his drink then slipping behind the counter to help one of the two that were waiting there for their drinks. One of them looked like she was growing rather testy, which was understandable given the size of the book she held under one arm and the bulging seams of the bag slung over her shoulder. Dave smiled faintly and flicked his ash, took one last drag, and stubbed out his cigarette. He *wasn't* lifestyle, more like a tourist, really. He followed Karkat back in and went about his business quietly and kept an eye on the weather. It was luckily a short shift today, they'd be let out when the lunch break usually was, to make sure the new employees got equal hours and plenty of training time. 

The day slid past without further incident, and once they were done, Dave bundled up in his heavy coat and gloves, carefully pulling on his ski cap. He lit a cigarette once they were outside. "I was sure I told you I was into that." He must have forgotten to say.

Karkat slunk out into the snow with a grimace at the crunch underfoot, looking back up at Dave from under the thick knit cap they'd gotten a few days before, the tips of his horns just barely protruding from the holes designed for them. "We've only been together a week and it's not like you told me you were some kind of deviant before then," he pointed out, but slipped his hand into Dave's and bumped him in the direction of the apartment. "Can we get out of this before my bulge freezes?"

"We've known each other for a shit ton longer than that and I'm more than fucking sure that I've at least hinted about it," Dave took a drag of his cigarette as he wrapped his arm around his matesprit to start going, making the way to the apartment. "Recently, even." He shook his head with a smirk, shaking his head. "I don't even know why I'm so fucking defensive, dude, it's not like you give a shit."

"You've hinted at liking sex in general, nothing like this. Give me a fucking break." Karkat leaned into his side as they walked, looking up at Dave then reaching up and plucking his cigarette from his fingers, flicking it around between his own then taking a brief drag of it. He made a face and a quiet choking sound before letting the smoke back out. The secondhand smoke taste from Dave's mouth was definitely preferable to that. He handed it back by the time they were turning the corner to go back into the apartment building. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm entitled to give a shit in the circumstances."

"Dude," he protested when his cigarette was swiped, but that was all he said before he bit back a laugh, shaking his head at the reaction, sneaking the cigarette away to finish it off. He flicked the butt into the street before he entered the apartment building, ushering Karkat in first. "Nah, I mean you weren't freaked out by it. It's cool, dude, no big deal." He checked the mail then took off his gloves before retrieving the bills and small pile of junk mail, before raising his eyebrow at a letter from Rose, which was rather thick - it was probably a draft of her next story that she needed his opinion on. Or just a laundry list of ways she hated him. Whichever. He pocketed it and the bills and started up the stairs three at a time. "So, what movie do you want to watch tonight? I've been wanting to watch Event Horizon again. A couple scenes have been jangling around in my head."

"Looking for inspiration?" Asked Karkat as he followed Dave up the stairs, closing and locking the door behind them then stripping out of the coat and tossing it over the back of the couch before heading into the kitchen and grabbing a soda to wash some of the smoke flavor out of his mouth. "And you can be into whatever the fuck you want. If you have a high pain tolerance I guess that's all the better for me when you think about it."

"Nah, I just want to see a guy go insane." Dave stripped out of his coat, hat, and boots, before flopping down in the chair to open Rose's letter.

"Maybe you just have a hardon for Laurence Fishburn," Karkat teased then leaned over the letter with an arched brow. There wasn't really much for him to pick up, having been a Prospit dreamer. He knew that loopy, neat handwriting well though.

"Oh yeah, totally got it for Cowboy Curtis," Dave quipped as he wrapped an arm around Karkat, sighing with a smile.

"It's a little bit of pain tolerance," he continued, "but mostly I like the power play. It's nice to have that option of having all of it while having none at all, or vice versa." He started reading the first page, which was the actual letter out of the full sixteen pages that were sent.

"Power play? Is that why you get so fucking worked up when I take charge?" He chuckled and crossed his arms as he leaned his weight into Dave's side.

The reason that this particular story found its way to Dave was that he had inspired a character, so to speak. It read like their time in Derse from what he caught by scanning it over briefly. He set the story aside and shook his head with a smile. "She's playing coy. Man, I miss the shit out of that weirdo goth."

"There's that, yeah. I get into it from the other end, too. Throw some restraints in there and..." He shook his head. "Anyway, let's get off this topic before I wind up pinning you to a wall. Grab the movie, would you? I'll go throw a pizza in the oven." He decided that it wasn't fucking rocket science. Following the directions on a box was pretty fucking easy, just so long as he set the timer and didn't space out.

"If you fuck up this one and end up setting off the fire alarms again I'm sitting you the fuck down and teaching you how to cook," Karkat muttered as he dug through the movies until he'd found what Dave wanted, putting the dvd in then perching on the arm of the couch as he watched the other move around the kitchen. He put his chin in his hand and couldn't help but crack a sarcastic little smirk when a sudden realization came to him. "It's starting to sound like you have an ulterior motive for putting me up as the Signless."

"What, other than you being his descendent and pretty much the walking embodiment of the Vast Expletive? Got no other motives," Dave said as he unwrapped the pizza from its plastic wrap. "I'm not going to lie, pants hiked up to your nonexistent nipples aren't that hot, man." He knew what Karkat meant, but he honestly hadn't given it more than a passing thought.

Shaking his head, Karkat slipped off the arm of the couch and leaned against the counter on his elbows. "I talked to the guy I told you about after class yesterday, did I tell you? He said the project sounds interesting. I asked him if he could do a lisp on the off-chance you needed more voices than just mine for this and he said he'd try. So do I get a prize for contributing?"

Dave slid the pizza off the cardboard and onto a baking sheet as the directions read, and then tossed it into the oven that he'd already set to the right temperature. "A prize? Shit, I thought sleeping with the director was a prize." Dave deadpanned, handing Karkat a cookie. "I award you the passive-aggressive cookie of honor, for your gracious contribution to the project in finding me a Psiioniic." He turned to go set the timer, and then went to grab a soda, returning to the living room.

Karkat bit the cookie in half then followed Dave back into the living room, sitting down on the couch beside him and slouching down with it in his mouth. "Sleeping with the director is my fucking right and I don't know what Cassidy might have put in his cookies. You already got fucked up on a brownie."

"The cookies are clean," Dave assured him as he dropped himself in front of the sofa, leaning his head back onto the seat to look up at Karkat. "The brownies are pot. The cookies and pies are clean. The casserole he brings over once in a while is dubious." He took a sip of his soda and smirked at Karkat. "A right? It's a right now?"

"As the director's matesprit I reserve every right to his weird and apparently huge human cock," Karkat replied smugly and leaned down, pressing his lips to the center of Dave's forehead.

Dave grinned at that. "Yeah, until she said something, I could have said any goddamn thing about dicks that I wanted to outside of the clinical and you'd believe them just because I've got one." He leaned up before Karkat could sneak away and kissed him quickly. "I missed a golden opportunity." He dropped back down and pressed play on his movie, leaning back against the sofa in front of Karkat, resting his arms on his matesprit's knees.

"You're suck a fucking nookbite, Strider. You would really do that to me for your own amusement?" Karkat put on a theatrical pout, leaning over Dave and draping his arms around his neck loosely. "And what would you do if I started lying to you about bulges?"

Dave grinned wide at that. "Yes, I intentionally would misinform my best friend and matesprit about human genitals for my own amusement, because I've done that so much thus far." He looked up at Karkat with a 'bitch please' expression. "You're not the first troll I've slept with, and I probably know more about troll anatomy than any other human you know. It comes with getting jawed to death about it because it grossed me out to hear all about it back then, but it kept me awake and alert enough to kick major ass." He sighed and shook his head.

"I'm just going to assume that I came out pretty fucking good on this end since now I know, and then there's the fact that it's been good for me so far. I almost feel sorry for the other trolls with smaller mates. They probably don't have it as good as I do." Mirroring Dave's smirk, Karkat dragged the tip of his finger along the bridge of Dave's nose then flicked it off the end. He was keeping an ear out for the oven timer, but the movie was more or less going ignored for now.

Dave didn't mind missing the first part of the movie; it didn't get the ball rolling or start getting intense until they boarded the Event Horizon, anyway. He wrinkled his nose at the flick then chuckled to himself. "It's not the size that matters, it's the control of it," he said with a slight shrug. "It might be unsatisfying for trolls with smaller mates, but if they're bigger, they could be fucking dangerous as hell if they don't know what the fuck they're doing. It's just lucky for trolls that you're built in such a way to accommodate this size." He shrugged at that, and quieted down.

"Got to love xenobiology." Karkat stretched out on his side with his head propped on his hand, laying back behind Dave's head and dragging his fingers through the other's hair absentmindedly as he finally started paying attention to the movie. It wasn't long before the oven timer went off and he had to move though. Dave pouted when Karkat had to leave, as he was enjoying the scalp massage, though the pizza came out and made everything all better. He returned with the pizza sliced up and divided equally between two plates and settled back down on the couch to continue watching without another comment. He ended up dozing off before the end of the movie with one half-eaten slice still left on his plate. Dave ate quietly, sucked into the movie, but once it was over, he looked behind him and noticed Karkat snoozing. He smiled faintly as he stood, grabbing both plates and putting them in the dishwasher, finishing the half slice of pizza as he started the dishwasher. He slipped back into the living room quietly and chuckled to himself when Em had taken up residence next to Karkat, curled up in a ball near his belly. He draped a light blanket over them both, and went to sit and read what Rose had written.

It was a haunting story, with just enough trappings of their shared history to send chills down his spine. He sent a text to her congratulating her on another well-written story, and then looked over at Karkat with a slight tilt to his head, simply enjoying the sight, before he realized that he was acting lovesick. Karkat had pulled the blanket up around the region of his nose as he slept, his expression relaxed as it rarely was when he was awake. He mumbled quietly to himself every now and then just loud enough to be audible, but not enough to be understandable. Rose sent another text after a few moments' waiting for a reply to the first, asking Dave a pointed question of what might be distracting him. She knew that things in his life had changed. The manner of his responses made that completely obvious. Now she was just waiting for him to slip and confirm her suspicions.

Dave looked down at the text and smiled faintly. He replied, **got a pet cat and a boyfriend**. He hovered his finger over 'send', staring at the last word and then shook his head, replacing it with **matesprit** before sending it over. It was more accurate, and kept gender out of things. He reeeeeally didn't need to get shit for his years of insisting on how straight he was. He sighed as he slipped closer, sitting down on the arm of the sofa, running his hand through Karkat's hair to soothe him. He moved some into the touch, quieting as he turned his face toward the cushion and tucked his arms under his chest. The little lump that was Em moved up and peeked her head out from under the blankets to squeak at Dave as her whiskers tickled against Karkat's cheek then curled up just in front of his face to go back to napping. Dave grinned and slid his hand down Karkat's back, sending another reply to Rose. **between them work and school ive been drained dry**. He grinned as he pressed send just to send another right after, **my attention levels are the fucking gobi over here**. That said, he went out to get a smoke. He'd been wanting to tell Rose all about Karkat, about all that they remembered, about the night terrors and how they stopped recently. He wanted to tell her that they'd run into Tavros, and that Vriska had been harassing him. He didn't, though. He sighed and buried himself in his coat as he took long, quick drags of his cigarette, wanting to get out of the cold as fast as possible.

Karkat had woken up by the time he'd finished his smoke, sitting up and rubbing at his face sleepily with Em still curled up and purring at him quietly as he cradled her against his chest, scratching his fingers along the back of her neck. He was humming quietly, somewhat tunelessly as he did so and smiling to himself as if he had all the time and peace in the world. When Dave came back in, he did so quietly, only to notice Karkat had woken up. He smiled briefly, walking past to hang up his coat again, but ruffled Karkat's hair as he walked past. "I want to tell Rose about you." He settled back down on his side of the sofa, picking up Karkat's feet to put them on his lap. "I mean, not just that I've got a matesprit, but about _you_."

He looked back at Dave, his smile fading slightly as he thought about that. On his end, he couldn't see any repercussions of letting Rose know exactly who Dave was with, but what about Dave himself? If it came to be that it would only make any harassment worse, he wasn't sure it would be worth it. "Why?" He finally asked cautiously, his hand stilling on the kitten's back.

Dave shook his head. "She's my friend, I think she deserves to know," he responded, scratching his head. "I just have this weird... I dunno. I have a feeling it'd click for her." He lightly bit the corner of his lip as he looked at his phone that he'd put on the side table. "I trust her." High praise coming from him. Karkat knew that, too.

"Alright...I guess I can't really see the harm in it, especially if you trust her. She has at least slowed down on the drinking hasn't she?" He asked carefully, hoping like hell that she had so that he could at least have one less thing to worry about where it came to their group's academic.

"Yeah, she dried out a couple years ago. I mean, she'll still have a drink or two from time to time, but she doesn't go overboard. It was just stress." He picked up the phone and slipped closer to Karkat, texting her, **his name is karkat just in case you were wondering** and then **karkat vantas hes an old friend**. He was all nerves when he hit send but didn't let it show. he set his phone down, dreading the worst possible responses. "None of us got out of that shit unchanged. None of us got out better for it. Unscarred." He shook his head. "At least we got out of it."

"Getting out of it alive was all any of us could really hope for in the end," Karkat agreed quietly, glancing over at the phone then taking Dave's hand, lacing their fingers together loosely and observing not for the first time the contrast between their skin tones. "At least like this we can try to be happy, right?"

Dave smiled at Karkat's optimism, looking down at their hands. "Yeah. I'm an amateur at that happiness shit," he brought Karkat's hand to his chest then, bowing his head with the smile still in place. "But I'll fucking try not to halfass. Stop being so fucking understanding, Jesus fuck, it's giving me a complex." He knew that Rose probably was busy - usually she'd respond right away if she wasn't - so he simply ignored his phone for a moment, sneaking between the back of the couch and Karkat, slipping his hand into his matesprit's hair, and his other hand went to lightly pet Em. Karkat leaned back against him with his head tipped back to rest on Dave's shoulder, his eyes closing again and making him look sleepy once more.

"Is your pathetic little squishy thinkpan having trouble keeping up with the change, Strider? Would you rather I yell at you constantly again? Because I can do that, too." He smirked faintly and opened an eye to peek up at him, letting out a soft purr at the fingers moving into his hair.

"A little of both will do. If you just stopped shouting at me, I'd get the impression you got swapped out with a pod person. Fucking hate those guys, with their vines getting all over the place, eating people and shit," Dave muttered with a yawn and stretch. "Goddamn, who killed my awakes? Em, was it you?" He scratched behind her ears and then down under her jaw. "Dumb adorable cat."

She purred at him and nosed at his hand, her mouth opening just so to where it looked like she was grinning at him. "She's some kind of fucking magical," Karkat snorted softly then bent to nuzzle against her side, smiling as she patted her paws against his face. "You just know Gamzee would call her a motherfucking miracle..."

"Hell yes he would," Dave said with a grin, "and he'd be right, for once." He turned to leave a kiss on Karkat's jaw before nudging him a little. "I'm fucking dead off my ass. Let's get some sleep, nubs." He trailed a fingertip over one of Karkat's horns as he sat back up, and got to his feet to walk down to the bedroom, where he stripped down and crawled into bed, muttering "hell fucking yes, clean sheets."

Karkat's head tilted some into the touch until Dave had gone, smiling faintly as he followed and set the kitten down on the ground before closing the door behind him, making sure that the bathroom door was open so that she could get to the litter. He stripped down easily and crawled into bed beside Dave with his back pressed against the other's front. "Class tomorrow. Staying kind of late. Extended study thing with Jill and a couple friends so... Date Saturday," he muttered, apparently having already decided all of this on his own.

"Sounds like a plan," Dave said as he wrapped his arm around Karkat, pressing his lips firmly against his shoulder before burying his face in the curve of his neck. "How's that been working, by the way? I mean, study groups with her." Well enough that Karkat hadn't dropped them altogether, Dave figured. He had hoped that they'd stay friends, and that she'd keep all the blame off Karkat for what had happened.

"It's quiet. She doesn't talk to me too much unless it's necessary but it's not really enough to fuck over our rhythm or whatever. We still get shit done. Having other people there helps," he shrugged, laying his arm over Dave's and lacing their fingers together again.

"Mm," Dave nodded, squeezing Karkat's hand. "I've been in that weird place before. I couldn't deal with the awkwardness of that silence, so I just pulled out of that group." He sighed and went quiet to feel and listen to Karkat's breath. It was already lulling him to sleep.

"I'll deal," Karkat murmured and turned his face into the pillow, curling some on himself as he dozed more or less contently with one foot tucked between his matesprit's shins, blankets pulled up to his nose. He was just glad that Dave could stand to sleep with him given how hot it tended to get under the covers, especially when he had encountered other humans that didn't exactly care to stay near him even when it was cold. He had his own theories about that one though. Dave had the habit of kicking off his blankets in the middle of the night, whether or not there was an over-warm matesprit in there, but at least with Karkat in close proximity, he didn't get cold. He had one knee between Karkat's legs as he drifted off to sleep, his mind turned off from the exhausting day's events. 

He woke up the next morning, and slipped out of bed to take a shower, his mind still on telling Rose all that he knew. Once he was out of the shower and dressed for the day - a tight long sleeved red shirt and jeans that had slack in them but generally fit well - he got the coffee started and made a bowl of cereal for himself, waiting for Karkat to wake up. He checked his texts, and sat in awe at a specific one, barely remembering to eat his cereal as he re-read it over and over.

**It's wonderful that you found him again, Dave. Kanaya says hello to both of you, as well.**

Karkat was sluggish that morning when he dragged himself out of the room and into the shower, then from the shower to the kitchen, still somewhat drowsy when he went to pour himself a bowl of cereal. It didn't help that he had a morning lecture that he was dreading, then an hour's break and another at noon before his work shift, all of which was making him want to crawl back into bed. He hadn't quite registered the lack of movement from Dave in spite of the spoon full of cereal hovering in front of his mouth.

Leaning against his back, Karkat put his own bowl on the counter and hooked his chin around the side of the other's arm, looking down at the phone with an arched brow. Then it registered: Kanaya.

"Oh fuck me..." he breathed, waking up a good deal more and reaching for the phone to read it himself a few times just to make sure that he'd read it right. "Oh _fuck me_."

The next text under it read **We should set up a video call soon and compare notes.** which didn't help matters on Dave's end. Sure, he had a webcam and could, in a very technical sense, get that going, but the way his heart had leapt into his throat and refused to be dislodged was making it very hard to say or do anything.

He shook himself out of it and nodded to Karkat. "Yeah, I know." He looked over his shoulder as he finally put the spoon in his mouth, only to talk over the cereal, "See, okay, this? This is what I've got to put up with. She won't say shit unless and until it's at its most goddamn shocking." He grinned a little then. "We're the absolute best at sibling. Hey, come on, hand it back, I need to respond to that shit."

He returned it numbly then tipped his head back and yelled at the ceiling hoarsely. Goddammit, Rose. Goddammit, Kanaya. Goddammit, the whole fucking world, really. Karkat was very obviously tired of its shit. He started into his cereal with a slight pout on his face at Rose and her apparent need to make everything as dramatic as possible, on par with Vriska when it came to building up tension.

"So, are you going to do the video thing?" He asked around a mouthful of his breakfast, leaning back against the counter beside the stove.

Dave didn't mind the outburst, and figured that it was totally necessary. After all, Karkat had been dealing with this bullshit just as long as he had and it was even starting to wear him down, too. Dave quickly finished his cereal so it didn't get soggy as he texted with his free hand. "Of course I am. I mean, it's not like we talk face to face that often, and it'd be nice to see her. And shit, when's the last time we saw Kanaya?" He answered Rose's texts with an affirmative for the video chat, and then snarked about her being a cagey brat about Kayak.

"Have you even seen a picture of her lately? Rose, I mean. It's a goddamn wonder she isn't some sort of pin-up model or something, Jesus fuck." He pulled up a pic she'd sent recently, of her snuggling up to a printed copy of her latest book, smiling sweetly, before he handed it to Karkat. "Seriously. If she ever loses her writing ability in some sort of concussive accident, she could fall back on modeling." He was more proud than ogling, for once; Rose was, in his opinion, the more attractive of the two of them.

"Remind me to verbally shove my foot so far up her waste chute that she tastes the sole of my shoe later," Karkat grumped, even while internally admitting that Rose had grown up beautifully and filled out in all the right ways. He couldn't help but flush lightly at the thought then pushed it down and started shoveling his cereal into his mouth. He could still make it out the door without embarrassing himself too much if he could just get dressed and bundled up. As it was, he was standing in the middle of the kitchen in his boxers with his hair standing up even worse than normal. Now he wasn't sure if he was looking forward to the video chat on the off-chance he was to be dragged into it.

"I'll let her know that you have threatened her ass." Dave looked at the clock on his phone and gasped quietly. "Shit, you've gotta go get ready or you're going to be late. I've got to pack up so I don't have to flip my shit in an hour. Go." He nudged Karkat, taking his mostly empty bowl from him to rinse out in the sink and put in the dishwasher.

He went to get ready for the day, his classes starting an hour later than Karkat's, but were no less stressful. He had a presentation he had to give and that wasn't going to be anything short of a goddamn trainwreck. At least he could play it up as intentionally shitty, even though it wasn't all that bad; he wasn't excellent in speaking at front of his classmates unless it was set to a dope beat, which he hadn't done.

Karkat choked some on the mouthful of cereal he hadn't managed to swallow before his bowl was taken, running back toward the bedroom and dragging on yesterday's jeans and a clean sweater, then his coat on and nearly running out without his shoes as he slung his bag over his shoulder. He paused just long enough to crush his lips against Dave's briefly before bolting out the door, forgetting his phone in the process. Dave smiled at the kiss and waved an unseen goodbye at Karkat's back before closing the door behind his matesprit, shaking his head with a smile. The forgotten phone buzzed about ten minutes later with a text message from an unlisted number.

 **KK. Vrii2ka 2ay2 2triider'2 not an2weriing her me22age2 anymore. Piick up, a22hat.**

Dave raised an eyebrow at the abandoned phone and looked at the text. Sollux, he already knew from the quirk. He had to think about what he wanted to do, but finally rolled his shoulders and sighed. He smirked as he programmed the contact as 'bipolar douche' and sent a text on his own phone, **tag teaming is against federation rules captor but whatever** and then sent another on its heels **what do you two weirdos want anyway**

**Holy 2hiit, 2he'd 2aiid you two were 2hacked up but ii diidn't beliieve iit untiil now.**

Karkat skidded into his lecture thirty seconds late, out of breath but shaking his head when asked for an excuse as he trudged back to his seat, taking out his class materials then putting his head down on his textbook to try and compose himself. The rest of the day would go a good deal smoother, and by lunch Karkat was able to get a head start on his new assignment as well as finish the one for the next class with time to spare. He wanted to send a text to Jill and check where they were supposed to meet for the study session that evening, but groping his pockets for his phone came up nil. He swore vibrantly, drawing a couple of affronted looks from passing sorority girls and pointedly ignoring them.

Dave scoffed at the text and responded, **im glad i could blow someones mind so early in the morning now how about for a prize you tell me what the fuck is so mindblowingly important that shes got to send me seven messages a day when its obvious that i dont want to hear it from her**. He checked the time and sighed, pocketing both phones before getting dressed for the cold weather outside and grabbing his bag to leave. 

He had a few minutes to spare once he got on campus, and he knew where Karkat was headed - a building not too far from the Film department- and swung by to drop off his phone. He stepped into the classroom quietly, peeking through the door before striding through and handing Karkat's phone to him, not giving a shit about how disruptive he was being. "Ignore Sollux for now, I've got it covered," he said with a hushed murmur, and then walked back out. 

He was glad when he got to his own class and get the presentation out of the way. Once called to do it, he shook off his nerves and turned, looking up at the rest of the students. "Which one of you smooth operators can spit a dope beat?" He asked. A few tentative hands went up and he pointed. "You, the one in the middle with the $50 t-shirt," he said, before giving his presentation in complete, flowing, impromptu rap, with help from Overpriced Shirt Guy. It got him a round of applause at the end, to which he bowed and went back to his seat to be the quiet gangly shit in the back once more.

It was extremely fortunate for everyone involved that the professor for Karkat's lecture was pretty chill, barely stopping in the middle of the lesson to give Karkat the time to shove his phone out of the way without checking it but then saying nothing on the subject even when class let out, Karkat's ears burning through the remainder of the lecture. He dug the phone back out as soon as he'd let the door fall closed behind him, thumbing it quickly to find exactly what Dave had been referring to. With an internal groan, he walked toward the cafe, debating internally on what exactly he intended to respond with.

By the time he'd gotten settled behind the counter of the coffee shop with his apron tied into place, he'd explained that he was living with Dave (though he didn't expressly say anything about their relationship) and that Vriska had taken to harassing them every few hours. He'd asked a few pointed questions concerning what Sollux remembered of the game, and was unsurprised to learn that he knew maybe half of what had happened, and that there were a few gaping holes in his recollection as well.

**All ii know for 2ure ii2 that 2omethiing ha2 her really fuckiing worriied about the 2tabiility of thii2 realiity, but 2he won't explaiin why.**

Dave had gotten a similar message from Sollux, and got really fucking uncomfortable with the implications of the message, as well as rather pissed that Vriska wouldn't just fucking say something. 

He came into work from his class, shaking off the uneasiness while on his way, and got his coat off and apron on before he slipped behind the counter. "So I rapped my presentation," Dave said with a lopsided smile. "That went well." He took his first order and eased into work-mode. It was easy to see a difference in how he acted with people he wasn't familiar with, compared to at home. He was feckless and egotistical, with a charm and flirtatious quality that caught him plenty of tips.

Karkat gave him a raised eyebrow and shook his head, muttering, "only you could pull something like that off and not get your ass handed to you by faculty." He was just as uneasy as Dave was about Vriska and her involvement, and even more so when he considered what he could remember when it came to the way reality worked in the Incipisphere. He tried to pour himself into work, but his distraction ended up reducing his tips for the day before he was set to go for his study group.

"If either of them sends you another message let me know. Maybe something really is going bad," he muttered as he stepped out beside Dave while the other was taking a break, squeezing his arm reassuringly before taking off. He thumbed through the conversation between Sollux and himself as he walked, trying to piece together anything that would give the vague claim some credibility.

Dave worried about Karkat's distraction, but didn't say anything, figuring that he'd be doing better once they both got home. "Will do, nubby," he said as he waved again. He got a sudden idea and sent a text to Rose, asking if she or Kanaya been contacted by either Vriska or Sollux. If they could piece together a full picture from the snips of Vriska's stupid riddles, it'd be easier than having to deal with Vriska herself.

While back at work, he put the whole thing aside. A friend of his came up right before he started to close up, and asked him why he hadn't been to karaoke at all that year and his eyes widened. Holy shit, he'd completely forgotten about that. That shit was fun - he got to show off his amazing stage presence while singing whatever people decided he'd sound good doing - and usually it worked out awesomely. He told his friend that he'd be there that weekend, and waved them off so he could lock up.

He got home later than usual, having to pick up a carton of smokes and some soda. He walked in fairly quietly and set down his purchases on the counter, before taking off his coat, shoes, shades and hat. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and sighed. "You home, dickweed?" Dave called, scratching through his hair while he put the soda in the fridge. Fuck, he wasn't very sure he was going to make it 'til Karkat got home. He shook his head and padded the bedroom, and turned on the TV in there so he could at least pass out somewhere where he wasn't at risk of getting a neck cramp.

Karkat was just coming up the stairs by the time Dave yelled, half-pulling himself along the rail with an irritable groan. The study had gone fairly well, but after a while everyone had gotten sidetracked, including him, looking over the messages from Sollux again then scowling at one from Vriska as well. He'd taken a moment to change Sollux's address book name to his internet handle more out of habit than anything, and now his phone sat in his pocket silently as he walked in and locked the door behind him.

"Hey dumbfuck, you even want dinner or should we just nuke the pizza rolls and be done with it?" He yawned, stripping off his coat and hanging it on top of the door then dropping his bag on the floor next to the wall. He crawled into bed to sprawl there with his head on his arms, looking ready to pass out whether he was hungry or not.

"Eating requires chewing," Dave half-whined from the bedroom as he sat up a little more, "and chewing is effort." He decided rather than calling through most of the apartment, he'd trudge into the kitchen instead. "You ever go to karaoke?" He asked once he got into the kitchen, wrapping his arm loosely around Karkat's shoulders. "'Cause there's a place I went pretty frequently this summer to do that. Let's do that tomorrow after the movie. It's not up for debate, either. You don't have to do anything but sit there like a furious little grouch if that's what you want."

"You've got to be shitting me," Karkat groaned, slouching in Dave's grip as he faced the freezer, unable to help himself from yawning again. He looked back over his shoulder at the other to discern that he was not joking, and groaned again. "I should have figured you'd be into that kind of thing. Fucking attention whore Strider bullshit..."

"You didn't say no. We're doing it," Dave said, grabbing the pizza rolls out of the freezer before closing it and trundling to the cabinet that held the plates. "Go get comfortable in there, I'll bring these in when they're done." He might have failed at everything else food-related, but if it required a microwave, he could handle it. He made himself useful as he waited for the pizza rolls to warm up, putting the clean dishes away. Once they were done, however, he was almost too sleepy to function, and he shuffled into the room with the plate of pseudo-food.

Karkat was sprawled on his stomach on the bed with one arm tucked under his cheek, the other hanging off the foot as his eyelids drifted up and down sleepily. At the smell of the rolls he sat up with a quiet groan, reaching for them without giving any thought to them potentially being hot, popping one into his mouth and chewing with his mouth half-open to suck in some air to cool it off in the process. "Just know you're not getting me up on any fucking stage, Strider," he muttered, sitting with his back against the wall as he reached for another.

"Fine," Dave relented with a shrug, dropping down and popping a roll in his mouth. "I didn't expect you to, anyway. If anything, it's just something to wind down the night, get us out of the house. My friend twisted my arm to go back, and shit man, I'm rusty as hell. Gotta loosen back up, get my shit in shape." He leaned down to press a kiss to Karkat's forehead. "One song, you can humor me for one fucking song. If you want to split after that, we will."

"We'll see," was all Karkat could say as he went through half of the pizza rolls, stripping out of his shirt then simply laying back in his jeans with his arm over his eyes with a wide yawn. Brushing his teeth could come tomorrow morning. For now, pizza breath didn't matter.

Dave got through most of his half of the rolls before passing out with the plate rested on his belly. He woke up in the middle of the night only to realize that he'd still had food there, and the TV was still on, at which point he took care of both of those and rolled to his stomach to sleep the rest of the night.

He was groggy the next morning and muddled through his morning routine, having to get ready for a boring lecture about the history of movies. He was dragging ass by the time he had to get out the door and had barely eaten his breakfast of toast. He slipped into the bedroom when he was ready to leave, muttering, "I'll be back in like four hours. Coffee's made."

Karkat grumbled quietly from under the blankets, having pulled them up over the top half of his body some time during the night and leaving his bare feet to stick out over the bed. By the time Dave had left for his class, Karkat was more or less awake, already regretting having eaten nothing but those pizza rolls for dinner. He took a long shower, thankful that he didn't have anywhere to be; it was his day off, and after checking his phone the moment he was awake enough to do so, he was greeted with another message from Sollux asking if he'd found any of the others, and from the school's automated message system letting him know that his late morning class was canceled.

Breakfast was actually something of an interesting affair for him, deciding to try and go outside of his comfort zone and making himself a from-scratch eggs benedict then lounging in front of the tv with the plate on the side table. He thought about the assignment that he really should have been getting to, something concerning the history of the trolls after the death of the Signless, then started thinking about the Sufferer himself. He'd met the pre-Scratch version, once, and had tried to avoid ever doing it again after having listened to one of his hot-air speeches. The more he thought back on that, and on the Sufferer himself, the more he thought about Dave's project and the part he would play in it.

By the time Dave was due to return home, Karkat was pacing the living room, talking quietly to himself. It was the Last Sermon, the final testament of the Sufferer as he was tortured, spilling from his lips effortlessly. He spoke as if delivering it to a crowd of vengeful highbloods, his friends and followers suffering around him. His head lifted as he reached what would be known as the Vast Expletive, his voice rising and choking slightly then fading away as he continued to the end, stopping in the middle of the room with his head down. The final pieces of his memory were falling into place.

Dave returned home after an excruciatingly boring lecture on the silent film era, mentally wanting to gouge his eyes out and throw himself off a cliff as he tuned out the professor's droning voice and doodled in the margins of his ledger. He had assumed that the TV was on at first as he pulled out of his coat and hat, sliding off his shoes, but then he realized that it was Karkat. He raised an eyebrow as he set his shades down on the counter and watched as Karkat performed. It was natural, perfect. He crept to the other side of the walkway and leaned against the wall, watching his matesprit perform as he caught the corner of his lower lip between his teeth, amazed by how Karkat managed to flawlessly recite the sermon, showing such stunning emotion that it was almost as if he had lived the part.

Once Karkat had finished, Dave pushed off the wall with a slow, heartfelt clap. "Holy mother of fuck, Vantas," he said, a lump still in his throat. "That was... Shit dude, I don't have the words." He closed the distance between them and tilted Karkat's chin up with a knuckle before kissing him tenderly.

Karkat yelped when he was drawn out of his own mind by the kiss, nearly falling on the ground as he jumped away and clutched at the front of his sweater, the other hand against the wall. His face colored immediately as he looked back at Dave, ears burning scarlet. "Jesus FUCKING SHIT, STRIDER, DON'T SNEAK UP ON ME LIKE THAT," he barked, leaning heavily against the wall and dragging his hand down his face. After the initial shock, he was simply embarrassed to be caught in the middle of the recitation, regardless of the reaction. He groaned and leaned his forehead against Dave's shoulder.

Dave laughed, although he took a step back and out of the way of Karkat's tantrum, just to step closer again and wrap his arms around him. "That was amazing, though," he murmured against the top of Karkat's head, "I can't put to words how great you did." He rubbed Karkat's back momentarily before stepping back again to look him in the eyes. "You're going to knock this shit out of the park. I knew you'd be all right but man, holy _fuck_."

"So full of shit," Karkat muttered as he shoved his face against Dave's chest to hide the soft smile creeping across his lips. Coming from Dave, this was the highest praise anyone could hope to get. He leaned against the other and let out a quiet sigh, staying there a moment before drawing away and looking back up at him. "So other than getting to come home to see me making a huge fucking spectacle of myself, how was your school shit?"

Dave was too busy inwardly flipping his shit over Karkat still to really register the question at first and had a smile on his face until the question clicked. "Oh. Um, boring, mostly? Shit, dude, there's a reason I don't watch anything prior to 1965. Because it is annoying and dumb and I'd rather rip my face off and feed it to rabid wolverines than deal with this goddamn stupid class anymore. But no, it's required. Urgh." He flopped back onto the sofa and smirked. "We should get dinner early so we can catch the earlier showing of the movie and get to karaoke before the queue fills up."

"Does that mean that we should call a reservation ahead or something that way we can actually get to this place and have time to eat beforehand or whatever? Do they even do reservations?" Karkat leaned over the back of the couch with his hands on Dave's shoulders, peering over the top of his head.

Dave tilted his head up to look at Karkat, grinning. "They do reservations and also walk-ins. I reserved a week ago and called them to change it this morning. We've got a couple hours before the reservation, but I think I actually want to dress up. You can wear whatever, but my poor suits are getting NO play lately." He shrugged and quirked a brow at the same time, arching up to steal a kiss. "You'll have to put up with it."

"You think of everything," Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes then returning the kiss and stepping back to cross his arms. "Really. You're dressing up for this. Ignoring the fact that that is going to be uncomfortable as fuck to go to the movies in, why? Also, if you just decide you're going to get all kinds of fucking formal I'm going to have to do the same or else I'll look completely fucking ridiculous standing next to you. Go on," he shooed Dave off, shaking his head as he followed behind and stepped into the closet to grab one of the few button-ups he had as well as the only thing that could possibly count as even remotely formal. He hadn't worn it in a year, but it actually fit better now than the last time after he'd gained some weight.

When he turned around, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his arms crossed over a deep red vest with the faintest shimmering pattern of lines crossing the bright silk. He had a few nice pairs of black skinny jeans that actually looked rather fetching with it, at least from what he'd been told. He didn't have a tie, but honestly he didn't even want one. Dave could go all out and dress up if he wanted, this was as good as he himself was getting.

Dave grinned as he went for one of his favorite suits. He then swiftly occupied the bathroom and got ready, putting in a pair of plugs that were matte black and looked better with the suit than the titanium ones he'd had in. His titanium tongue bar likewise was replaced with a lucite bar and black ball-ends, and his eyebrow piercing got a simple placeholder, keeping him from looking too much of a pierced up freak.

He stepped out of the bathroom in his one-button jacket and perfectly tied black tie. He'd shaved, primped and cleaned himself up to a point where, for possibly the first time in their entire time together, he actually looked and dressed his income bracket. "Let's get the fuck out of here before they give away our seats."

"You're the one that took that fucking long to get dressed," Karkat complained in spite of the way he looked Dave over, his eyebrow twitching up slightly at the image. He shooed Dave on his way again though, grabbing his wallet and slipping it into the back pocket of his matesprit's pants. Dave couldn't help but smile faintly at Karkat's mish-mash outfit. For a guy with really little means to get nice clothes, he did all right. He made a mental note to approximate Karkat's measurements and get him some nice suits - which was suddenly derailed by Karkat's hands on his ass. They lingered there a moment then slid away and Karkat grabbed the only coat he had that could even begin to qualify as looking nice, pulling it on and bracing himself to walk out into the cold. His hair was just as much a mess as it always was, and he didn't feel like taking the time in the bathroom to arrange it any more flatteringly around his horns and potentially making them miss their reservation. Dave grinned and led the way out the door, and down to his car. He let it warm up for a few minutes before heading out, humming to the songs that played on the way, nodding to himself. Yeah. Tonight was going to be fantastic.

Once they got to the sushi restaurant and were seated, Dave had already ordered appetizers of pot stickers and edamame and managed to schmooze his way into a bottle of sake on the house without being carded. "Consider it an early birthday gift to me," he explained to Karkat. "It's bitter but I think you'll like it." He looked over the sushi menu and explained what was what to Karkat, since they didn't bother explaining what was in each roll under the Kanji and Romaji names of each. He may not have been fluent in Japanese like his brother, but he was fluent in food.

He got himself the masago and spider rolls, with shrimp and veggie tempura and what they called 'the death roll'- a hot handroll that if eaten improperly, burned one's mouth like they'd just stuck a chunk of hot lava into it. If eaten in an upright position though, was the tastiest thing on the menu.

Karkat was eyeballing the small selection of sushi he'd gone for between trying to maneuver his chopsticks around the enormous bowl of noodles he'd been brought when he'd asked for udon on the off-chance that it wouldn't be something traumatizing. It had actually turned out pretty well, even when he'd started squinting at some of the things floating in the broth, and he was a little more willing to try the little eel rolls on his elegant little rectangular plate. He'd already completely shunned the blob of green something sitting at the ready, opting to peck at the ginger between bites. He grudgingly admitted that everything he'd tried thus far was delicious but he was still a little bit wary of the sake.

In the end he sipped down two cups of the stuff and felt a good deal lighter, even smiling at Dave as they made small talk, which didn't often happen in public settings.

Dave enjoyed watching each expression Karkat made to the food that was delivered. He had perfect table manners, and a great handle on chopsticks. He picked up a slice of sushi from his own plate after polishing off the entire thing of tempura and held it out to Karkat. On top of it was a heap of orange-red roe. "Try it," He asked, smiling warmly. "Just ignore what it is, and try it." He wasn't going to resort to footsie just yet, but if he had to take the edge off of Karkat's critical eye, he damn well would.

Karkat's eyes narrowed instantly at the piece, recognizing the little heap of orange balls that he'd honestly been burnt out on for the last fifteen years. He glanced back at Dave and the expression on his face though, and conceded, picking the sushi from the chopsticks with his fingertips and popping it into his mouth to chew thoughtfully. He moved it around his mouth thoughtfully as he chewed, then swallowed and gave a small nod. "Fine, you win. It's good. But if I end up getting some kind of paralytic poisoning I'm blaming you."

"Oh shut up, you whiny baby," Dave chided as he grinned, slipping his chin away from the heel of his hand as he went back to finishing his sushi. The sake was good, and gave him a warm feeling though it didn't make him tipsy. Once the cheque came, he slid his credit card into the fold on one side and then indicated a rather extravagant tip, signing his name before handing it back to the waitress. Once she returned with his card, he nodded his thanks to her.

"You ready to go?" He asked as he stood, buttoning his jacket once more. Karkat nodded and stretched his arms up over his head with a soft groan, smoothing his vest back down when he relaxed again.

He was feeling pretty good about all of this, even as they stepped out into the cold. Apparently the bar was close by, because instead of turning toward the garage in which the car had been parked, they'd started the other direction. Karkat huddled close to Dave's side with his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jacket, talking quietly about potentially starting to train with his sickle again just to try and get back into practice before he had to most likely try and strife with Bro. He was relaxed and even smiling faintly in spite of being able to see his breath fogging in the air.

It didn't last long, though. Here and there he could hear footsteps coming and going into various restaurants, bars, clubs in the district, but over the general chatter, occasional music thudding through the floor and out of open doors, he could hear something else. Comments.

"Look at that, he brought his pet for a night on the town."

"Wonder if it bites."

"Clearly it's just there as a toy. Not very pretty for arm candy though."

The more of it he heard, the more Karkat shrunk on himself. They weren't even bothering to try and keep quiet. He grabbed onto Dave's arm to try and hurry him along before he could catch on.

Dave had been listening to Karkat and nodding at the idea of training, even going so far as to offer to be there to spar if Karkat needed it. But the pervasive hushed comments and sickening peanut gallery were slowly driving him up the wall. They were almost two blocks away from the bar when they walked past a group of guys that he recognized as straight-up scum. "Ha," said one as they pushed past them, breaking his hand-to-hand contact with Karkat. "Check out this little-horned freak," said the same guy, and another laughed obnoxiously. "Going on a walk, little shit? Hah, look at this little fucker, all dressed up." 

With a shove to one of the guys' shoulders, Dave got their attention. "Excuse me," he said, his tone low and mellow as he unbuttoned his jacket, slipping out of it and setting it aside on a post office box. 

"Ha, now the trollfucker wants to rumble!" Said the third, before he got an $800 shoe sole in the chin, knocking him into the wall on the other side of the sidewalk. Dave followed through with the kick to spin his leg around and catch one of the others in the chest, before he followed up with a right hook to his face. He looked over his sunglasses as the last one that hadn't been touched, and it was clear that he wasn't fucking around. The guy tried to take a swing at him and he ducked back, grabbing the guy's arm and throwing him down, stepping on his neck.

"Apologize to my boyfriend," Dave hissed, glaring at the other two who immediately shrunk back.

"APOLOGIZE TO HIM," he repeated, pointing at Karkat. That got the one he'd pinned to stutter out a terrified apology and Dave let up and stood at the ready to pour more fiery fucking hell down upon them as he watched them back off and leave.

Karkat was frozen on the spot as he watched all of it, glancing between the men and then at Dave standing in the middle of all of it like some avenging goddamn angel. He had turned bright red that couldn't be attributed to the cold, mouth half open. All of it had happened in the space of a few seconds and suddenly there were men on the ground or staggering away, not even daring to throw back threats or insults behind them. His hand snapped out and wrapped around Dave's and pulled him close, head bumping briefly against his shoulder then turning back up as he gave him a deep frown. "That wasn't necessary," he muttered, glancing around to see some bystanders watching to see if the entertainment would continue.

Dave snapped out of it when Karkat grabbed his hand and pulled closer. "Yes it fucking was," he hissed, glaring down the street, keeping his voice low. "It was. I'm sick of this horseshit you deal with every goddamn day. Those fuckers ever try and start shit with you again, and I'll fuckin' kill 'em." His tone was grave enough where even he was unsure if it was hyperbole or sheer truth. 

He grabbed his jacket again and pulled it over Karkat's shoulders. "You okay?" He muttered as he slipped his glasses up, crouching just enough to look into Karkat's eyes. "You don't deserve that kind of horseshit. I'll kick anyone's ass who gives you shit. I don't even fuckin' care." He calmed himself then, and nodded, putting his arm around Karkat's shoulders, starting to the bar again. "Come on, we're done here. We've got shit to do."

"I don't need to be protected like I'm some fucking prize." Karkat shrugged the jacket off and handed it back, his jaw clenched as he bared his teeth with a quiet, malevolent hiss at the people still watching them. He turned back to Dave with a tight, guarded expression, his hands back under his arms.

Dave stepped back at that and shook his head. That wasn't why he'd done that. That wasn't it at all. "Karkat," he muttered. "It's because you're my best friend. You're my boyfriend, okay? You're not a prize, you fucking moron, you're you, and that alone is all I fucking need to have reason to be pissed at them treating you like that." He shook his head and took his jacket back, walking to the bar. "Don't fucking misconstrue what I do as some fucking shallow-ass need to be some sort of goddamn white knight. They acted like fucking fools and needed to get taught. It's not fuckin' right how they treat you, and it's not going to go unchecked."

Karkat lowered his head, walking beside Dave until the bar was in sight. It felt like Dave was legitimately angry with him, no matter how absurd the notion was. He couldn't help but feel slightly pathetic though. "Why is it when you stick up for me shit goes just fucking fine, but when I try and take care of myself I get tossed in the fucking can for a night? I know people are shitheads but that's a little fucking much..."

Once they got to the bar, Dave pulled Karkat aside and fussed with his hair a little, looking back into his eyes. "Fuck dude, I don't know. Prejudice is a bitch like that. That, and even those fucking blockheads aren't dumb enough to call the police for getting their asses kicked over harassing a troll. Those shitheels probably got seven different warrants out each, anyhow." He brushed his thumb over Karkat's cheek and smiled briefly. "Christ, I love you, you sour motherfuck."

"I'm never going to get you, fucking stupid lanky-ass dickwad." Karkat seized him by the lapels of his suit and dragged him down into a brief, bruising kiss then let him go and shook his hair back into place after it had been bothered. He glanced over at the karaoke stage and the girl on it, wincing at a bad cover of some old Rihanna single.

Dave murmured merrily into the kiss before standing up and straightening his tie. It was shaping up to be one of those nights where it'd be packed. He managed to tune out the person on the stage, but had enough sense not to walk in before she finished her song. He waited for her song to finish as he pulled his jacket off, slinging it over his shoulder, and then led the way through the crowd to his usual booth nearing the back. His very _entrance_ was enough to set a few people into applause, calling out "Strider!" and "SOMEONE GET OUT THE BIG BOOK". 

He dropped himself into his seat and rubbed his face. "Oh man, now I remember why I stopped coming here. Just wait, man, just fuckin' wait. You want to see some fucking embarrassment? This. This is kind of what I think Hell would look like, except replace the hotties with old women," he mumbled to Karkat, squeezing his matesprit's hand.

It was a few minutes before the waitress came by with a glass of soda and another glass just of ice, setting them down before him. "Hey stranger," she teased, looking over to Karkat then. "Oh wow, got a date going on! Here, Dave," she said, tossing down a pile of strips of paper, all with different songs written down for him. He sighed and pulled one out at random, handing it back to her.

"You know how I do, Dani," he said with a small, flirtatious smile. "Get Karkat something to drink too before you go back there, huh? And get him a song list and some paper. I'll be doing his after this one."

"You got yourself into this, you're not allowed to shit yourself and run now," Karkat reminded him, fiddling some with his fingers as he thought about what song to give Dave all the while looking over the papers that had been put in front of him. More likely than not, someone else would give him the same song. He would just have to wait and see. He was just glad that the waitress was the only one that had noticed that he was here with Dave. Strider could have the limelight. He looked good in it.

When the waitress returned she was carrying another tall soda for him as well as a couple more slips of paper for Dave. "Jesus fuck, Strider. People here really fucking love you apparently."

Dave sighed and shook his head, leaning back as he popped an ice cube in his mouth. He relaxed as he slowly let the ice melt in his mouth, waiting for his name to be called. At Dani's reappearance, Dave sat up and looked over at her. "What's the ETA?" 

"You're the one after the next guy. Good luck, Dave." 

He shook his head with a chuckle and slipped his arm around Karkat's waist. "You'd think they hadn't heard someone who can sing or something," he murmured against his matesprit's neck. He watched quietly as some bozo completely butchered a Johnny Cash song, and then once the guy was done he slipped away, making his way through towards the crowd and to the stage. He pulled the microphone off its stand and straightened out its cord, before giving everyone a "How you little fucks doin' tonight?" during the intro, getting some whistles and applause just for that alone. He tossed his hair and started the song, which had a fairly mellow intro, though it picked up steam and soon he was straight up SLAYING it, giving the tune a sharp and perfected twist that he'd managed to learn was his own voice as he used the whole stage. He effortlessly gave more of a show than most people who came up, sang straight into the mic, and left. 

Once his song was done, he swung the cord and swiftly put the mic back up, to a bar full of applause. He stepped back to the mic as an afterthought, adding, "thanks, really." He slipped back to his seat and loosened his tie, slicking his hair back, having heated up under the lights.

Karkat was sitting there with eyebrows raised, looking rather surprised whereas inside he was spazzing about as much as Dave had when he'd walked in on the recitation of the Sermon. He handed over his matesprit's drink then gave him a soft slow clap of his own. "Remind me to never try and follow up that act, I don't think I'd ever be able to fucking live up to a show like that."

Dave chuckled with a bow of his head and sat down beside Karkat. "Looks like we're both fucking awesome in our own rights. You know, you can go up if you want. I won't push you, but shit dude, it's okay. You can't be as bad as Johnny Cash over there," he said, nodding towards the guy who'd gone before him. He took a drink of his soda and rumpled Karkat's hair.

He didn't have the heart to say that he was nothing compared to his Bro.

Karkat whined about Dave always going for his hair, then reached up and ruffled his slicked blonde fluff until it was in just as bad of shape. He grinned toothily at Dave then went back to his soda, leaning against the table as he watched the next person up with little interest. "I'm pretty sure nobody would be quite that bad."

Dave preened his hair right back into something that actually resembled his usual style, albeit more natural. "Little shit," he chuckled and took another sip of his drink. "I'll stop it with the hair if you're so fucking assbothered by it, dude." He smiled faintly as he leaned back again, taking another ice cube to suck on. "Did you pick a song for me to sing?" He asked, his arms behind his head and eyes closed. He sort of wanted to show off to Karkat; it was different for him, to show off in general, and to have an actual person worth wanting to impress. At one point, he wanted to impress everyone he met, but over the years, he got more mellow about it. There were very few people he felt were worth trying to show off to. Karkat held up a slip of paper between two fingers with a soft smile, tucking it into Dave's hand then draping his arms around the other's neck, hands laced together behind it.

"You sing this one right, I'll do one myself. I have a couple I think I could do, but only if you sing that one," he proposed then lifted himself up on tiptoe to peck at Dave's lips, somewhat cooled by the ice cube he'd been sucking.

Dave took the piece of paper and raised an eyebrow to it. "Yeah, I think I can handle this shit," he murmured. Dani came by with refills for the drinks shortly thereafter and took the slip of paper with her with a coy smile, and he winked at her. "So you promise you'll get up there if I can do that?" He said, brow arched over the rim of his glasses. "You set some pretty low standards, Vantas."

"Specific version of it was written on the paper, Strider. I want to see that you can sit your ass down and do it instead of dancing all over the fucking stage." Smiling faintly, Karkat eased Dave's glasses down further to look him in the eye though he didn't say anything more. He would be the absolute last one to admit it, but he wanted to try and relax and actually be part of whatever social bullshit Dave had going. If that included karaoke, he could do that too, if just this once.

"Yeah, I noticed," Dave murmured, letting Karkat mess with his glasses. He leaned closer, smirking faintly as he continued, "you know that it takes *more* energy to bounce around like that, right? This will be a cakewalk. You've set yourself up for supreme failure, nubs." He brushed his nose against Karkat's before moving just enough to press a sneaking, quick kiss to his lips. "Your plan has failed before it's even gotten underway." He grinned just before catching another, more sincere kiss.

"You're better at the active shit. I honestly thought I'd be challenging you," Karkat pouted dramatically against Dave's lips then pressed back into the kiss himself, keeping an ear out for any more snide comments just in case he would have to actually talk Dave down from another sudden rage. That was another thing he never would have expected, but he brushed it off as something of a given anymore. Shit was different now.

With a small smile into the kiss, Dave slipped a little tongue, confident that nobody would bother them in the dark corner. He slipped away then, kneading at Karkat's side with one hand as he turned his attention to the stage. One of the other regulars was on stage, and she was pretty damn good. She had picked a Shinedown song and was doing a fantastic job of putting her own spin on it. "She's great," he said in a murmur. "She's had pro training, it's obvious." He smiled as he turned to Karkat. "Hey, you know, sorry for flipping out earlier. I'm just so sick of people shitting all over trolls like you guys aren't..." he shrugged. "Normal people. Jesus, just because you're different from humans doesn't make it right. I guess it's because you yourself is more important to me than everyone else that I lost it."

Karkat's smile faded off as he nodded, taking Dave's hands and holding onto them loosely. "Yeah...I know. I'm sorry I overreacted, too. That was a seriously shitty thing of me to say, and pretty baseless at that." He leaned up and nudged the bridge of his nose against Dave's chin then stepped back to look at the stage as well, clapping with the rest of the crowd once the song had ended.

The fact that Karkat had even apologized didn't escape Dave. He blinked a little and then chuckled, shaking his head as his ears went red. "We're both assholes," he murmured as he applauded the girl. It would be a little while for his next song to get to the front of the queue, since the bar had filled somewhat since their arrival. He didn't mind; it gave the other singers time to get their own turns, and himself time to mentally recover and start working up the nerve for the next song. Once the next person got on stage, he turned back to Karkat, catching his matesprit's hand in his. "I wasn't joking though. If anyone gives you shit, just say the word, man."

Karkat closed his eyes, pressing his lips together as he leaned back against Dave still holding his hand, tangling their fingers together loosely. "I get shit every fucking day, Dave. I'll be fine. Really," he added, looking back up with a quiet huff.

"It's not cool to me," Dave murmured, wrapping his arm more protectively around Karkat, sighing with a slight scowl. "I'm not cool with that at all. Only person allowed to fuck with you is me," he murmured as he squeezed Karkat's hand. He chuckled at his realization that he really did fill all four quadrants for Karkat, and vice-versa. "You know what, dude?" He said in a hushed tone, just loud enough to hear over the din of the packed bar, "I'm pretty sure we're not doing the quadrants thing." He felt pretty badly; he'd been trying to do things Karkat's way, but shit, it just wasn't working out to how he had expected. He couldn't fit any of them for more than an hour. His own emotions oscillated far too much to play by any one quadrant's rules.

Karkat's hands came up to rest against Dave's arm, his head coming to rest against it. "You know what, you're absolutely fucking right," he murmured, looking toward the stage without really paying attention to it or anyone on it. "So what do you call this? Whatever the fuck this is."

Dave chuckled as he pressed a kiss to Karkat's temple. "Monogamy. It's when all the quadrants are filled by the same person," he explained as well as he could, given his limited knowledge. "When you don't have anybody else in those quadrants, and don't NEED anybody else there. Friends are one thing, but you know as well as I do, dude, friends are something else entirely." He shook his head. "I used to get pretty fucking jealous if someone filled a different quadrant, you know, like, that's why Terezi and I split. I couldn't handle her seeing Gamzee as a kismesis because I thought it was a thing on the side. I know that's pretty fucking infantile of me, but she needed that." He furrowed his brow as he looked down to Karkat. "We've got that shit covered, right?" He sure as shit hoped so.

Karkat thought about that for a moment, then lifted Dave's hand to his lips, kissing the knuckles softly. "Considering the fact that there are always going to be times that I'd like nothing more than to dropkick you off the roof of the apartment building and then like ten minutes later either play one of your shitty video games or sleep with you wrapped the fuck around me... Yeah. I think we've got everything covered pretty fucking well."

Dave could feel his heart speed at that, thudding in his ears as he heard his name called from the booth in the back. "Christ, great timing," he murmured as he caught another kiss from Karkat, slipping away. He climbed back onto the stage and loosened his tie further, grabbing the mic and a stool from the corner of the stage. "I've been challenged to sit the fuck down for this," he said into the mic, getting some laughs from the audience as he sat down. 

As he started to sing, he thought about the desolate tone of the lyrics, helping him through the song. He gave it very few frills and flourish that he'd usually put in, shooting a short look to Karkat in the corner as he sang. At the pickup of the percussion, he put more spirit into it, singing through nearly grit teeth, tapping his foot on the bar of the stool. At the end, he got another crazy round of applause and whistles, at which he thanked the crowd, putting the mic back. "No seriously, thanks," he said again before he left the stage and returned, scratching through his hair with a near sheepish smile. "Gotta say, slow tempo just ain't my speed."

Karkat reached up for his hands and pulled him down to lay a soft, lingering kiss to his lips before sitting back and looking up at him. "You pull it off pretty well even if it's not your thing," he replied with a small smirk, his head tilted some. In the time that Dave had been up on stage, Karkat had asked for a long island iced tea without thinking about how strong it might be, and he'd already taken a few sips of it. He wasn't quite buzzed, but he was feeling pleasantly floaty. Dave noticed the distinctive glass, but didn't say anything. "You sing pretty fucking beautifully, just so you know."

He returned the kiss and wrapped his arm back around Karkat with a smile, chuckling faintly. "Pretty high praise, coming out of you," he said as he grabbed his soda, taking the last remaining few sips from it before setting it aside. "You having fun yet?" He had to ask; Karkat usually took a lot to come out of his shell, especially surrounded by tons of people. 

A troll girl came up on stage next and started with some Halestorm cover of an older song. Dave wasn't a huge fan of the band, but knew that she was already nailing the song. "So what are you going to sing?"

Karkat shrugged a shoulder, leaning against Dave's side with his glass in hand, taking another swallow then putting it back on the table as he listened to the performer. The music wasn't his taste by any real stretch, but he couldn't deny the girl's talent. He looked back at the waitress as she took his slip of paper up to the front, already growing rather nervous. He knew he'd regret this decision. The song he'd picked was one that, while he was familiar with it, it wasn't one that he'd exactly tried to sing ever. It wasn't even by an artist that he listened to much. But the song was important to him if for no other reason than it helped him recall the darker moments in his incomplete memories.

When it was his turn, he pressed his lips together tightly to try and quell the nerves that were creeping up his spine and encouraging him to sit his ass right back down to hide behind his not-tea. When he stood up on stage he did so stiffly, staring around like a deer in the headlights. He glanced behind him and snagged a stool that had been pushed back out of the way, perching on top of it with his feet on the bottom rung. A few people looked between him and Dave with raised brows. This ought to be good, they'd decided, since Strider had brought him. Dave had encouraged Karkat to make sure he wouldn't turn right back around and back to the booth bench, by way of whistling and applauding his getting onto the stage. He was the only one with that kind of enthusiasm for an unknown name at the bar, but he knew he wasn't going to regret it. He worried about Karkat's clear nervousness, but figured that the guy would shake it off.

When the drum beat started up they fell quiet, watching as he started out slightly hoarse and quiet, his eyes closed and face turned down. It picked up soon though and with the chorus, he'd turned his face up into the lights and though he barely moved outside of a slight rocking with the music, his expression alone and the way he held the microphone in its stand conveyed just as much emotion as his solo performance in the apartment. Halfway through the song, the ones that were paying the closest attention could see the light, thin shine of pinkish tears sitting in the corners of his eyes.

He sat back while the outro played, the audience staring up at him then erupting in applause even as he nearly ran off of the stage, red all the way across his face.

That weak start was okay, it was normal for most first-timers - shit, it took Dave a few songs at first to get out of that nervousness back when he'd first started - and yet, once he picked up steam, Dave could clearly see that talent that he'd had come shining through. He was far enough away that he couldn't see for certain that Karkat had tears in his eyes, though he expected as much.

Once the song was over, Dave stood and cheered. Hell YES that was awesome. He hopped out of his seat and bounded down the small amount of stairs that separated him from Karkat and wrapped his arms around him. "Get this talented, recondite little shit another drink!" He called over to the bar, and walked him back to the corner.

One of Dave's friends wound his way through the crowd to tap him on the shoulder. Dave turned around, before laughing and clapping his friend on the back. It was the same guy who'd been twisting his arm about coming back. "Karkat, this is my buddy Dan, he's the asshole that talked me into doing this dumb shit to begin with and got me to drag you here tonight." 

"Hey, that was fucking incredible," Dan said as he offered a handshake. "You got some talent, dude."

Karkat gave him a grimace, looking down at the hand thrust out at him and gingerly took it. Though he'd relaxed substantially, he still didn't really like touching people that he didn't know. He groped for his drink when it was brought and took a few long swallows, still somewhat rattled after getting up on stage, voluntarily, and nearly damaging his vocal chords in trying to hit a couple of high notes. He hadn't spoken up since getting up on stage to begin with, thoroughly embarrassed in spite of the overwhelmingly positive response. Dave chuckled and shook his head, apologizing to Karkat for Dan's not knowing about his touching people thing. His friend made it short, just wanting to let the two of them know that he was around and how they'd blown his mind. He and the rest of the group over to the other side of the bar were there, if they wanted to come by. Dave grinned and shook his head. "Next time, maybe, I think we're sticking to ourselves for now." He waved goodbye to Dan and took a seat, glad that another soda came his way. He could have gotten any drink in the house, but he chose to stay sober while he sang.

He took a seat and looked at Karkat with a smile. "You okay there, nubby? You look like you're about to slip through a crack in the floorboards."

"Points for the discerning mister Strider," Karkat replied thinly, his voice ratcheted up a little too high as he sucked down another mouthful of the drink that was casually obliterating his ability to think clearly. He huddled down in his chair and tried to will away the occasional patron coming by to congratulate him on the performance.

Dave watched quietly and then grinned a little, slipping closer to nudge Karkat. "Let's jet, okay?" He figured a little fresh air on the way to the car wouldn't be too bad; it was only a couple blocks away and then a five minute drive home. "Get these assholes out of your hair." He grabbed his jacket and stood, holding his hand out for Karkat. "We'll go home and watch some dumb shit."

Karkat snagged the hand and pulled himself upright unsteadily, leaning into Dave's side until the world had stopped swaying enough for him to walk a marginally straight line. "And what dumb shit would that happen to be?" He asked quite casually, looking up at Dave with slightly droopy eyes.

Dave chuckled, "You know. The usual. Ronco infomercials, soap operas, people's court. Shit we always watch, of course." He held Karkat's coat out for him. "Get your coat on, it's fucking cold out there." He pulled on his own jacket and straightened his tie, and with a hand through his hair, he was almost as well put-together as he'd started out.

There were no troublemakers on the way to the car, and the drive home was comfortable and quiet, Dave smiling to himself at the entire day. Shit, with the exception of the boring class and the assholes he'd kicked the asses of, it was good times pretty much entirely. He hoped Karkat had felt the same about it. In truth, Dave was turned on a bit by how talented Karkat was and didn't ever show. It was completely out of left field for him. 

When they got back up to the apartment, Dave unlocked the door and ushered Karkat in first.

Karkat's first move was to clamber into the kitchen and stick his mouth under the faucet, drinking directly from it for a long while then standing up straight and wiping his arm across his mouth, looking a little better for it. He rubbed his hands into his eyes then back through his hair, looking up at Dave with a small smile. "I'm pretty sure it's just late enough for some decent movie to be on somewhere," he pointed out, only just realizing that they hadn't gone for a movie as they'd originally intended, but had gone straight for dinner and then the bar.

Dave pulled his jacket off and laid it down on a nearby table, before undoing his tie and setting it atop the jacket. "You pick the thing to watch," he said as he unbuttoned his shirt's first couple buttons, suddenly feeling more human just with that small change. He took off his glasses and mussed his hair as well, grinning. "I'll make something to eat." Something, he figured, that would have a decent amount of salt and bread in it, to take the edge off Karkat's drunk. Karkat yawned and let him do as he wanted, actually taking a moment to grab another glass of water before slouching over the couch, keeping himself standing so that he wouldn't get drowsy enough to fall asleep and end up waking up with a hangover. He took a moment to unbutton his vest with one hand, untucking his shirt and unbuttoning the first buttons to let some air onto his skin. A quick flipping through the channels revealed that absolutely nothing was on that could really be considered worth watching.

Dave decided, after a quick scan of their foods, that he'd make sandwiches and toss some chips on the side. He quietly did so while looking over at Karkat from the other side of the counter. In specific, his ass, since it was right there. "Throw one of your movies on, dude. I'm pretty sure not even shitty acting could blow my good mood." He finished making the sandwiches and went into the cupboard to put some chips on their plates. "Here you go, midget," he said as he handed the plate over, and went to sprawl on the sofa with his own, popping a chip in his mouth. Karkat took the food gratefully after finishing off his water and putting the glass aside, then slung his legs over the back of the couch as he perched on the back of it. He had maybe thirty seconds of peace in which to crunch on a few chips before Em bolted from the bedroom, up the back of the couch, then up over his back and nearly toppling him in surprise before settling on his shoulder and shoving her nose directly into his ear as he yelped. He turned his head to face the little fluffball with her nails dug into his shoulder to keep her footing, opening his mouth wide and giving a quiet, cat-like hiss that she responded to in kind before rubbing her face against his cheek.

"Smartass fucking cat..."

Dave watched and laughed outright, shaking his head. "You think she missed you?" He asked, before taking a bite of his sandwich. "I'm surprised she wasn't waiting at the door to ambush you," he chuckled quietly as he laid his head down on the arm of the couch, noticing that his phone had been at home this entire time. He picked it up and read the few texts he'd gotten, from his school friends, and one from Bro. "Bro's asking if we want any extra shit at the hotel room." He already was typing out his response: **tinybooze a unicorn seven hundred irregularly shaped m and ms in a crystal bowl and a midget hooker**

"I don't give a shit as long as the bed wouldn't fucking glow like the sun if I turned a black light on it," Karkat muttered and propped a foot on Dave's leg as he glanced back toward the tv, having little to no interest in it or watching a movie in general just then.

"He already got us a room with a slime bowl and a bed, man, they switch the slime out for every customer so there's that." Dave smirked as he sent a few more texts to his brother, each one responded to immediately. "As far as cleanliness goes, we'll be staying at the Granduca. They're anal about how clean they are there." He watched as Em hopped down from the sofa, and he took that as his cue, leaning up to wrap his arms around Karkat's waist, pulling him down onto his lap. He barely managed to keep hold of his plate, which had at least been emptied of chips by then as well as a few bites of sandwich. He put it aside on the end table and turned over to wrap his arms back around Dave's neck loosely.

"Maybe I'll actually be able to convince you to sleep in the slime with me for once," he muttered, butting his head against Dave's gently; any time the nightmares started creeping back on him, he had to crawl out of Dave's bed and back into his own, always careful to keep from making a mess when he crawled back out again in the mornings.

With a huff, Dave shook his head, placing his hands at the small of Karkat's back. "You would have an easier time convincing me to do literally anything else," he said with a wrinkle of his nose. He seriously hated slime. He kissed Karkat's cheek and smiled fondly. "Tonight's been great. You blow me away, you secretive little shit. You're a natural actor, a fucking vocal prodigy, and here you are, acting all fucking normal and shit."

"Hey, one of us has to," Karkat scoffed then nudged the bridge of his nose against Dave's, pressing his lips to the other's cheek in kind. "I don't talk about it because it's not exactly all that fucking important in the grand scheme of things."

With a subtle turn of his head, he murmured against Karkat's lips, "What the hell _is_ important in the grand scheme of things? We're generally insignificant these days. That's the way I like it. Being gods was...it sucked, man. This is hells of preferable. But having an extraordinary talent in something mundane is going to get my attention, though, no matter how much you play it down." He idly brushed his fingers over the small of Karkat's back. "And fuckin' face it, dude, you astound the shit out of me. Twice today, I had to fucking collect my jaw off the floor."

"I still say you're a little too easily impressed these days," Karkat mumbled. "It's not even like I really like to sing, or to monologue or whatever the fuck. You're the one that's completely fucking amazing... You're a goddamn artist, and one of the greatest wordsmiths I've ever fucking met. Compared to that, I'm not really all that fucking noticeable. And I'm happy with that. You look good in the spotlight," he admitted, combing his fingers through Dave's hair tenderly and scratching gently at his scalp.

The blood rushed to Dave's ears as he listened, and he shook his head. "As true as that all might fucking be - and I really doubt the veracity on being a wordsmith - this is no competition. They fucking loved you on stage. They're going to love you on film. I'm going to love you no matter how fucking much you downplay your abilities." He arched into the scalp massage, a smile melting into place. "If you weren't so fucking buzzed when we got back, I would've already had you up against a wall. Just...just putting that out there."

"Well what are you fucking waiting for, Strider? I'm right here and believe it or not, I feel pretty fucking good right now. Like wow that's a pretty fucking novel concept, right?" Karkat pushed up some and nipped at the line of Dave's jaw then nosed against his neck.

"You were distracted," Dave explained, though at the nip, he rolled Karkat onto his back, and slipped between his legs, kneeling there to undo his own shirt's buttons, slipping it off. He tossed the shirt aside before working on Karkat's shirt as well, his hands steady and swift, while he caught the corner of his lip in his teeth. "Shit, there've been at least seven different times I wanted to drag you off into some secluded corner and get you off." As impractical as that was in practice, it was still true. And it wasn't far from the norm for Dave, who would've been thinking about sex regardless. It just stood out in his mind when it was Karkat.

"And then you have to explain to some fucking nurse in the ICU why I'm so severely fucking dehydrated," Karkat muttered as he shrugged his shirt off once it had been unbuttoned, draping it over the back of the couch then running his hands up over Dave's sides, scraping his nails up over the lightly freckled skin.

"Yes, nurse, I fucked him half to death, sorry about that," Dave muttered with a lopsided smile, before he leaned over to press a kiss to Karkat's chest. "Let's get to the bedroom before this gets too far," he suggested as he arched into the scratches, groaning low. He slipped away only to hold out a hand to Karkat, working his own fly open on his designer slacks as he led the way there. He closed the bedroom door behind them, sure to not let Em in. She would sit outside and meow to be let in almost certainly, at least until things got loud.

Without waiting for Dave to get fully undressed Karkat pressed up against his back, scratching over his sides again then raking his nails downward over his hips until his hands had dipped into the front of Dave's shorts and taken hold of the base of his cock in one, the fingers of the other hooking around his testicles and squeezing gently. Apparently in the time they'd been together, he'd learned a little about what human boys were supposed to like. Dave would've put two and two together if he wasn't too busy practically melting out of all higher thought with a low, deep moan. He'd probably get around to asking if he remembered to, but as it stood, Karkat simply surprised him and his breath sharply caught in his throat. He didn't move for several seconds, before one of his hands moved behind him and against Karkat's thigh, tracing upward toward his hip. After taking a moment to revel in this small personal victory, Karkat hummed quietly in his throat and pressed his lips against the back of Dave's shoulder, his hands tightening down a little bit then stroking up the length of him to tease around the head, trying to get him as hard as possible before they went on. He bit on the curve of Dave's shoulder as high up as he could manage on tiptoe just hard enough to draw up the smallest pinpricks of blood then licking them away. Dave had already worked himself up with mental images, and the way Karkat nipped his shoulder made him gasp and rock his hips into the other's hand. Once he caught his breath enough to speak, he shuddered out a mutter of "Bed. Now." It was as close to coherent as he was going to get for a while.

Karkat drew himself away reluctantly and finished stripping himself out of his clothes, leaving them on top of the dresser before climbing onto the end of the bed and deliberately showing his ass as one hand crept down between his legs, fingertips rubbing over the sensitive entrance of his nook then teasing the tip of the bulge until it started to ease out and wind around his fingers. "Fucking tease," Dave muttered with a lopsided smile as he slipped out of his own clothes, stepping out of the pile of pants, boxers, and socks as he slid up onto the bed, between Karkat's legs. He ran a hand over one of Karkat's thigh while his other traced down his side. "You clearly had something in mind," he pointed out as he leaned over him, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to his neck. "I've got something I want to do, too, but I'm interested in what you've got going on in that devious fucking pan of yours."

"Well fuck, now I want to know what you have in mind," Karkat murmured and tilted his chin up, one of his hands coming up over his head and wrapping around one of the bars at the head of the bed. He lifted one of his legs to curl around Dave's thigh and pull him down closer. "We have all fucking night, might as well take turns."

"Fine, avoid the question," Dave said with a huff against Karkat's neck, arching his own head up to nip and nibble against the soft, sensitive skin under Karkat's jaw. "I wanted you to ride my face, but I want to hear exactly what you were planning." He was a simple guy of simple tastes that may have ideally included some sort of restraint, but he wasn't going to push. "And we've got to be up at the usual time to get to the airport, we don't have all night. Just most of it."

"Well if that's the case we can just kill two birds with one stone right?" Karkat grinned and drew his hand up from between his legs, smearing the warm, pinkish fluid on his fingers over Dave's chest then curling his arm around his matesprit's neck. "Given the shit you said you're into, you have something to act as a restraint, right?"

Dave's eyes went wide momentarily at Karkat's words, and then he nodded. "Yeah, under the bed," he said. "What do you need, cuffs, bars, rope?" He pressed a quick kiss to Karkat's lips before he slipped away to sprawl over the edge of the bed to pull the completely incognito office box out from under it. The spreader bars were the only ones that almost didn't fit, having to poke out of the hand-holes of the box. They were retractable, but still had length to them that he wasn't able to fit in the box itself. "Go ahead and take your pick."

His ears were burning again, and he could feel his cheeks joining in on the party. The box had more than just restraints in there; there were gags of various kinds, blindfolds, vibrating cockrings and a single slim plug that he hadn't had the desire to play with just yet. Karkat sat up, his head slowly tilting as he peered into the box. At least the majority of the content was recognizable. He marveled for a moment at the spreader, a few things coming to mind at that point, especially when he looked down at the plug, which he was a little less familiar with. He put that idea aside for later though and picked out a set of cuffs with just long enough of a chain to be able to loop around the bars of the headboard, fiddling for a moment and putting his hands behind his back with his fingertips pointed outward. His shoulders would most likely end up hurting afterward, but that would only be if he ended up pulling too hard. He slapped the cuffs against Dave's chest, then crawled toward the head of the bed and sat with his back to it, knocking the pillows out of the way save for one, which he knelt on and gripped the headboard with both hands.

The only indication of how nervous he actually was was the fact that while the red started to creep up in his face again, his bulge had retracted and he'd started to chew at his lower lip again.

Dave wasn't sure what was going on for a half a moment - he was thinking that he'd be the one in restraint for a hot second - but it clicked a half second after and he took the cuffs from his chest and waited for Karkat to get comfortable before he slipped closer, wrapping his arms around him to catch his wrists, the chain of the cuffs jangling as he slowly closed them around his matesprit's wrists, securing them to the headboard as well. He murmured, his voice low and earnest into Karkat's ear, "if you want out of this at any time, just say so." He nipped Karkat's earlobe quickly before tracing the tip of his tongue across the elongated conch and slipping away, moving one hand down to dip between Karkat's thighs. He slid his fingers across Karkat's nook without penetrating as he looked over his matesprit's entire body.

"If it gets to the point we need a safe word, we'll talk." Karkat smiled faintly then sucked his lower lip into his mouth and lifted himself up on his knees, his shoulders pulling back and arching his body up. He looked back at Dave, putting a hell of a lot of trust in him to be letting him do anything while he himself no longer had control of his hands.

Dave grinned then, a toothy grin that was outright devious, as he slipped closer again to brush Karkat's hair from his neck and nipped his neck firmly enough to leave very temporary marks, and worked his tongue up to his ear, murmuring as he slipped his fingers down and inside of his nook. "I'm going to take my time this time around. You'll just have to fucking deal." With his other hand, he brushed his knuckles over the sheath of Karkat's bulge, coaxing it out once more. "I'm going to savor this."

Karkat narrowed his eyes, unsure whether he should regret not letting himself be able to get back at Dave for whatever he intended to do, but soon the fingers in and on him had deftly rid him of any such thoughts and he let out a soft, groaning sigh, pressing down some into the touch as his knees spread wider apart. As he was it wasn't taking much to get him worked up, but not quite to the point that he felt he needed immediate release. He was starting to drip just a little down the insides of his thighs, his hands rotating some in the cuffs as he pulled on them mindlessly.

"Come on Strider, I know you can do a lot fucking better than this," he goaded, opening an eye and peeking at what he could see of Dave then tucking his face against his matesprit's neck and biting in, mindful of the pressure until he got word to either keep going or back off. He still wasn't sure of the other's pain tolerance just yet, but he'd realized that Dave seemed to enjoy the more permanent marks he'd made and wanted to give him something that would last.

With a sharp, not unpleasant gasp at the bite, Dave slipped away entirely and gave a pointed look to Karkat. "Do I need to put a gag on you, too?" He threatened, moving his hands away briefly. "I'm getting warmed up, you idiot." He finally dipped low, slipping onto his back as he pulled himself up between Karkat's legs, replacing his fingers with his mouth. He gave a long, lavish stroke of his tongue over Karkat's nook before shuddering a breath. "Move as you want, Karkat," he murmured, moving his hand up to take grasp of his bulge, firmly fondling it and letting it weave around his fingers. He continued then, delving his tongue as deep as he could, the barbell flicking across the tightened, sensitive folds.

"Jesus mother fuck," Karkat gasped and lifted himself up briefly, his eyes closing tight then slipping half-open again as he repositioned himself to put more pressure on a couple of places. He strained some at the cuffs and rolled his shoulders forward as his bulge wrapped and tightened down around Dave's fingers, a slow leak of sweet red material dripping down his wrist. It didn't occur to him until just then what Dave was going to do when it came time to grab for the bucket as he hadn't seen it around the bed, though it could have easily been under it. The thought was blotted out as the ball of the other's piercing rolled across a sweet spot and made him swear vibrantly. Em fled down the hall and collided audibly with a wall as she rounded the corner into the kitchen then kept going across the tile as traction failed her. Dave groaned at the sounds, squeezing Karkat's thigh with his free hand and continued his own ministrations with his other, and with a deep breath through his nose, he buried his tongue deeper still, flicking the tip and pulsating the rest. He only broke free after a few minutes to take a deep breath, gasping for air before letting out a low groan.

"Don't worry about the mess. We'll throw the stuff in the washer and dry it tomorrow while we get packed. Just let it get on me." He squeezed Karkat's thigh once again before setting in with renewed fervor and speed, the hand that Karkat's bulge had twisted around working at every sensitive, strong inch that he could manipulate with his hand and fingers. Karkat's eyes rolled back as he shifted down against Dave's mouth, knees as far apart as he could get them without pulling something as his hips rolled with every push the other's tongue made. He pulled forward with all of his weight supported by the cuffs, the bed frame creaking slightly at the strain. There was a growing puddle of red beneath Dave's elbow and in the hollow of his throat, streaks of it running down his chest with every move each of them made. He was sitting right on the edge, flushed and hypersensitive and unable to see through the spots swimming in front of his eyes as he begged numbly, words starting to fail him. Once Karkat started spouting fervent Alternian, Dave moved his hand down to replace his tongue, and moved himself up to draw his matesprit's bulge into his mouth instead, his slick hand going down over the edge of the bed to grab the bucket from under it. He was aware that there'd be too much to fully swallow, but didn't honestly care at that point. He positioned the bucket beneath his own chin and then moved his hand down to pump himself with a groan through his nose. The bulge pumped down into his mouth hard, nearly entering his throat as Karkat let out a sharp cry, his back arching hard as the first pulses lit up his nerves like the fourth of July, the flood of red barely contained then spilling fast over Dave's chin and into the bucket. In the last coherent part of his mind he wanted to apologize profusely, sure that he'd managed to choke him unintentionally.

Dave managed to keep his composure although he nearly did choke, if he hadn't blocked his throat with the back of his tongue at the last moment. As it was, he was nearly at his own peak at the spillover, and he groaned through his nose again, the sensation of his matesprit's bulge pulsating and pouring fluid into his mouth. Once he was certain it was over, Dave sat up and wiped his mouth and chin with the back of his arm while he continued to pump himself, underhand and rough. He leaned his head against Karkat's shoulder after a moment, gritting his teeth as he eased the bucket out of the way, wanting to get closer. 

Once he hit his peak, he'd already put his hand around Karkat's waist and was working on releasing the cuffs, though when his orgasm finally hit, his hand dropped forward to squeeze Karkat's ass, his entire body freezing up as he saw stars, and his own ejaculate wound up splattering on the already soaked pillow. He gasped for breath, huffing a dry chuckle, and then went back to work, getting Karkat out of the cuffs. Karkat's hands dropped away from the bindings, letting them fall to rest between his feet. He fell forward some as the feeling came back to his fingers and buried his face against Dave's neck, pressing soft kisses to it then licking the sweat from the curve before finally taking his lips, tasting the lingering material and groaning quietly. "Ghh...fuck," he breathed, flexing his fingers slowly as he wrapped his arms around Dave's waist loosely.

Dave moved his other arm around Karkat's waist, burying his face into the curve of Karkat's neck. He breathed deeply as he attempted to calm his heart down, attempting to keep it from giving him a headache with the way it thudded in his chest and the pulse rang in his ears. "M'not done with you," he warned with a raspy voice, lingering in the embrace for as long as he could until he felt like he absolutely _needed_ to get up and clean things off. 

He drew away and grabbed the corner of the bedsheet, yanking it off the mattress. Under the sheet, he'd laid towels; a mediocre defense against a stained mattress, but still better than none at all. "Gonna throw these in the wash and rinse off," he mentioned to Karkat. "The other sheets are in the hall closet, if you want to help." He grabbed the rest of the sheet, and the few towels that had gotten soaked, as well as the bucket, and headed towards the door. Karkat slumped forward on slightly shaky arms, crawling off the bed after Dave with the intention of heading for the bathroom. While he wasn't nearly as big of a mess as Dave was, he still felt like he needed a shower, sweating like he was. His throat was rather sore from his volume, and he turned a brighter red when he contemplated whether the downstairs neighbors might have heard him. If asked, Dave would say he was almost certain of their neighbors hearing. He tossed the sheets and towels into the wash and looked down at himself, grinning at how much pink he'd wound up splattered with. He looked in the mirror once he reached the bathroom and chuckled. "At this rate, I might as well just dye my hair red," he joked, stepping towards the shower to turn it on. "It's going to wind up tinted anyway, if I keep doing that."

Karkat's blush only grew worse at that as he looked Dave over. Seeing the other drenched in pink was undeniably erotic and he had to bite down hard on the inside of his lip to distract himself from the obvious stains from the drips that had made their way down the sides of Dave's neck. He stepped into the shower spray and slicked his hair back away from his face and allowed himself a small smile. "You'd look fucking ridiculous with red hair."

"Don't say that or I'll get it in my head to do it," Dave said, his smile going lopsided as he stepped into the shower, immediately soaping up his loofah and working the stains off as best he could. He knew that the curve of his neck and collarbone would likely stay slightly more pinkish than usual, but it'd fade in a day or two. "Here, could you get my neck?" He asked, handing the loofah to Karkat before pushing his hair aside.

"Don't even think about it," Karkat muttered as he started to scrub the loofah over the stains, raising an eyebrow at one that had trickled over his shoulder and was refusing to come off without serious scrubbing that would end up damaging the skin. He left it, telling himself that it would just be covered by a shirt and tried to get as much as he could in the meantime. He scrubbed down the middle of Dave's back when he'd gotten what he could, taking care with it that he only really showed when it came to things like this with his matesprit.

Dave smiled at the care that Karkat showed him. He didn't say a word to it, just let out a little groan of approval while he washed his hair. Once he'd finished washing his hair, he turned around and wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist, dipping himself down to catch his matesprit's lips with his own and letting out a little sound through his nose. Karkat let a quiet huff of a laugh through his nose and pressed back into the kiss, then bit on Dave's lip teasingly. "Just how early do we have to be up, anyway? It's pretty fucking late and you said you weren't done yet..."

With a murmur to the bite, Dave snuck another kiss into the mix before responding. "We'll be fine if you just..." He nudged Karkat back a little. "Turn around," he huffed against his matesprit's jaw on his way to nipping his ear. "Foot on the edge of the tub," he directed. He figured that if Karkat held onto the shelf that was built into the shower, and he leaned in while entering his nook from behind, he'd be able to make this good for both of them. Karkat turned and planted his foot against the edge of the tub as instructed, reaching up and stabilizing himself on the shelf that Dave had been hoping he'd hold onto. He looked back over his shoulder at the other with a soft, rather sleepy-looking smile then reached a hand down to coax out his already rather oversensitive bulge once more.

Dave teased his erection across Karkat's ass momentarily and leaned forward as he got into place, muttering into his matesprit's ear, "It'll be quick, then I promise we'll get some sleep." He knew that he wouldn't last nearly as long this time around, although it was usually the reverse that was true; the second time around for Dave was often longer, and in itself, almost annoying with how long it took. This time, though, he'd worked himself up too much to last for very long. Once he pushed in, he let out a low, loud groan while his hand on the wall near the shelf curled into a fist, scratching at the tile. He wrapped his other arm around Karkat's waist loosely and dropped his hand down to tease and toy with his bulge. Karkat groaned quietly and rocked forward some, his eyes falling closed. At least like this they could manage a slow fuck and still not be in there all night. He shifted one hand to curl around Dave's against the wall, the other one still holding them up. His hips pushed back as his bulge curled between Dave's fingers languidly.

"At least it'll be a deep sleep," he murmured, a soft smile tugging at his lips as he chewed some at the lower one.

Dave smiled against Karkat's neck at the remark, rocking his hips upward deeper than usual, but much more slowly and savoring than he'd been prone to. "This has been a perfect day," he practically purred into Karkat's ear, his breath gone shallow and halted occasionally with a gasp or groan. He traced one long fingertip along Karkat's bulge, running across the tip and then some of the more sensitive areas that he'd figured out since the first time they were together. This time, the sounds that Karkat made were quieter, breathless as he moved slowly and shuddered at the depth as Dave's hipbones pressed into the muscle of his ass. He gripped down on his matesprit's hand tightly, clinging to the shelf as he began to drip into the bottom of the tub. He let go of his lip and smiled crookedly as he closed his eyes, rocking on the ball of his foot.

"Not doing karaoke again..."

Dave huffed against his matesprit's neck, nipping his shoulder. "Just don't stop singing altogether, and I won't care," he murmured, his own hand against the wall tightening as well as he felt himself slowly approaching climax once again. "Don't be intimidated out of your talents." The ministrations of his other hand sped as he upped the tempo of his hips. He kissed and then dragged his tongue teasingly along the sensitive spot behind Karkat's ear, whispering, "you're too good for that."

Karkat let out a hard breath and braced his arm against the wall as he moved and rebounded off of Dave's thrusts, already oversensitive and climbing back to his peak once more. He whined softly and licked his lips. Between the heat of the shower and Dave's attentions, he wasn't going to last much longer and then he could finally rest after a pretty long and admittedly tiresome day. "Why th'fuck would I sing otherwise?" He gasped quietly, his mouth falling open as his brow furrowed at a spot deep inside him being brushed over repeatedly.

With the way that Karkat moved against him and the heat of the water against his back, Dave barely had the mental faculties to do anything but push on until his orgasm. Even if he hadn't been completely preoccupied, Dave wouldn't have had an answer to that question. He came shortly thereafter, squeezing Karkat's hand in his own, having to keep his other hand moving for Karkat's sake as he shuddered his matesprit's name against his ear.

Karkat groaned and tightened as he felt the pulse of the slightly weakened climax, his toes curling some against the floor of the tub as finally the combined sensations led to his release, his head falling as he watched with half-lidded eyes the bright red running down the drain. He pushed himself up from the wall and let his raised leg back down, leaning back against Dave heavily. After catching his breath again he grabbed for the soap and made a quick job of washing his hair, his head tipped up into the shower spray and slicking his hair back out of his face. Dave stepped away once Karkat started to wash and he made tired but quick work of rinsing himself off as well. Tomorrow he could worry about trying to style it some way that didn't look like permanent bedhead but for now, it was just fine.

Turning off the water and stepping out of the tub was a bigger chore than Karkat expected, his knees feeling rubbery as he stood and rubbed himself down with one of the clean towels, letting it sit over his head as he turned to face Dave with a tired smile. Dave held onto him weakly, his muscles feeling like putty and his entire body feeling heavy. Once out of the shower, he grabbed a towel and dried off, leaning against the sink counter so he didn't have to bother keeping his balance. With Karkat's smile, he responded in kind, and slipped away from the counter to shuffle out of the bathroom. He grabbed clean sheets and spare, rag towels to go under them on the way to the bedroom, and put them on his bed before sprawling out on it, not caring about the general disarray of the blankets. He took his barbell out and set it aside, before grabbing his alarm clock and setting it.

"My advance apologies for the rude awakening tomorrow," he muttered to Karkat as he set the clock down. He was already mostly asleep at that. All he needed was Karkat beside him to lull him off into a deep, relatively dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are gonna get complicated after this chapter and the characters are gonna start pouring in. Dis gon b gud.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HAPY BIRTDAY DAVID MARYANNE STRIDER GOOD JOB NICE TIEM
> 
> Also, Terezi.

Taking off in an airplane for the first time had to be the worst experience he'd ever fucking had. That was before the turbulence happened. Then the descent and finally the landing, the tires screaming against the tarmac nearly throwing Karkat into a full-blown state of panic. He'd argued with Dave the entire time they'd been waiting in the airport to take off that they were going to end up exploding in the sky (and had ended up making a small child cry somewhere in the process) then fallen silent as he gripped the arms of the aisle seat in which he'd been situated. Dave had been on planes a lot before, to and from various huge fucking meetings with potential clients for the Smuppet brand with Bro when they couldn't find a babysitter for his rambunctious ass. He was calm as the ocean after a storm, and tried to let that rub off on Karkat during the flight, to no avail.

Now Karkat was staggering out of the rattling suspended walk on legs that looked ready to collapse from under him at any moment. He didn't acknowledge the woman waiting at the gate as he fell forward to cling to the nearest solid vertical structure he could find just to keep himself upright, internally raving at Dave for letting him anywhere near a plane, barely registering that the wall he was clinging to was in fact rather lumpy, soft in places, draped in white...

Oh.

Oh no.

Karkat's eyes traveled upward as he tried very hard not to let himself go ahead and sink to the floor in a miserably humiliated puddle, eventually meeting his own reflection in a pair of ironic pointy anime shades and a pair of orange eyes looking at him like he was a bug that had just happened to land on the front of his shirt.

Dave shouldered his messenger bag and tried to get rid of that deep gnawing of sudden desire to curl up and die of utter uncoolness in the face of his brother. "Look, all I'm saying," he started to say to Karkat as they left the plane and walked down to the gate, "is don't bl-oh dear god in heaven, Vantas." He facepalmed as his boyfriend ran straight into, and then clung to his brother. 

Bro had seen better first impressions in his day. And if anyone thought Dave could put on a good stoic face, they'd certainly not seen the stone-cold expression of Bro Strider. He looked down at Karkat with a raised eyebrow, and then up to Dave. "First time on a plane?"

"What gave it away?" Dave said, his voice suddenly gone cracked and quiet by comparison, as he pulled Karkat off his brother and patted him on the back. "Bro, this is Karkat Vantas. Karkat, Bro."

Bro stepped back and nodded in lieu of a handshake. "Good to meet you. You can call me Bro, or Broderick. Dirk works, too, but from what I've been told, that'd get confusing." He rumpled Dave's hair before nodding up the walkway. "C'mon, let's get the fuck out, get this kid some fresh air."

"Yes please," Karkat squeaked at him, his heart lodged firmly around the region of his voicebox as he clung to Dave instead. He fully expected a beatdown later for this. Whether it be verbal or otherwise would apparently depend upon the mood that the elder Strider would be in when it was delivered. When they stepped out into the relatively mild air Karkat took a moment to compose himself in spite of the fact that after that first impression, he was fucked ten ways to Sunday on ever gaining the favor of the infamous Bro Strider.

But contrary to his reputation, Bro didn't really mind even half as much as he seemed to. Dave knew as much and rubbed Karkat's arm, murmuring, "it's cool, you're cool," to assuage whatever fear Karkat had decided to cling to. The warmth of the Houston winter hit Dave like a ton of freshly-baked bricks and he shook his head. "Jesus hell, dude, why with the weather?"

"I know," Bro responded, "it's downright fuckin' chilly today, right? Oh hey, we don't have to wait for your bags, they'll be trucked over to the hotel and put in your rooms." He lit two cigarettes and handed one over to Dave as he looked over at the other two. "You guys want to head out now, or grab some food before we jet?" 

Dave took the offered cigarette and took a long, stressed drag. "Fuck, I dunno, I could eat?" Whatever illusion of coolkid that he'd still kept around had been thoroughly smashed and left at the gate, it seemed. "Vantas? You?"

"Uh... Yeah. Yeah, I could go for something edible," Karkat spoke up when he was asked, hanging back a little ways and watching Dave interact with his brother. He adjusted his bag some on his shoulder as he started feeling a little more normal. The longer he watched Dave and Bro-Dirk-Broderick-whateverthefuck interact, the less sure he felt about all of this. He'd already felt enough like an outsider as it was. Now he just felt like a third wheel in a family reunion.

Dave had close to a death grip on Karkat's hand as he felt himself fall deeper into the shadow of the man beside him. His shoulders slumped and he lost his impeccable posture, slouching slightly while Bro listed off the restaurants that were in the airport. He let go only once Karkat started hanging back, trying not to make him do anything he didn't want. He felt like he was a little kid again, and it wasn't exactly the best damn feeling on the planet. But he had a smile on his face, one that was sincere despite his sudden deflation of ego. He was here with his brother, and with Karkat, and life was amazing.

Bro, meanwhile, looked over his shoulder at Karkat. "Hey. Skip. Pick a thing to eat. You're the guest here, right? Guest gets first choice, them's the rules." He gave a quick smile - something that sat as naturally on his face as the stony stoicism, charming and easygoing - and he flicked the cigarette out of his grip and to the parking lot.

Karkat looked up when he was spoken to, catching a glimpse of the smile and blinking a bit at it, his face frozen in the perpetual scowl he'd worn so long ago and never quite lost. "Fuck, I don't know...Is there anywhere I can stuff my face with fries? I want a shit-ton of fries..."

Dave raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to Karkat's request - it wasn't strange by any stretch of the imagination for himself to want fries, but Karkat rarely even acknowledged greasy food like that as existing, much less as edible. He figured it was due to nervousness and looked at Bro as he finished off his own cigarette. "I need a fucking burger like you have no goddamn clue," he added to that.

"Cool, we'll hit the gourmet burger place before we leave. Come on." Bro stood and led the way, and Dave had no choice but to follow hopelessly along, taking Karkat's hand again with a semi-hidden look of complete embarrassment as he mouthed out 'dude i am so sorry'. Karkat clung to Dave's hand as he continued to trail behind them, muttering some about long legs, glaring some between the two of them. He was having to jog some to keep up with his beanpole boyfriend and the brick shithouse brother, clinging with his free hand to the handle of his carryon.

"What, we're eating here in the airport? Can we at least go somewhere that there aren't so many fucking people?" He pleaded.

Bro chuckled with a shake of his head, turning a corner to a large hall that was practically barren, save for two or three people paying no attention whatsoever to anything but not getting lost in the goliath airport. "Dave, dude, is your boyfriend always this annoyed by everything?"

"Mostly. Sometimes he's loud about it, too." Dave said truthfully. He squeezed Karkat's hand as they paused. "Can we not walk like our shit's on fire, though?" He piped up, and looked over at Karkat. "It's not like we're in any rush to do anything. I've got all week."

Bro looked at Dave, then at Karkat, and shook his head. "Shit, dudes, I'm sorry. Come on, it's not too far down here," he said, and slowed down his stride. Dave looked at Karkat again, and started to walk at the pace he'd established with Karkat a while back.

"At least it's actually kind of quiet here," Karkat huffed as he was allowed to slow down a little, lacing his fingers between Dave's as they walked. He glanced up at Bro every so often, already seeing the physical resemblance even if that didn't extend to body type. He bumped into Dave's side when they finally found the little burger joint, breathing an internal sigh of relief then pulling his wallet out of his back pocket with the intention of at least paying for his own food.

Bro wasn't even looking remotely in Karkat's direction when he said, "Put that away. Everything's on me this week, including everything of yours, short-stack. Don't make me tell you twice." 

Dave nearly jumped out of his skin at the tone in Bro's voice but gathered his composure in a split second and slid his hand through his hair. He shook his head to Karkat, to make sure he didn't argue with Bro, and walked in behind the older Strider as they took a seat. He dropped down into the booth bench heavily and fell quiet as he hid his face in the menu. Karkat didn't seem to know what to do with himself at that, staring between the two of them as he slowly tucked his wallet back out of the way and slid onto the bench beside Dave with his head tucked down like a scolded child. He grabbed his own menu and tried to focus on it in spite of the burning of his ears.

Dave stayed quiet while they waited for the waitress to come by and take their drink orders, squirming with his feet as he read the menu, pointedly NOT looking at Bro. He looked over at Karkat with silent apology over his shades. He hadn't prepared Karkat for this enough. Bro was a fucking force of nature, and there was nothing to make this any less awkward.

"So, Karkat," Bro started, "you've known the shrimp for a long while now, haven't you? I remember him saying something about some cranky troll dude right after his hospital stint." He was casual about it as he took off his glasses, hanging them off his shirt's pocket as he started reading the menu as well.

"Uh. Yeah. Kind of. I mean yeah we've been talking for uh... A few years now? Kind of." Karkat didn't really know what else to make of the question, getting a creeping feeling that Bro knew a hell of a lot more than he was letting on and was just letting them both squirm. He resented just how much he was starting to sound like Tavros in the face of his nerves over meeting the guy. He'd come face-to-face with denizens, gods, and rivers of blood and he was fairly certain in that moment that none of that had stressed him out half as much as this did. "I mean for a while there I wasn't exactly a very fucking stellar friend but I got over it and grew the fuck up and I'm rambling so I'll just kind of shut my windhole now oh god..."

The question got Dave's attention, though, and he was staring holes straight through Bro at the moment, glaring behind his glasses as Karkat rambled. But once Karkat tapered off into silence again, Dave lost the fire and went back to deciding between the swiss and mushroom or the pineapple bacon burgers, fishing for Karkat's hand to hold tight.

Bro chuckled. "Nobody's a perfect friend at first, and I'm not holdin' it against you. Okay, what the hell's up with you guys? You're all wound up. Can you calm the fuck down? I'm not gonna start an all out free-for-all strife here in the goddamn airport, you can just fuckin' _mellow._ There's no fuckin' call to impress me, guys." He looked over at Karkat again, charming smile back in place. "Frankly, anybody who can put up with Dave the way you do already _does_ impress me. So calm your kitten tits, kid. This is your vacation! Fuckin' live it up a little!"

That was when the waitress came by to take their orders. Karkat gave a nearly inaudible whimper as he dropped his eyes to the bottom of the menu, scanning over the sides and breathing an internal sigh of relief as he spotted an available extra order of fries with any burger they chose. He went for a regular double cheeseburger and that extra order, trying to will down the near constant embarrassment that had started weighing on him from the instant he'd stepped off the plane. Then he paused and stiffened up.

"...Oh fuck. Dave, the kitten," he muttered, giving Dave a panicked look. They'd forgotten to tell someone to either take Em or at least come and refill her bowl and change her litter. He fumbled for his phone and flipped through the contacts to try and find someone that he knew wouldn't either flake out and forget, or else steal something because it was sitting out visible.

With an order of the mushroom swiss, Dave wasn't calmed by Bro's asking to calm, but rather by Karkat's panic. He put his hand on Karkat's shoulder with a laugh, smiling and shaking his head. "It's okay. Em's okay, nubby. Nah, man, I called up Cass. He's the best guy with pets, and he said he'd clean up a little while we were gone if I paid him extra." He grinned. "He'll keep her safe and happy, he's like...some weird sort of animal whisperer. His place is like a zoo. Two dogs, a cat, a pair of jerboas, shit, dude's even got an aquarium of snails. He'll treat Em real well." He rubbed Karkat's back and chuckled again. "Do you think I'd let that slip my mind?"

Bro watched from his side of the table, having ordered a barbecue bacon burger and an extra order of fries that he'd slide over to Karkat, having opted for onion rings himself. He grinned at the way they worked together. Dave got to use his ineffable calm, and this Karkat kid kept Dave on his toes. It was easy to see, despite the tense atmosphere. Karkat pouted some at Dave then leaned against his shoulder, grabbing for his drink and holding it in both hands as he sipped at it. "Who th'fuck keeps a bunch of snails anyway," he muttered around the straw, privately incredibly grateful for Cass being close to Dave. He glanced up at the man across from them and narrowed his eyes at the look he was giving them.

Bro grinned at Karkat's clear disdain. "You two do all right, huh? No problems?"

"I had to kick some guys' asses last night for talking some shit, but other than that? Yeah. Yeah, we do all right. Karkat here, man, I dunno, he's an idiot, but he's my favorite kind of idiot, 'cause he puts up with my dumb ass all day." Dave bowed his head with a full-out sheepish smile, squeezing Karkat faintly. "He's been helping me with my finals project."

"The thing about the Sufferer?" Bro asked, looking Karkat over. "You said he was his ancestor, right? I can see that panning out. Yeah, that's pretty fuckawesome," he said, nodding. "How about you, short-stack? You doin' okay with this poser?"

"He's abusive and never lets me have anything I want and my life is misery and woe," Karkat replied casually, finally looking as if he was starting to relax as he delivered the comment with the casual sarcasm of someone who'd come to know and appreciate how Striders worked. He glanced sidelong at Dave nonetheless, the corner of his mouth pulling up into a small smile.

Bro's smile went broad and he leaned back as he took his hat off to briefly slick his hair back. "Well shit, you know you could probably sneak up on him and kick his ass if he's so goddamn bad for you. He's a pushover in a throwdown." He sipped his drink with a lopsided smirk, leaning back into the booth bench like it was a throne.

Dave had a similar sprawl with his arms across the back of the other seat, his other arm casually draped over Karkat's shoulder. "Yeah, I'm just fuckin' terrible in a strife. Bro can't train for shit." His accent started slipping in, but he honestly couldn't care less. Karkat could give him all the shit in the world for it, but at least he knew that he wasn't the only person in the immediate area that spoke like that. "But yeah, fuckin'...no. Karkat's really helped with this shit for the project. He's taking the part of the Signless, and he found a Psiioniic for it. Dude, he blew me away yesterday, I came home and he was working on his lines, and the little fucker had been hiding this godly fuckin' acting talent under all that fuckin' hair or somethin'." And just for the hell of it, he rumpled Karkat's hair gently, making sure not to mess it too terribly.

Karkat tried to smooth his hair back down with a grumble and wrinkled his nose at Dave, then shrugged sheepishly. "I've had the Sermon memorized for a long time, even before I picked my major. We still have to find someone for the Dolorosa and I really don't know about the one we have for the Disciple." He looked up when the waitress arrived with the tray laden with their food, setting everything down then leaving just as quickly. "Though...we did just learn about Kanaya still existing, maybe we can talk to her about this?"

Dave hadn't even come to that conclusion, and his eyes widened. "Oh holy fuck, dude, why are you such a goddamn genius?" He immediately had his burger in his hands and took a huge bite of it, continuing around the food in his mouth, "s'fuckin perfect." It was obvious that the gears in his head were spinning again. He pulled his phone out and started texting to Rose. "We'll need to get her out here somehow... By here, I mean there, but..."

"Aaaand we've lost him," Bro said as he watched Dave fall straight into the depths of his artistic brain. "You're doin' philosophy, right? That's noble as hell. Tough major to go in for so little payout. Then again, there's some places that'll hire you with a degree in goddamn anything, even if it isn't related to the job. Just as long as you're doing what you love." He shoved his basket of fries over to Karkat. "Then again, I can't talk for shit about any of that. I dropped out of college my second year in, moved to Japan for two years instead."

Karkat picked up three of the fries at once and dipped them into the blob of ketchup he'd just finished squirting into the corner of his paper-lined basket, biting them in half then looking back at Bro. "Yeah well, you can afford to do that shit. I can barely afford doing this and even then I'm still going to have to deal with the fucking interest on the loans. Every goddamn cent I earn from working the cafe with Dave goes straight into trying to knock that back down a little at a time. Well, that and shopping for food that's not instant so Dave can actually get a little bit of fucking mass on him." He shook his head and shoved the fries into his mouth then glanced at Dave as he chatted back and forth with Rose. If they even agreed, they could make the actual arrangements during a video chat so that they could actually discuss what they needed to do all at the same time.

"I wasn't always rich," Bro said with a slight smile. "Shit, I got on that plane with no intentions of coming back, and no money to get back even if I wanted to. I wound up bummin' around in the mountains for a few years, then I came back here after saving up, 'cause I'd hit paydirt for inspiration." He popped an onion ring in his mouth. "Probably was just as fuckin' broke as you are now. Don't get mired in that bullshit, y'know? Don't let the numbers pile on you. It's fucking insignificant." He leaned over to shove Dave's head. "Hey. Asshole. Eat your fuckin' burger."

Dave grumbled as he leaned away from the hand that came into his periphery, and picked up his burger again in the most spiteful way possible, taking a bite as he continued to text. "Kanaya says she'd be willing to come out and do it only if she gets to do the costume design, and if we promise not to be complete dopes," he said to Karkat. "We'll talk to 'em later when we got some time to conference."

"Well shit, now we don't really have to worry about raiding the theater department or some shit or making the costumes ourselves. And we know they'll hold up after the fact, too." Karkat gave a more honest smile at that, leaning into his food as he picked it up and bit into his burger, wrinkling his nose some at the grease but ignoring it for the time being. His stomach would likely end up upset after this, but it was worth it for the developing amiability.

Dave set his phone down and continued eating. He looked over at Karkat with a smile after a moment. "Once we can ditch big and dopey here, I'll take you downtown, show you the tourist shit. It's a pretty good day for it; tourists only show up on the weekend, so it won't be so crowded."

Karkat thought about that for a moment before making a suggestion: "We should probably at least go back to the hotel first and make sure our shit's there and in one piece. Then we can go and do whatever."

"It's just downtown, so that's a good plan," Dave said with a nod, finishing off his burger before idly picking at his own fries. "They've got some pretty stellar tourist traps, I mean, as far as tourist traps go. And it's early enough in the day where it hasn't fully warmed up yet. You might even be able to swing wearing normal clothes and not fifteen layers of sweater."

Bro's eyebrows arched as he polished off the last of his food. "Mm, reminds me that I've got a couple of those for you back at my place. Okay, here's the plan. I'll get you two to your hotel, then jet for a while. We can meet at the aquarium restaurant at seven so you two don't starve, and then I'll call you at like, one tomorrow afternoon so we can do some birthday shit."

"Birthday shit. Sounds exciting." Karkat finished off the last of the fries, then blinked when he realized just how many plates of them he'd gone through. He very primly pushed the last of it away and finished off his soda, then wiped his hands and mouth, scooting out of the booth and standing with his hands shoved into his coat pockets. "The sweaters are going to be more of that ironic Ninja Turtle bullshit, aren't they?" He rolled his eyes, waiting for them to join him.

Bro paid the bill and stood as well. "I swear on my own grave that they won't be ninja turtles or even turtles of the pedestrian variety. Nah man, this shit is classy." 

Dave joined after a moment, grabbing his bag from the floor under the table. He put a hand in Karkat's and started lazily to the door. "That means it's going to be some fuckin'... I dunno, Hello Kitty. Something."

Once they got back outside and to the car, it was a balmy 78º, and the inside of the Camaro was outright toasty. Dave tossed his bag in the back, giving Cal a fond salute of hello, before sitting in front. "Sorry about not joining you in the back, nubby, but I'd have to amputate both my legs to even think about it. Anyway, Cal's back there. He's cool."

Cal was, indeed, cool as fuck. If one could categorize potentially-and-in-fact-quite-possibly-sentient puppets as cool. 

Karkat slumped into the seat after shoving his bag in ahead of him, pulling the seatbelt across him then looking up as soon as he heard "Cal". It felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the car as his eyes swiveled to one side, meeting the glassy blue gaze of the puppet and its big, toothy grin. He slowly flattened himself against the door as the car started and pulled out of the parking garage, unable to tear his eyes away. Here and there his brain saw fit to throw up flashbacks of the meteor at him, but mostly he could hear some very faint, terrifying laughter in the back of his head. By then he had managed to press his back to the window beside him, one of his hands creeping around the side of the front passenger seat to grip on Dave's sleeve with his fingertips. Dave turned to look and then sighed, snapping his fingers in front of Karkat's face.

"Hey, don't look at him that long, dude," he said in all seriousness. "He'll start talking to you if you pay him that much attention. He's cool but he's pretty fuckin' protective of us."

Bro nodded to that. "Yeah, Karkat, you don't want to disturb the juju. He'll make up his mind about you on his own time. For now, just..." He grabbed a jacket off the front seat and tossed it into the back, covering Cal. "There. Don't move that." 

Dave sighed and shook his head. "Well, at least we got the weirdest shit out of the way first thing. If you can handle Cal, you'll be able to handle anything else."

Karkat jumped rather badly and gave a quiet wheeze as his hand clamped around Dave's arm, snapped out of the strange hypnosis and immediately shrinking into his coat like a frightened turtle. "Yeah. Fine. I can handle that. Completely fucking normal. No psychosis here, nope. Jesus fucking christ on an unleavened cracker..."

"Man, I'm sorry I didn't fuckin' warn you about that shit. He's... I dunno." Dave said with a shrug. He had some pretty solid theories on what Cal was, but he didn't want to say them out loud.

"He's juju," Bro interjected. "He's in every Strider's life, simultaneously, no matter where and when they are. He's probably in other whens and wheres with other people in pivotal parts of their lives, but it's not important to really understand his entire existence. Only that he does exist and he helps." He lit another smoke and went back to tuning them out.

Dave just sort of stared at Bro for a minute, realizing that there was no goddamn way for his brother to know the half of it without knowing a LOT more, then turned around to look at Karkat, brows arched high. Karkat's throat worked as he stared at the back of Bro's head, lips twitching some as if he wanted nothing more than to simultaneously throw a fit and break into tears. Instead he let out another quiet wheeze and slumped back against the seat, pulling his knees up to his chest and looking out of the window as he tried to process the new information. His forehead pressed against the cool glass saying nothing more on the subject and trying very hard to ignore the feeling of eyes on him. Dave sighed deeply at Karkat's reaction, and got into a position to rub Karkat's arm from where he was.

The rest of the drive was relatively quiet, save for the radio that Bro turned on once he got bored of listening to the wind alone. Once they got to the hotel, he killed the engine, got out to let Karkat out, and handed off the key card to Dave. "Look, if you guys have any questions, you know I've got your backs," he mentioned, before nodding to the front doors. "Your suite's on the second floor, left corridor. It overlooks the pool." He waved as he got back into the car.

Dave immediately was all but attached to Karkat with an iron grip when he got out of the car, rubbing his back. Once Bro left, he murmured, "You okay?"

Karkat pressed his lips together as he watched Bro's car pull away, entertaining the idea that he could still see him through the rear-view mirror. He rubbed his hand back through his hair as he took a few shallow breaths, then swung his bag up onto his shoulder more securely and started toward the doors with his hand clamped down around Dave's. He got a couple of looks from the people at the front desk for the way he was very quietly freaking out as they confirmed their reservation and were handed their key, but he barely seemed to notice or care. For now, he wanted to lock himself in the bathroom until the episode passed (which wouldn't take long; these things never did) then try and get back into vacation mode.

He ignored elevators in favor of climbing the stairs in an attempt to try and work off some nervous energy, then leaned heavily into the door of the room until it was unlocked. Without setting his bag down, he retreated into the first door he saw and closed and locked it behind him.

Once Karkat zipped past him, Dave just nodded quietly to himself and then looked around the entire suite. He gawked at the lavishness of it, its full fridge, its perfect view, its fifty billion seats and separate bedroom with recuperacoon, where their bags were set on the floor. "Jesus holy fuck, Bro," he grumbled before he went to the computer that was provided, plopping down and noting the pre-installed apps and a readme which assured that all information on the computer would be wiped after their stay. He fired up pesterchum and typed in his information. It brought up his friend list and immediately he was assaulted with **Enjoying your vac8ion?**

**holy shit vriska just fuck off for a couple weeks would you we really dont need your bullshit rn**

**Fine. 8ut I'm not done with you yet, Strider. Stop peeling the wallpaper 8ack. What lurks 8ehind it is unpretty. Stop prying.**

He heaved a sigh and rubbed his face in exasperation. What a fucking dumb vacation this was getting to be. He removed himself from the computer seat and started pacing around to get himself back together.

He opened up the blinds to let some light in and then got out his camera to look through the lens at the room. Shit, every goddamn angle of the room was quality, everything was brochure perfect, and he couldn't decide what to take a picture of. He turned to the door of the bathroom that Karkat had run into. "This place is ridiculous," he called from his place in the 'living' room.

"This bathroom is fucking ridiculous," Karkat yelled back, sounding slightly out of breath but otherwise marginally calmer than he had been. He was staring into an enormous mirror over a shallow sink with a huge walk-in shower and an even bigger bathtub, spare towels stacked out of the way, everything absolutely spotless and just a little glittering and making his eyes hurt. He stepped out of the bathroom after another minute with his bag on his shoulder, looking at Dave with his camera and cracking a small, crooked smile. At least he still seemed pretty un-bothered.

"So...now we put some shit away then wait to go do touristy shit?" He asked quietly, setting his things on the ground near the wall and peeling out of his jacket, then his sweater and the t-shirt underneath. He took a moment to pull on a thin long-sleeved shirt then the t-shirt over the top of that instead. He stayed crouched on the ground near his bag, opening his phone to see another few messages from Sollux that approximated to about the same thing Vriska had sent Dave.

Dave got a shot of Karkat when he pulled that little smile, and stuck the tip of his tongue out with a grin. "Sure dude, we could go right now if you want. I'll just slip into a better shirt. I'll sweat to death in this long sleeve fuckery if we go out," he said as he sauntered into the bedroom. He set his camera down and pulled off his shirt, tossing it aside before grabbing a sleeveless white shirt and pulling that on. "Vriska said hi." He mentioned, thumbing over his shoulder to the computer before he looked down into his suitcase, debating putting on shorts.

"Vriska can bite my bulge," Karkat replied, then rounded Dave to get to the computer to tell her so himself. He turned to lean back against the edge of it as she started cussing right back at him. Karkat crossed his arms and watching the other for a few seconds before stepping over to him and wrapping his arms around his matesprit's waist loosely, head leaned against his back between his shoulder blades. "Sorry for acting like a complete fucking spazz earlier..."

Dave chuckled and put one hand back against Karkat's waist, patting as best he could. "It's a new situation, unfamiliar territory...fuckin' Bro and Cal. Yeah, I mean, I get it. Bro makes anyone go off their game, and then, fuck dude, I dunno." He turned around and wrapped his arms around Karkat, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "Don't sweat it. Bro likes you from what I can tell. Cal...you can ignore him, I guess. He's no big deal." He leaned down to kiss Karkat gently. "I'm here with you. Okay? This shit's my back yard. I'll keep you from going over the deep end, if you need that shit. Fuckin'... I don't care what the dick anyone else says, what happens next, I'll keep you level. Just remember that, all right?"

Karkat took his hands and lifted himself up on tiptoe to give him another kiss, then nosed up under his jaw briefly before stepping back and looking him over. He bent to find an overshirt for him to wear over the tank top. There was a comfortable, semi-ironic flannel hipster button-up in there somewhere that he also knew Dave looked amazing in (as if he didn't look amazing in just about anything he put on to begin with), pulling it around his shoulders then stepping back to finally get a good look at the room.

"He's just trying to kill us with the most extravagant fucking kindness isn't he," he muttered. Goddamn opulent-ass Strider...

"He likes making me uncomfortable with luxury," Dave said as he looked at his flannel shirt, shaking his head. He tied it around his waist. After getting used to the cold of up north, he was being exceptionally conservative with wearing a shirt at all. But it'd cool down in the evening, and he'd regret not having anything else with him. "Let's just say he knows rich people piss me off and I want to destroy them." He grabbed his camera to put in its case, and then shoved the case in his messenger bag, shouldering that. "Come on, let's get going before I get sexually attracted to the drapes or some shit." He eyed the drapes as he walked to the door again.

Karkat made a face at that and planted his hands on Dave's shoulders, pushing him a little faster on his way out the door then pulling it shut behind them with his foot. "You are not allowed to make me any kind of jealous of any fucking variety of window covering, Strider. The last thing you'd ever see would be the sole of my favorite pair of tennis shoes."

Dave's smile went tilted at that as he pocketed his key card and started down the hall. "Sounds kinky," he teased before waiting at the top of the stairs for his matesprit to catch up, then walking down.

Their trip through downtown was fairly mellow. Dave pointed out the sights and explained some more interesting, brutal history as he smoked, casually eschewing convention of keeping smoke away from the storefronts. He paused to occasionally tell Karkat to stand and be lewd in front of a statue, or sit down and try not to look too bleak as he took a shot.

As fate would have it, as it always did, they walked past a storefront just as a young law student was being rung out for a ludicrously red cowboy hat. She saw them out of the corner of her eye, caught the scent of red candied cherries twofold and did an immediate double-take. She scampered out the exit just in time to see an overly tall blond and a short, nubby-horned loudmouth walk to the end of the block.

"COOLKID! KARKAT!" Shouted Terezi as she ran down the block, shamelessly bumping into passersby as she skidded towards them.

Dave barely heard the first shout, and honestly, he thought he was just hearing things. He turned to Karkat and furrowed his brow. "You hear your name being called?"

Karkat had barely had time to turn on the spot when he'd first heard the shouting, sure that he'd been hearing things up until Dave had said something. He ended up winded when a screaming girl in the most ridiculous hat he could conceive of hit him dead-on, having to fling his hand out and grab onto Dave before he could fall over. Terezi practically tackled both of them to the ground at once, yelling, "OH HOPY SHIT, it IS you guys! I can't even believe it! When did you guys... I thought I was the only one? Oh my god, are you for real? GET OUT OF THE STREET YOU NUMBSKULLS!" She dragged them out of the crosswalk and back up to the curb.

Dave was barely able to figure out what the hell just happened. Suddenly, Terezi. Very suddenly, his shit turned on its ear. He stood with his mouth agape, just staring at the grinning cowgirl who clearly had one too many espressos that day. Then Karkat realized what had just happened and stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, goggling at this incredible, absurd image of perfection in front of him and suddenly his arms were thrown around her neck, pulling her into a spine-snapping hug and taking a deep, shaky breath.

"DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING MOVE OR I SWEAR ON THE LAST LIVING MOTHER _FUCKING_ SCALEMATE IN YOUR FUCKING HIVE I'LL NAIL YOU THE FUCK DOWN SO YOU CAN'T EVER FUCKING LEAVE AGAIN," he yelled into her shoulder in one breath then stood there wheezing for a few seconds, his grip only tightening until he'd finally calmed, his fingers tangled into the back of her shirt then loosening up and falling to rest in the small of her back. He drew away with his throat working, eyes huge and red-rimmed as he looked her in the face finally. "Jesus fucking christ..."

Dave finally flung his arms around Terezi as well once Karkat released her and hugged her and didn't let go, finally snapped out of disbelief once he realized that he was holding someone tangible. "You slippery little shit, where the fuck have you been? I second his notion. You're not leaving our goddamn sides, not gonna happen."

She laughed and wrapped her own arms around both of them, squeezing tight and kissing both of their foreheads, though it took a bit of tiptoe action to get to Dave's. "Oh my god, are you even fucking kidding? You're not getting rid of me THAT easily, guys! You're doomed. Doomed to a lifetime of never EVER getting away again. Hang on, let me," she snuck away just to look at Karkat first, wiping tears away from his face. "No more worry lines on your face than usual, that's good," she nodded her approval, before catching the tip of his nose between her knuckles and pinching lightly as Karkat protested halfheartedly but made no real effort to free himself. She then turned around on her heel and poked Dave in the chest, which rewarded her with a quiet 'oof' and a nosewrinkle. "And you, you need to stop getting taller, you oversized glass of water!" She gave him a critical look, tapping her finger on her chin, before she grinned and then stood on her toes to rumple his hair. "Just as cool as I left you, though. Good job." 

Dave laughed and shook his head, still slightly perplexed, but all the happier for it. "This is literally the last damn thing I was expecting out of today. We just got back into town today, I was showing Karkat around and here you are. Being...perfect and...fucking crazy."

Karkat looked up at him, then slid a hand into his matesprit's and looked back at Terezi with his lips pressed together tightly, trying to establish a little bit of calm before immediately pointing his free hand at her. "You're coming with us and seeing the touristy shit with us and whatever the fuck else." He looked back up at Dave in case he would try and argue, though he knew that possibility was pretty slim.

Dave nodded wholeheartedly, putting on a dire voice. "You have absolutely nothing more important than this. This is your mission now." He couldn't help the small grin that crept up on his lips as she looked between the two of them and then pointedly at their hands. She looked back at them with a more knowing smile and gave them a LOOK.

"What, and miss the chance of a lifetime to hang out with the two most awesome people ever? Of course it's my mission! I wasn't doing anything, anyway. Oh my god you two!" She couldn't keep from bursting into gleeful fits at them. "Oh, have you guys seen the aquarium yet? They're getting a new aquarium full of reef fish from Australia! It's going to be totally rad! And the museum, that place is so cool, we should totally swing through there and gape at the mummified humans!"

Dave shook his head, "We're meeting Bro at the aquarium tonight for dinner - you can come with if you want - but the museum is a great plan." He turned to Karkat for final confirmation. "If anything, it'll get us out of the crowds."

"Mummies, dinner and fish. Sounds like an awesome time." Karkat snorted, but it was obvious that he was looking forward to it, a full, genuine smile creeping back onto his face and making him look a lot more lively. He laced his fingers with Dave's then grabbed for Terezi's hand as well, dragging her over to his side. "What the hell are you even doing here? Is there anyone else in the area?" He demanded, pulling a little to get them walking again.

Terezi scoffed and stepped back between them to take each of their hands, before starting the direction of the museum. "I live here and go to the U of H for pre-law." she clarified. "And no, at least I haven't seen anyone. I thought you lived around Houston, Dave?" She looked up at him and he shrugged.

"I did. Bro does. I go to school out of state, though. Karkat and I go to the same college. He wandered his shrimpy ass into the cafe where I work one day and that's how we found each other again." He explained. He looked over Terezi's head at Karkat with a fond smile. "So I guess we were probably supposed to find each other before I left but we never got around to it."

"Huh, never thought of it that way," Terezi said and then nudged Karkat. "Look at you, getting the jump on me, you little shit." She laughed brightly and bounced across the crosswalk before turning the corner to the entrance of the museum. "So now you two are an item? Oh oh oh, let me guess. Hm. Matesprits? I always thought you two would make totally bitchin' matesprits if Dave could get his head out of his tiny human wastechute."

"His head is still wedged firmly up his pathetic excuse for an ass, but I'm pretty ok with it these days," Karkat shrugged, glancing back at Dave then draping his arm around Terezi's shoulders, bumping his side against hers as they walked in only to be immediately hushed by one of the security guards sitting around at the entrance. Karkat just barely stopped himself from making a rude gesture at the man, instead grabbing for Dave again and pulling him around to the other side to keep an easier hold of. Terezi could try and wedge herself between them all she wanted, it wasn't going to stop him being closer to his mate.

The exhibits were widely spaced, allowing all of them to cluster around artifacts and artworks, reading placards in their best snooty librarian voices (with Terezi ending up sounding like Kanaya more than once) and getting repeatedly shooshed by various security guards when they started laughing too much. Dave did an impeccable snooty voice, even going so far as to straighten his posture and stick his nose in the air as he did, which got Terezi to cackle hideously, before getting shushed again. They both ducked their heads and chuckled at it. Once they made the complete rounds of the museum, it was 6:30. Dave lit a cigarette once they were out of the museum, and Terezi wrinkled her nose.

"Ew, that's why you smell more brown than usual," she said with a melodramatic cough, waving away the smoke. "So the aquarium is just this way. You said you were meeting up with Bro? I can't wait to meet this superhero that you always talked about." She turned to Karkat and tilted her head. "Does he live up to the hype? You've met him." 

Dave immediately put out the cigarette at the scolding, and tucked the remainder back into the pack, pocketing it. He led the group down the street, keeping his arm around Karkat as he strolled lazily. He hadn't had as good of a time looking at stuffy artifacts, basically ever. This was fantastic. He ignored the discussion of his brother; Terezi would see shortly how right he was. Karkat shrugged as he produced a vague story about Bro being intimidating as fuck, and Terezi nearly fell over cackling again when he relayed the story of using him as a support column when he'd stepped off the plane. The two of them exchanged childish looks and tongues stuck out behind Dave's back as they walked. He'd never looked or indeed felt this comfortable out in public, much less with Dave wrapped around him.

When they finally made their way into the aquarium Karkat was immediately struck by the peace. There didn't seem to be many people there at this time of day, for which Karkat was extremely glad. He drew back from Dave's side, only to take hold of his hand as he scanned the area for Bro.

"So? Where's the Almighty Strider?" Terezi demanded over his head at Dave, then took a chance to sniff the air and was immediately bombarded by fish, seawater, and blue. Dave kept a lookout as well and grinned when he saw the Camaro slide into a parking spot like there was absolutely nothing spectacular about its entrance.

"He's here," he said to Terezi and Karkat, nodding to the parking lot.

And that was when Bro was right behind the group, with literally no time between when the door of the car closed and just that moment. "Hey." Dave flinched and spun around to push Bro in the chest for the startle, but his hand was caught and put down.

"Sup. We've got an extra for dinner. This is Terezi Pyrope, she's our best friend and she ambushed us a few hours ago."

Bro raised his eyebrows over the rim of his glasses, scrutinizing her for a moment before nodding his approval. "All right. She's in." He nodded to the door before turning shoulders first and led the way in. Dave huffed a chuckle and shook his head, mocking his brother's turn as he followed. Karkat barely held in a laugh as Terezi attempted to mimic the turn and stride herself, shaking his head and shooing her along as he took up the rear. He looked around the place as they went, quietly taking in the exhibits as he did so. They could focus on the fish after they ate, but there were still things to look at on the way in. He'd just begun to wonder just how strange they must have looked to other patrons when Terezi stopped and grabbed him, dragging him up with her and holding onto him with her arms around his neck, her chin hooked over his shoulder.

"So Striders, what are you planning after this that you've apparently managed to talk Karkles into?" she asked, deliberately bumping her knees against the back of Karkat's legs. The only reason he seemed to be putting up with it was because of who she was; anyone else would have been shoved off and hollered into a puddle.

Dave was used to the behavior, really, and becoming used to it again was second nature to him. They reached the aquarium-surrounded restaurant where Bro talked their way into a bigger table with little trouble, and Dave grinned. "Not much going on after this, actually. Just dinner, going back to the hotel, and crashing until the party tomorrow." He scratched through his hair as they waited for the hostess to get her ass back over there to lead the way to the table.

"Yeah, it's this shitheel's birthday, can you believe that shit? You're coming too, I'm guessing," he asked Terezi, grinning a little. "It's gonna be a barbecue with cake and volleyball or whatever it is he feels like doing."

Dave nodded and then smiled faintly. "Twenty isn't all that impressive, Bro. It's one of the transient years between fuckawesome adulthood-get and bitchin' booze drinkery. Come here, 'Rezi, you're just about suffocating the guy." He stepped towards Karkat and Terezi and gently guided her away from his matesprit to offer a piggyback ride to the table. He was always pretty damn good with those. She let out a shrieking giggle and hopped up onto his back, her legs locking around his waist as her arms wrapped around his neck, her grin spanning the entirety of her face. Karkat pulled his clothes back straight and raised an eyebrow at the spectacle, then shook his head again and opted to walk beside them instead.

"When is Karkat's human birthday thing? Like some time in the middle of summer right? But his wriggling day was supposed to be like...what, next February? Something like that." She went quiet as she started trying to do the math in her head. That got Karkat thinking about it as well; that logic meant that both his Wriggling day and his "birthday" were this coming year. He wrinkled his nose at her for coming out with the information, but he let it go on as she continued to talk, first about Karkat and Dave and how she just KNEW they'd be perfect together, how she was so totally in awe of Bro and how incredibly cool he was already and how he smelled like pineapples, earning a quiet groan from Karkat.

Dave kept a grip on Terezi's legs as they were led to their larger table near the aquarium glass. He was amused by her near-constant chatter and looked over at Karkat with a fond grin. Once at their table, he nudged a chair away from the table and knelt down to set Terezi tenderly in it, before he walked around to the other side and took a seat himself, snagging the drinks menu before Bro gave him a Look and he set it down. Bro opted to sit next to Terezi and further from the tank, and immediately picked up the same menu. "Pineapples?" He asked her, "what about me smells like pineapples?" 

Dave just looked over at Karkat with a knowing shake of his head. Bro just instigated a very long explanation, and he knew it.

Without going into the explicit details of it, Terezi explained her particular method of navigating and interacting with the world, a lot of which included sniffing or getting a large amount of saliva on pretty much everything. Karkat already knew the vast majority of it and spent a lot of the time Terezi was talking watching the fish in the tank nearest to them, reaching out a finger to touch the glass near a smaller clown fish's eye. It panicked and bolted away behind an artificial reef that had a few small pieces of living coral anchored to it. At one point he thought he'd seen a strange black billow from around a fixture, but wrote it off as a larger fish floating by out of sight.

Bro was impressed by the extraordinary sensory input and asked a few follow-up questions. He grinned a little. "That's gotta be fuckin' handy though. Gives you a better perspective, looking at things without looking at 'em. It'd be pretty useful, I think." It brought to mind a bit of trivial information. "So you know what's interesting about that? I bet it would be able to show the subtle differences in human skin's pigmentation. I don't know this for sure, because we've got a pretty narrow range of visible colors from what I've been told, and we've got, iunno, patterns or somethin', like a tiger. Maybe your heightened synesthesia could tell that."

Dave looked back over to the group just in time to miss a graceful sweep of black and gray behind him. "Yeah, I've heard that, too."

"Dave apparently smells brown because he started smoking," Karkat added, giving Dave a look of his own and a soft smirk. This would most likely at least keep him from chain-smoking while they were here, for which he was happier than he cared to admit.

Dave wrinkled his nose at Karkat's input. "I've been thinking about quitting anyway, smartass," he said with no actual heat behind it. He picked what he'd wanted - fish seemed somewhat uncouth to eat an aquarium, so he went with a steak meal - and leaned back to look at the fish swimming in the large aquarium, letting his mind wander.

"As far as skin is concerned, I can tell the different between freckly creamsicles like you guys and those brown humans and a few of the shades in between, but I can't really tell a tan line unless it's super dark." Terezi shrugged then dragged her tongue over one of the laminated menus until she'd found something that was suitably colorful, giving her shark-like grin as she gave her order. Karkat took a moment to wipe the spit off it before settling on chicken pasta. He settled into his seat between Dave and Terezi with his arms crossed, watching everyone talk with a subtle smile. Terezi was talking again about what she could smell about people, what perfumes or body sprays or shampoos gave her headaches, minutiae about how she interacted with things and mentioning off-hand about not being able to smell or taste the fish themselves without actually getting close to them, and certainly not through the glass. His attention was wandering again, focusing back on the tank beside him, trying to remember the different types of marine life as it floated by. When that black drift happened into his line of sight again, he leaned back some in his chair to try and get a good look at what was making it, thinking perhaps it could be ink from a startled cephalopod, until a slim grey shoulder rose into view, followed by the rest of a rather sparkly troll clad in bright colors that had him pressing his face against the glass, his hands splayed on either side of his head.

Dave was glad that he wasn't between Karkat and the tank at that point. "Holy shit, calm down spaz, they're just fish," he said as he turned to see what got Karkat so riled up.

He almost couldn't believe what he was seeing just then. "'Rezi, look," he said, pointing into the tank, his voice gone faraway again. He hadn't seen Feferi in person, but he recognized her from the time that Karkat had pulled her up online and showed him the photos.

Bro raised both brows at the sudden interest in the fish, which then prompted him to see the troll, "Whoa, sudden royalty." He looked over at Karkat and Dave again, noticing that it was beyond mere impressed behavior going on. It was another person they knew. "Gonna fill a dude in or...?"

Karkat had grabbed ahold of Terezi's hand, squeezing down on it as he muttered to her that it was Feferi. Her eyes widened as she sucked in an ecstatic breath then pressed against the glass as well as she tried to see for herself. The thumps against the glass drew the seadweller's attention, ready to scold them for disturbing the fish, until her expression blanked. The longer Karkat held her gaze, the more his expression fell. It was Feferi Peixes, beyond a shadow of a doubt. But he could see it in her face: __

"She doesn't remember," he said quietly, his hands falling away from the glass. Terezi looked around at him as her smile faded off as well. Karkat sat back down, letting Terezi wipe the glass off with her sleeve before joining him. Dave's expectant and near-excited look also fell, and he put his hands on Karkat's shoulders, shaking his head slowly and sadly. He settled back in his seat, still holding onto Karkat.

"I can't believe she doesn't remember," he muttered. "Even Tavros remembered us." His heart sank and he shook his head.

Bro took a sip of his beer before clearing his throat. "None of you should've remembered to begin with," he said quietly. "You were supposed to go on with your lives. If you met again, you shouldn't have known a thing." 

Dave's head shot up and he glared at Bro, "I fucking _knew_ you knew something. You lied through your goddamn teeth and you're going to bring this up NOW?" He noticed something in Bro's attitude and face that made him bite back more venom.

"You three kind of deserve it, since you're so happy together," Bro said, setting his bottle down and looking at Karkat first, then Terezi.

"We're here to make a new world of this reality. You've got friends working on pulling it into a tangible existence beyond the outer rim. The more you remember, the harder it is for them to keep the horrorterrors out." Bro muttered quietly.

"Wait. Hold the fuck up. Strider, what do you mean, we're in a fucking _dream bubble_?" Karkat's hands clamped down on the edge of the table as he tried to stare through Bro's shades. "We're still fucking stuck out here in the Medium?!" He held his voice back to a slightly hysterical whisper to keep others in the area from growing alarmed. Terezi was sitting back with her mouth half-open as she processed the information, muttering that she barely remembered anything except who her friends were. The waitress that was bringing their food had paused a little way away from their table as she felt the tension coming off of them.

"None of us are dead, though. How do we exist like this if we're not dead? If people are trying to pull us into a tangible reality, then we're not actually dreaming either." Then it occurred to him, the warnings from Vriska and Sollux, the lack of indication of Jade or Aradia's existence... "Harley's out there keeping us alive, isn't she."

Dave was too busy biting back the more personal betrayal of being told he'd been in a fucking COMA for four years and being made to believe that everything he'd remembered was just some goddamn dream. He took Karkat's hand and squeezed it tight.

Bro nodded to Karkat's question. "Someone here made a wish to make sure everyone was alive, with their abilities intact until we got somewhere that could be stabilized into a reality for us. Everybody. Including me and the other idiots that cared for y'all. I don't know who, but it was the wish they made. The alternate myself and his crew have a similar deal going on with your dancestors, in another dream bubble that they're trying to construct into reality." He put up his finger to have them wait so the waitress could bring their food and stop hovering, and then once she scooted, he continued. 

"We gathered up as many guardians and lusii we could find floating in the dream bubbles to keep shit stable for you kids. The drawback to the wish was that you'd lose some, or all of your memory of the game." He rubbed his face. "And while you kids just go about living lives you deserve, we keep the horrorterrors at bay. Jade Harley and Aradia Megido are both up there, right now, making this world more tangible, more real with every passing minute." He turned to Dave and gave a pointed look. "I wouldn't lie to you unless it was of the utmost importance to keep things on the level. To keep shit from imploding."

"But now it's too fucking late," Karkat whispered as he squeezed Dave's hand back, looking back at his Bro as everything fell right back into place. "The only way we could apparently be happy was if we had these huge gaping holes in our memories, and we were supposed to be content with that. We were supposed to forget the most fucking important people in our lives and get on like nothing ever happened but now, we're about to lose what we have because something went wrong." He sounded defeated at that point, his hand loosening some in Dave's as the other hand came up over his forehead, elbow propped on the table beside his plate.

"You don't know that," Terezi spoke up finally, giving Karkat a hard look then turning her attention back to Bro. "You're one of the ones keeping our shit afloat, right? How can we help?"

Bro grinned. "I knew you were good people, Terezi," he said, looking over to Karkat. "She's right. Pulling back the veil was just a matter of time, but I was hoping to delay it as much as I could. Things are going to get a little bumpy, but I ain't getting ruffled over it. You just gotta do what you've been doing. Keeping shit afloat in reality - _this_ reality - and livin' life. If shit floats your way, at least you'll be ready to take it on. Those dreams you guys'd been having, the night terrors, they're a side-effect of your memories in conjunction with the horrorterrors' meddling. Probably with a little PTSD for flavor, I'm guessing." He shook his head. "Gettin' offtrack. Look. The main thing you guys can do is be prepared for a worst-case scenario. I know y'all've been talkin' to your other friends."

Dave interjected, "I wouldn't call some of them friends, but whatever."

"Whatever, you're talkin' to them. If any one'a you sees some hinky shit about to go down, you call up one'a us, and we'll handle it. That's what we're here for."

Dave grimaced. "But what do _we_ do? How can we help Jade and Aradia, even though we've fucked up royal?"

Bro took another swig of his beer, shaking his head. "if it comes down to it, pull off some fuckin' magical girl transformation into godtier and help to your heart's content. But I'll kick your goddamn ass if you try and go hot-doggin' all over paradox space tryin' to save the universe again." He gave a look to both Karkat and Terezi as well, and added, "Same goes for the two of you. Since you're in my fuckin' ballpark, you gotta play by my rules. And now that we got all this shit in the open, you can ask me any fuckin' thing you want at any time, but the primary objective is to keep _them_ thinking that _we_ don't know shit about where we really are. Life as usual. Norman Rockwell Stepford Style, you get me, squirts?"

Karkat was staring at him when he finished talking, and Terezi had broken into a fit of giggles at the image of any of them pulling some sparkly transition. "Ok. Ok fine. So basically we should have been listening to Vriska. Isn't that just all kinds of fucking perfect," he muttered, crossing his arms and pouting some. The sociopathic spiderbitch was the last person he wanted to take any kind of advice from, no matter what the topic, but now apparently their existence hinged on it. That didn't make it feel any better. "So with everything you already know, I'm guessing you're aware of Rose and Kanaya. And obviously that we've talked with Tavros. Who actually seems pretty happy with his lot in life so I don't want to fuck this up any more than you do, if only for his sake. The only reason I know anything about Gamzee is the fact that he was one of the first fucking things I remembered and had enough faculties in order to do a search for him and ended up finding him in a psych ward in Boston. Which is honestly better for him, as long as they keep him doped. Sollux is in cahoots with Vriska for some fucking reason, but he doesn't seem to remember much but the basics. Eridan's some kind of fucking business prodigy and...well, we know what Feferi's up to. But what about Egbert? He's flown right off the fucking radar."

Bro huffed a half chuckle, his smile gone lopsided and cocky. "The Egberts are doing just fine. They're in Michigan - John transferred there for school, and his father's there to be at hand if anything shitty ends up going down."

Dave lit up at the fact that John was still all right. "That's a relief. He stopped talking to me a couple years ago. How do _you_ know that, though?"

"Egbert's on speed dial, are you shittin' me?" Bro said with a full grin. "Gotta keep that fucker on his toes, 'else he'll fuckin' get loopy and start, fuckin' Iunno, shaving his house or some shit. You ever meet that guy? He's got a screw loose."

Dave rolled his eyes. "Coming from you, that's moderately disturbing." He started on his steak, because as life-altering and game-changing the discussion was, that looked like primo steak and he was starved. "So Karkat and me, we're not in any fucking trouble for living together or any of that? The old deep ones aren't going to rear their ugly multiple-eyed spooky-ass heads because we're in the same general space?"

"Nah, you two are fine. You guys got your lusus on patrol, and probably Tavros' as well, as... helpful that as dude is. He's... not. He's really not." 

Dave settled down considerably with that revelation. He smiled over at Karkat then. "See? You worry too fuckin' much."

"I'd put money on Crabdad in a fight with a big ugly octopus," Terezi piped up as she started in on the massive salad she'd ordered, crunching on a carrot quite happily as if everything had been settled. Karkat had started to pick at his pasta, forking a piece of chicken and letting it hang in front of his mouth as he grimaced at her then glanced between Dave and his Bro.

"Somehow that really doesn't surprise me about Egbert's guardian-dad," he snorted, rolling his eyes then taking a large bite out of his dinner. Things were bad, but they weren't as bad as they could be. They could hash out the details of this latest fuckery at their leisure.

Dave chuckled. "Totally explains John, too," he muttered before digging in quietly. He had a lot to mull over with the new information in mind. "Mm, so it's just you here? Or is Terezi's lusus here, too?"

Bro raised both eyebrows. "I haven't seen any dragons around, if that's what you're asking. I'm pretty fuckin' sure I woulda noticed one if there was. Dragons own." He could have been wrong, though. He finished off his beer and started into his own plateful of food, having irreverently picked salmon.

As they dug into their respective meals, chatter turned more casual, discussion of Terezi's education and her workload that had miraculously slacked off after an apparent week-long binge of power-napping between drinking a 5-hour Energy every three or four hours. She'd only just recovered from that one before going out for the day and running into them. Karkat cringed as she glossed over her class material, no longer feeling as if he had any right to gripe about his own homework as it started to pile up a little bit. They talked some about that as well, and Terezi was likewise impressed with his chosen major in spite of the lack of practicality. Dave was scrutinized then of course berated for never showing her any of his serious art, which Karkat assured her was almost as beautiful as his photography. He had yet to watch any amateur films for Dave's classes, but he had the feeling they would be just as good. Karkat didn't really want to know what Bro did in his spare time, but Terezi was all ears between noisy bites of her salad.

Bro wasn't sheepish about his work. He ran down the more public-friendly stuff he did, not-quite downplaying his involvement with having created Smuppets, which was as pervasive a brand as any Nickelodeon or Sanrio creation, but not exactly bragging about it, either. He also ran several ironic websites. "I also build shit and DJ and sometimes I'll break out the guitar, you know. Hobbies or whatever. Keep myself busy." He picked under his fingernail with his thumbnail, having finished his food with a quickness.

Dave piped up with, "He has porn sites, too." That's what Bro got for being a secretive fucker. He leaned closer to Karkat and nodded to the tank. "I'm going to take some photos."

Terezi immediately regained her sharklike grin as she leaned forward over her nearly decimated dinner, apparently just dying to know about these porn sites of which Dave spoke. Karkat easily tuned it out and turned back to Dave, arching a brow at him then shrugging. "Want me to walk with?" He asked casually, though it was obvious that he would at least wander away from the table anyway the more Terezi and the elder Strider went into explicit internet doings.

Dave nodded to that, "That was the idea, yeah." He smiled faintly at the other two before grabbing his bag and getting the camera out of it. He excused himself and Karkat from the table, to the other two who were barely paying attention. He shrugged at that and took Karkat's hand. "I've got a feeling those two are going to be at it for a while," he sighed before smiling weakly. "Are you okay after all that?" He still wasn't sure if he was okay, himself. After all the years he spent convincing himself that Bro wouldn't lie to him, he had done exactly that. He was already planning on instigating a strife with the elder Strider as soon as it was possible to get out the excess mental damage that it had dealt him. He didn't care that Bro would win, he just needed to draw blood.

"Not really," Karkat replied quietly, his hands tucking under his arms as he walked beside Dave deeper into the aquarium, catching another glimpse of Feferi but only looking for a moment before turning his attention away. Her not remembering anything was better for all of them, he just had to keep reminding himself of that. He was fairly certain that he would have to sleep in the sopor slime that night.

"Me neither," Dave admitted quietly as he looked away from Feferi as well. "But at least we know the truth. Those discrepancies were scraping at my brain for so long, it was driving me apeshit fucking bananas. At least now shit makes more sense." He put his hand at the small of Karkat's back and looked into his eyes, having to briefly push his glasses up onto his forehead to do so. "This changes absolutely nothing about what I feel or about what we've already got. I'll still kick anybody or anything's ass that fucks with you."

"Overprotective assmunch," Karkat muttered, then pushed up onto his tiptoes to press his lips against Dave's briefly before settling back down, taking his hand then gesturing to his camera case. "You said you wanted to get some pictures. Maybe one of these days we should try and get you an underwater camera so you can actually take pictures of fish."

Dave chuckled into the kiss and pressed another quick kiss to Karkat's cheek. He slipped away to look at his camera and adjust the settings to get optimal pictures. "Yeah, that'd be pretty tight," he murmured, "for as often as I'm out in the water. We don't have many big bodies of water where we are usually. Got the gulf here, sure. But the only reason we ever visit is 'cause Bro wants to go fishing." He finally pushed the lens up to the glass of the nearby tank and started taking shots.

He chuckled a little, shaking his head. "You gotta wonder what's going through Feferi's mind right now," Dave said before putting on a feminine voice. "Who the heck were those weeeirdoes. Rude."

"She's going to end up going home to her cuttlefish and complaining about the girl that was licking her tank like what the fuck." Shaking his head, Karkat leaned against the glass and tilted his head some at the small school of fish that had decided that he was apparently the one that was going to feed them in spite of the fact that he hadn't gotten any of the flakes to do so.

Dave grinned at the fish. "Stay still a second." He had to take a picture of Karkat inadvertently seducing a school of fish from the other side of the glass. "Shit, you're so charismatic, you get fish all up in your grill." He smirked and stepped back towards Karkat, squeezing his shoulder. "Man, 'Rezi hasn't changed a damn bit. God, I didn't even realize how much I missed her until she was standing in front of me. I nearly fucking cried."

Karkat chuckled and leaned against Dave, his smile softening some as he looked back at the fish, his fingers laying on the glass near where there were still a few of them milling near the surface. "I don't know what the fuck we're going to do when we leave. I really don't think I could deal with another three fucking years of silence. Can we take her home with us?"

Dave smiled as he wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist, walking down the walkway through the tanks. "I was considering putting her in my carry-on bag. She's almost small enough." He nudged a bit of hair away from Karkat's face to press a kiss to his temple. "But we've got phones, and a webcam, and god knows how many spycams Bro's planted at my place." He might have been joking about that last part. "We'll be in touch with her regardless. She's been a hole in my fucking heart since waking up in the hospital." He furrowed his brow as he realized something.

"They wouldn't just admit me into a hospital if there wasn't something wrong with me."

Karkat frowned some and reached a hand up, laying it against the side of Dave's head and scratching gently through his hair. "Whatever was wrong with you, I don't think it really matters anymore. What does is what's happening now and trying to live in spite of it. If we can go about our daily bullshit without ever having to go god tier again, I think I can live with that."

Dave smirked, his fears quelled for the moment, "The way he said it, though, I'm pretty sure it's a matter of unlocking it, not having to self-own. We've already achieved it, it's a matter of unlocking that feature again, or whatever."

And suddenly, in front of them, was a Bro, and a Terezi on his back, along for the ride via piggyback. "Thought we'd catch up to you," Bro stated plainly.

Dave jumped back a little and shook his head, "That flashstep shit is unfair as fuck, dude, stop with that."

Karkat pressed his lips together, dropping his hand and tucking it back under his arm again, grimacing up at the pair of them. Terezi didn't look like any goddamn law student, she looked like a kid in a fucking candy shop where the owner had just walked out never to return.

"Do you guys have any more brilliant plans now that we've basically done every fucking thing with our day including minor panic attacks?"

Bro shrugged, putting Terezi back on her feet with a pat of her head. "Shit dudes, I was about to jet. I figured you guys would make the plans from here 'til one tomorrow." 

Dave shrugged. "I guess we could go back to the hotel and dick around at the pool or some shit." He raised an eyebrow to Terezi then to Karkat. "Not that either of you dumbasses know how to swim. Did they even have pools on Alternia?" Honestly, he just wanted to sit around and catch up with Terezi a little more. He'd noticed that the freezer in their room fridge was amply filled with various alcoholic drinks - probably requested by Bro because he knew better than to worry about Dave's ability to hold his liquor.

"I totally know how to swim. Karkles doesn't even know how to use a pair of waterwings," Terezi teased, dodging a swat that came her way then continuing, "If you guys give me a lift I can just call a taxi whenever I decide to leave." She'd obviously already decided that she was invading their vacation for a night at least. What was more, Karkat didn't have a single argument against it, wrapping an arm around her middle and looking up at each Strider as if daring either of them to oppose.

"It's only a few blocks down from here," Dave said, "I'm pretty sure walking would be a little less idiotic." He smiled at Karkat and Terezi, leaning down to give them each a kiss on their cheeks. "Come on, dorks, let's get out of here." He looked up at Bro, who simply shrugged.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then. Don't do anything I would." He gave a lopsided salute as he started the other direction from the exit, deciding that it was a long while since he was at the aquarium, and took his time there.

Dave led the way out to the exit, and they soon found themselves back at the Granduca. Once back in the room, he went to the fridge to get himself something to drink. "We've got soda, juice, and booze of all varieties. What you guys want?" He didn't know much about mixing drinks, but, in his opinion, it was his duty as a college student to not care about actual drink recipes and make some of his own based on his knowledge of what would taste good.

Karkat took a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs, sinking in until his nose was just about level with his knees, giving a quiet 'oof' when Terezi plopped straight into his lap. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he leaned over the arm of the chair and looked back up at Dave. "If there's cranberry, put a little bit of vodka in it so I don't end up completely fucking wasted before I finish my first glass," he called, then winced some when Terezi bounced a little, demanding something with rum, she didn't care what. Obviously she didn't care much about legal drinking ages under these particular circumstances.

"Miss Justice gets a pineapple and rum, and nubby gets a wussy baby drink, got it." Dave grinned at them, biting back a chuckle at how cozy it was with both of them again. "So I've gotta know, what did you and Bro talk about, I mean, other than his dumb porn sites?" He mixed up their drinks first, before making a second of what Terezi was having for himself and walking over with theirs in one hand and his in the other. He dropped down into a sprawl across the entire sofa, his feet hanging off the arm rest while he sipped his drink. "And before you answer that, Karkat and I want to make sure you won't get lost again. I'm pretty sure nubs here would finally completely lose his shit." Just then, he heard a slight plunk sound that was definitely pesterchum acting up. He figured it was probably just Vriska again, so he ignored it.

"You act as if I haven't completely fucking lost it already having to deal with your globefondling assholery every fucking day," Karkat snorted then stuck his tongue at Dave before taking a swallow of his juice, suppressing a shudder at the hint of vodka. Terezi continued to bounce idly with a wide, content smile.

"Well, he saw fit to give me your contact information so I can keep watch on you when he's out doing his awesome Bro-things," she chuckled, sipping on her drink cheerfully. Dave grimaced and hid it with a drink of the rum and pineapple, knowing that Terezi probably had the password to the spare few spycams that were in the apartment that he had yet to find. He didn't care, really, just so long as she didn't give them out to goddamn everybody.

"Good, good," he said with a nod. "Yeah, we're not really interesting by any stretch of the imagination. We go to school, we go to work, we come home and crash. It's pretty boring without someone around shrieking psychotic glee at us." He lifted one leg to toe at her knee. "I certainly missed the confidence boost."

"I'm sure Nubs McShouty over here doesn't really help that much." She cackled as Karkat tipped his head back and shouted some at the ceiling. "I bet you guys have the most amazingly boring home life imaginable. Have you even pailed ye-"

"OK GUESS WHAT WE'RE NOT FUCKING TALKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW."

"You totally have and I bet Karkles didn't know what he was doing!"

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"

Dave chuckled and shook his head. "Yeah yeah, we all've fucked each other, can we get on with life as if that was a completely normal thing three friends have done?" He couldn't hold back the grin though, not when Terezi was so fucking right. "Hell, Terezi, it's not like you knew what you were doing the first time with me, either."

"The only reason you knew what you were doing was because I actually took the time to go over every little thing with you," Terezi teased him, ignoring Karkat as he took a few long swallows of his drink, muttering that he would most likely need another one just to get through this discussion. "So tell me, does he still get all cute and whiny when you touch his nook?" she asked over the sound of Karkat "lalala-I-can't-hear-this-shit"-ing.

Dave quirked his eyebrow and stood, grabbing his empty glass as well as Karkat's and went to the little kitchen area, "A gentleman never tells," he said, completely unreadable. He was glad Karkat couldn't see him from where he stood, because he nodded to Terezi with pursed lips, holding back a grin. "And thanks for that, by the way, it's come in handy way more than I thought it ever would." He came back with a full glass for Karkat, and a harder drink for himself. 

"And if you're interested in more ridiculous kinky shit, I just guess you're going to have to go get a subscription to one of my brother's various fucked up porn sites." He took a sip. "Anyway..." he said in lieu of a less clumsy change of topic, "you should come up for the holiday vacation. That way you can see how absolutely fucking boring we actually are."

"Agreed," they both piped up at once, Karkat's head lolling back over the opposite arm of the chair from the one Terezi was leaning on as he picked up his drink off the ground and sat up enough to take another swallow. "After finals are over and I've had a night to recuperate I'm crashing at your place and nobody will be able to remove me for fear of loss of life and limb," she proclaimed in a sing-songy voice.

Dave nodded amiably to that. "Shit son, there isn't a force in nature that could break this party up." He looked over at them with a quirked brow, setting his drink down, before sitting up and grinning, "Maybe we could even talk her into moving. Transferring credits? They _do_ have a stellar law department there." His tone was conspiring and devious. "Maybe even," he said before he reached over and outright pulled Terezi over onto the sofa, "Maybe even better than U of H."

It was a miracle that the last of her drink hadn't flown out of her hand as she whooped and rolled onto the couch, sitting up on Dave's stomach and finishing the last swallow then nuzzling up under his chin playfully while Karkat watched them upside-down from the armchair. "Strider, stop with your fucking teasing shit and just clean out the spare room for her to stay whenever the fuck she likes. Free boarding for annoying little shits with stuffed animals. I bet Em would get a kick out of her."

"I'd have to ask the super," groaned Dave as he pursed his lips again with a nosewrinkle, and then tickled Terezi in the side to get her off his stomach so he could breath. "But I think that's workable. I mean, I'd definitely do that shit if you want, 'Rezi. Shit, that is if you can put up with this asshole's fucking loud mouth for long enough to sleep over." He didn't mean in general, but it was good that it came off that way. 

Another ping on pesterchum, and Dave casually ignored it. "I'm actually kind of surprised you never saw Bro around. He tends to be out a lot. Hell, maybe you did and you just didn't realize it."

"Maybe I did. I don't really get out much between classes and the little bit of sleep I can get between papers." Shrugging, Terezi pulled herself off the couch and went around to the computer to shut it down so that it couldn't distract them, then paused and grinned fit to split the sides of her face as she typed back lightning-fast, letting out a long string of giggles as she hit enter. Karkat pulled himself up to look over the top of the armchair at her, then back at Dave. She was talking back to Vriska.

Dave's face faltered and he shook his head. "She's been flipping her shit at me for months about the shit Bro told us about earlier. Since you're on my screen name could you at least have the courtesy to tell her we know what she's flipping her shit about and that we're keeping shit under wraps?" He sighed and sprawled over the sofa again, hiding his face under an arm. "She's been being such a mega secretive bitch about it that Karkat and I have been largely ignoring her." He looked over at Karkat and waved him over. He needed to have someone to hold.

"Yeah. I just did and she got quiet. Serves her right for doing this bugging and fussing and meddling without me." Terezi stretched her arms up over her head with a squeaky little yawn then grabbed for her cell phone, flipping it open as soon as Karkat had made his way from the armchair to sprawl half on Dave, sipping his drink some more then tucking it just far enough under the couch to keep it from getting knocked over. She leaned over the back of it and snapped a picture of them wrapped around each other, saving it and putting the phone away again. "Always knew you guys wouldn't last in the whole bro thing. Too cute to stay pale."

"We can't be blamed for trying," Dave said with a smirk, slipping his hand up Karkat's shoulder. "Seriously. We tried for three fucking months after meeting each other again, and that was the dumb-assest idea I ever had." He shrugged a shoulder at that. It was the truth. And he realized how much he was just letting spill forth. Stupid rum sneaking up on him like a fucker. 

"We're not technically matesprits either, though. I mean. If you want to go about it from a quadrant angle. I kind of want to choke him for being such a dumbshit this afternoon when we got off the plane. More because he was a sullen fuck at lunch than using Bro as a wall." He kissed Karkat's neck and murmured into his ear, "No I don't, but it's not nice to say what I do want to do with company over." 

What. He could totally blame it on the booze.

Karkat's ears turned red at that and he shoved his face against Dave's shoulder, ignoring the giggling overhead. "You guys are trying to kill me, I swear to fuck..."

"But that's why it's so much fun messing with you, Karkles," Terezi purred and reached down to ruffle her fingers through his hair affectionately. "So you guys really are doing the whole every quadrant thing. That's gotta be fun. It looks like Karkat's really going to become the next Signless at this rate."

Dave snorted, "Yeah, except for the whole torture and death thing. I'll stand up to anyone who dares." He grinned over at Terezi as he kept hold of Karkat, idly rubbing his shoulder with one hand. "So how about you? You find anybody to fill those quadrants yet?"

She put on a theatrical pout and slumped against the back of the couch with her cheek on her arm. "Nope. Everyone here is either really stuck-up or just doesn't get close enough to me to get any kind of read for any quadrant. It doesn't help that a lot of them are humans that apparently don't want to bother with quadrants to begin with."

Dave slightly pouted in empathy. "Sorry to hear it, 'Rezi. You deserve it more than most."

Terezi simply shrugged then looked down at Karkat, who was starting to doze with his head on Dave's chest, smiling faintly. "You guys are really lucky, y'know?"

Dave smiled softly and lowered his voice, brushing hair out of Karkat's face. "Yeah, I suppose we are. I know I sure as hell am. He could've said no to moving in. Coulda pushed me away when I told him I was pale for him. Hell, he coulda turned me down after I came clean about lying about the pale thing. But here he fuckin' is, y'know?" He shook his head. "Goddamn, my luck never runs out, I swear." He looked up at her and smiled. "Can you tell Vriska I'm not really _sorry_ for being an ass, but she still didn't deserve that kind of treatment, anyway? She was just trying to keep things level. Can't blame a bitch for trying."

Karkat mumbled something about mushy bullshit and looked up at Terezi, reaching up and pawing at her arm until she gave him her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing the back of it. "Thanks for still existing," he said quietly, holding onto the hand loosely, returning her smile with a soft, crooked one of his own.

"I couldn't just leave you guys to your own devices for too long," she replied, reaching the other hand down to ruffle Dave's hair. "You might have had too much fun without me."

Dave leaned up into the ruffle, and then at Karkat with a shake of his head. "Get into your slime, idiot, we'll talk all the gross shit while you're in bed so you're not all pissed off at us." He nudged Karkat slightly to give him motivation. "I'm going to tell Terezi every single detail of our sordid pailing adventures." He wasn't, really, and that much was obvious by the tone in his voice. "It's going to be spoken porn season as soon as you're out cold."

"I'm not moving," he insisted immediately, wrapping his legs around Dave's and clinging to him stubbornly as Terezi laughed and lunged over the back of the couch to exploit the exposed weak spot of his side, tickling just under his grubscars until he let a high-pitched yelp and nearly rolled back off the couch again. "BITCH OH MY FUCKING GOD."

Dave kept Karkat firmly on the sofa, but not by much, and then chuckled. "Would you just get the fuck to bed? Just nap. Jesus, you've been worked up all damn day, you're probably exhausted as shit." He rolled his eyes. "You probably have been wanting to pass out for an hour now. Don't argue, just GO. I promise I'll keep her here 'til you wake up." He looked up at Terezi with a wink. "We'll make sure you get a nice wakeup call and everything."

"I'm going to regret this, I can already fucking tell..." Karkat released his hold slowly and picked himself up off the couch, reaching under it for his drink and finishing it off in a few swallows then putting the glass on one of the side tables, stripping out of his shirts then crawling into bed without bothering with the blankets. He was out cold in a matter of minutes.

"So if he moved in with you three months ago, that was the beginning of the school year," Terezi started as she crawled over the back of the couch to settle in the space between Dave's legs, her knees pulled up level with her chin and her arms wrapped around her thighs. "That also means you've been together for like...a couple weeks now?"

Dave waved goodnight to his boyfriend and then turned to Terezi with a smile, making room for her by dropping one foot to the floor. "Yeah, somewhere around there. I could go into glorious excruciating detail about it, but let's just say, I immediately regretted even attempting moiraillegiance. You know how I am, 'Rezi, I can't handle that quadrant shit. I'm too jealous, you know? Sure, humans can _feel_ those emotions, but we can't fucking hold onto them without feeling others that are meant for another quadrant." He ran a hand through his hair before finally taking off his shades, setting them aside. "And it works for us. I seriously think it does. I tried pretty hard to suit pale, too. Man. I couldn't." He smirked at her then. "And speaking of pale feelings, don't you dare start waxing pink at my Bro."

Terezi put on a scandalized expression and laid a hand against her chest. "Me? Oh come on Strider, you really think that the all-powerful Bro Strider would even go for someone like me? Besides, even if I was I know better. All you coolkids are secretly gigantic dweebs."

"Okay first off, you just called yourself a gigantic dweeb, and while I appreciate that sentiment," Dave said, brow arched, "I also take offense to the idea that I am still a coolkid. Man, I gave that shit up. Sorta. I can't help how cool I am naturally, shit is fuckin' hard work otherwise. And secondly, yeah, I honestly think he would, at least where moiraillegiance is concerned." He finished off his drink and smiled, closing his eyes. "Anything more flushed and he'd nope right the hell out." He stretched his arms over his head and arched his back before sitting up. "I really, _really_ need a cigarette. My apologies to your nose."

"I never said I was a coolkid. At least not anymore. But you, Dave, you are a gigantic dweeb and as far as Karkat's concerned, pretty much perfect. His dweeb-ness is off the charts." Climbing back off the couch, Terezi glanced around for an ashtray, then thumbed at a window. "Go that way with it and we won't have a problem."

"I sincerely doubt the veracity of your statements of my supposed dweebitude, Ms. Pyrope," Dave teased, before he stood and just walked out to the balcony, plopping himself down in one of the lounging chairs. There was an ashtray there at least. "So how are you taking all of this shit? I mean, you said you didn't remember anything but who your friends were." He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, closing his eyes as he exhaled.

Making sure to stay upwind, Terezi looked out over the hotel pool and crossed her arms as she nodded thoughtfully. "Pretty much, yeah... I remember my relationships with some of them, like you and Karkat. And Gamzee. But a lot of it's really fuzzy. Like looking at everything through a layer of dryer sheet on the end of a kaleidoscope. I wanted to be able to clear everything up, but if what your Bro said's really true, I don't think I wanna know anymore."

"Probably better if you didn't," Dave said with a nod. "I filled Karkat in, and he had nightmares for weeks. Still does, sometimes. But just having him here, you know, knowing that everyone, even you are around, it's driven mine back." He looked up at her with a sweet smile. "Goddamn, I missed you, Terezi. I just...really missed the shit out of you." He grinned. "Karkat did too, I'm sure you could tell. The little shit hasn't smiled this much since I met him again. You were the shining beacon of sass for us. We really needed it."

The night wore on and they talked for hours, just catching up, with Dave telling Terezi about his film project in more detail and showing her some photography he'd shoved online to showcase for his classes, including the one of Karkat in the warehouse, just before they found the kittens. They talked about Terezi's hectic schedule but boring life, and wound up passing out on the sofa together, sprawled out on equal parts of it, facing each other.

It was only four hours after he fell asleep that Dave woke up, his circadian rhythm not giving half a shit about how long the night prior had been, and he had to get his bearings as he blinked awake to find Terezi sleeping soundly on the other side of the sofa. The day prior started coming back to him as he slowly and carefully extracted himself from the couch, and put a blanket over Terezi, before walking into the bedroom to check on Karkat. He wasn't sure if Karkat had taken to the bed or the slime at first, so when he opened the door he turned to the recuperacoon first.

Shortly after Dave and Terezi had retired to the balcony, Karkat had stripped down and left his clothes in the bedroom before climbing into the recuperacoon in the hopes of staving off the dreams that were sure to resurface after what he'd learned that night. It didn't seem to be helping much though, if the muted mumbling and groans were anything to judge by. He was curled in on himself in the slime with his hands clamped over his ears even in his sleep. Dave wrinkled his nose at the slime but managed to steel himself enough to put his hand down in it to rub Karkat's back, shushing him quietly. "It's going to be okay, nubs," he muttered quietly, "It's going to be fine. We're here with you, dude." He slipped away and sneered at his hand covered in the greenish sopor slime, before wiping it off with a towel and going down to get them all breakfast.

He'd paid attention to what Karkat liked for breakfast when he wasn't too tired to make food. But they didn't have anything remotely pedestrian on their breakfast menu, so when he came back up with the trays of breakfast for three, it was an assortment of posh meals: eggs benedict with ham and pancakes on the side, belgian waffles that were covered with ripe, juicy strawberries and powdered sugar and drizzled with raspberry sauce, and Dave's own order of steak and eggs with pancakes practically drenched in syrup. He set the food on the counter and wrote a little note to each of them - both saying **enjoy this ridiculous rich people food - tG** and then he went in for a long shower.

Terezi was up long before Karkat could drag himself out of the slime, rubbing at her eyes and scratching vigorously at her hair as she sat up, mildly hung-over but otherwise feeling rather good for an early Sunday morning. She licked her lips as soon as she smelled the food, moving with her eyes closed until she'd come to the plates and grabbed the waffles, wandering back out to the balcony to eat in the just barely risen sunlight. Karkat, on the other hand, barely acknowledged the food as he sat on the edge of the recuperacoon with his elbows on his knees, his hands running back through his hair and slicking it out of his face. He couldn't linger long and let it get tacky, so he wiped it off his feet and slunk into the bathroom without checking who was using it, though it was obvious as soon as he glanced up at the doors who was in there. Without announcing himself, he opened the stall and stepped in behind Dave, leaning his cheek against the space between his shoulderblades and grumbling.

Dave had heard the door open and peeked over the stall door to see who'd come in. Luckily for him, he didn't have to throw shit at Terezi. "Sup," Dave murmured over his shoulder once Karkat joined him, and moved aside to let the water spray on his boyfriend for a minute, just to get the slime off. "Rough dreams. I could tell when I went in there." He grabbed his own shampoo and poured some into one hand before he slicked it over both hands. He turned around and ran his hands through Karkat's hair, massaging his nails across the other's scalp. 

"There's breakfast for you if you want some, and Terezi's still here last I checked."

"Figured as much," Karkat muttered as he tilted his head into the touch, his eyes still closed as his hands crept around Dave's waist to rest in the small of his back. "Sorry for passing out on you guys so early. Still tired as balls..."

"I should've let you guys sleep," Dave murmured, working Karkat's hair into a lather. "I forgot my brain was going to get me up so early." He sighed quietly as he reached behind himself to grab the showerhead down from the wall. "Tilt your head up," he instructed quietly, and rinsed away the suds. "If you want to sleep in some more, I'm not stoppin' you."

"I'll stay up with you guys. We can figure out what we want to do before whatever Bro has planned for this afternoon." Letting himself be pampered wasn't something that Karkat often wanted or even allowed, but he tipped his head back to let Dave rinse the soap from his hair, his lower lip pulling into his mouth to catch between his teeth.

"There's shit we missed yesterday downtown here, I'm sure we can find something dumb to do 'til Bro feeds us ribs and corn and whatever else it is he's planning on shoving over a fire." He leaned down to kiss Karkat's jaw before dipping down lower to grab the conditioner. "You missed no fun whatsoever. We bullshitted for a few hours and then passed out because we literally bored each other to sleep." He smiled as he gave Karkat's hair the same careful treatment he gave his own, his eyes gone half closed out of fondness.

"How is it that he can cook when you can barely microwave?" Karkat hummed quietly in the back of his throat as the soft chirp of his purr started, his arms tightening some around Dave's waist. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the middle of the other's chest, letting his tongue flick out to lap at the drips trailing down the freckled skin, being more sensual than sexual.

"Barbecue isn't cooking, it's a different thing. Shit, I can barbecue, but it's fire. It's throwing dead things on top of fire and then eating those dead things after they've been on that fire. It's basically the manliest human manly thing you can do." He shivered a breath at the heat of Karkat's tongue across his chest, and slid his fingers down out of his boyfriend's hair and down to his neck, still massaging lightly. "We really haven't evolved beyond cavepeople, I'm tellin' you. Head back again." He waited for Karkat to tilt his head back up so he could sneak a kiss, and then proceeded to rinse out the conditioner.

"And my assumption is that Bro is the manliest human man by that logic," he purred quietly as Dave's fingers dragged over his scalp. He lifted himself back up to steal another peck, barely hearing the sound of a camera going off and the click of a door closing and still just a little too tired to process what he'd heard at all.

Dave had heard, and murmured into the kiss, "Gonna have to kill 'Rezi later," before tilting his head down to kiss Karkat's neck. "She has absolutely no shame." He didn't honestly mind that she took a picture - so long as it was for her private collection, he just couldn't care less. As it was, he had Karkat close, and that was really all he wanted at the moment, despite what his physiology had to say about it. Karkat tilted his head some against Dave's as his eyes closed against the droplets of water pouring over both of them, his hands moving up over Dave's back then scratching his nails over his skin just hard enough to leave the faintest marks.

"Just tie her to something and ignore her for a little bit, it'll drive her insane..."

After gasping with the trail that Karkat's nails left, Dave chuckled at the thought. "Kinky, but effective," he murmured as he moved his hands down to Karkat's waist, and then back around his ass. "We really shouldn't," he murmured into his matesprit's ear, "the door's unlocked, she could come in." But as he said that, he showed no signs of abating. He nipped Karkat's neck lightly, digging his nails lightly against the meat of each asscheek. Karkat bit hard on the insides of his lips to keep himself from making any sounds, knowing that they would never hear the end of it if Terezi caught wind of anything besides cutesy shit happening in the shower. He retaliated by angling his nails and pressing in harder, dragging them in stinging lines down Dave's back then smoothing his hands over them with the smallest smirk. With a sharp gasp, Dave arched his back and pushed Karkat against the wall, to catch his lips with his own as he grabbed one of his matesprit's wrist in a firm grip, pushing it against the cool tile. He hadn't been angling for sex, but that was damn near a challenge in its own right, and he figured Karkat knew it. He pushed one leg between Karkat's knees before grinding his thigh up against him, rocking his own hips against Karkat's with a quiet groan. He didn't care if Terezi chided them about what they did. Karkat would, and that'd upset him a little, but he wasn't really one to get frazzled by the talk of his personal life.

The damage was done now and while this meant that the shower would run longer and the food would get cold (and probably nibbled on by a bored Terezi), Karkat was content to wrap one of his legs around Dave's and slip one hand between them, running his hand over his matesprit's groin before wrapping his fingers around his erection as it rose, only to pull them away to coax his bulge out and let it twisted between his fingers. He wrapped the other arm around Dave's neck and pulled him into a deep kiss mostly to muffle any sounds they might make.

Shuddering a breath through his nose, Dave put one hand up against Karkat's thigh and held it in place while his other went down between them as well, brushing his knuckles against Karkat's own hand and bulge. He deepened the kiss as he rocked his hips again, teasing his erection against their hands, and gently guided his matesprit's bulge to wrap around his cock instead. With a smirk into the kiss, he then wrapped his hand around them both and started pumping with a firm grip. Karkat's mouth dropped open as he let out a shuddering gasp then sucked Dave back into the kiss, his hips moving up to press more firmly into the other's hand. His own fell to rest against Dave's hips, nails pressing into his skin more and more over time then dragging back up again as the air sweetened around them.

With a groan into the kiss from every bite of Karkat's nails, Dave sped the pace of his hand, though after a few moments he moved both hands away from Karkat and broke the kiss, only to hiss a whisper into his ear, a single, rough word. "Corner." He motioned to the closest one before nudging Karkat that direction. Karkat nodded and backed into it, lifting one of his legs to curl around Dave's waist then climbed up him with the aid of the tiled wall behind him, his shoulderblades pressing into it as he reached a hand between them to pry his bulge away from Dave's cock and hold himself just above it. He leaned down to bite into the crook of the other's neck, sucking hard.

It was taking all of Dave's limited willpower to stay quiet at the bite; he'd already been having enough trouble with the scratches, but that sent him reeling quietly with a shuddered breath. He moved into position, and wrapped one arm around Karkat's waist and pushed in with a hard gasp, before hissing into Karkat's ear a great number of dirty things he had been thinking of doing to him the day before. It kept him from making more noise, at least, as he set a rough, quick pace. He moved his hand that was between them up and back around the thicker part of Karkat's bulge, tracing one long finger up to have the rest wrap around it. Karkat groaned out loud at that and tightened down some around him, red all the way to his neck at the diatribe of innuendos and filthy words hissing into his ear. His nails dug barely oozing bloody crescents into Dave's shoulderblades as pulses of pleasure swept up from the pit of his stomach. The pace and the ministrations of Dave's hand would at least ensure that this would be quick and soon enough, there was a trickle of red running down the drain as he approached climax. He muttered breathlessly against Dave's neck to keep going, a little harder, finally having to really dig in when he came and holding on tight.

The claws to his back did Dave in in short order after Karkat had hit his peak, and he gripped where he'd been holding against Karkat's thigh as he came. Once he knew he could safely let Karkat down without his matesprit collapsing, he carefully did so, and stepped back into the spray of the shower to rinse off and scrub quickly.

He came out of the bathroom, fully dressed and still a little damp, but no less pleased-looking as he went to grab his breakfast and toss it in the microwave. "Yo," he said to Terezi, who was practically glowing aqua as he strolled out. He grabbed a soda to go along with his food, and once it was heated up, he came into the sitting area to eat, dropping himself on the floor and setting his plate on the coffee table to tuck in. "I'm gonna need that pic you took."

Karkat very pointedly ignored both of them as he picked up his breakfast and heated it up as well, sitting down on the edge of the bed with his knees primly crossed, the plate sitting on top of them as he wolfed down the food. He dressed shortly after that, humming quietly under his breath, then sneaked a quick kiss to Terezi's cheek that made her squeak and blush harder as she refused to give up the picture she'd sneaked.

Dave tilted his head, "You're going to give me that photo, Pyrope. Or at least let me see it. It'd be pretty unjustified to withhold photo evidence from the suspects, wouldn't it?" His smile was cocky as he pulled out his phone to check the time. Damn, it wasn't even nine yet. Bro probably wasn't even awake yet; knowing him, he wouldn't be awake until at least 10:30. Oh well. He sent a message to Rose, before taking a quick photo of Terezi and sending it off. He figured nothing would be overfucked if Rose knew that he'd found and captured a rogue Pyrope in the wilds of Houston.

He got a message back that read **What a glorious conquest in your day's travels, Dave. I'm quite happy for you, though still perturbed by the fact that you insist on finding and re-befriending the refugees of our failure. I've been told there are consequences to actions such as that.** He sighed and responded, **nothing bads gonna happen if i keep my friends safe and close** before sending one right on its heels, **you worry too much**

"But I took it so it's mine and you can't- Hey!" Terezi swatted at Karkat as he managed to snag the phone while she was distracted, handing it off to Dave then casually absconding to the other side of the sofa to fend off certain retribution. Dave grinned as he swiftly found his way into the photos, finding the one she just took. "Tch, not even worth keeping, look at this, the lighting is for shit!" He didn't delete it, though, because it was sort of cute in its own way, and wasn't obscene by any means - the shower stall's door was built in such a way that it obscured anything from the bottom to four feet up. He whistled to grab Karkat's attention and tossed the phone back to him. "It's still kind of cute though. What do you say, nubs, should we let her keep it?"

"She's not the photographer here," Karkat reminded him as he looked at the picture, tilting his head and smiling faintly as he sent the photo to his phone before finally returning Terezi's and going to get dressed. He pulled on a pair of older skinny jeans with faded, slightly ripped spots that looked better than the purposefully worn pants they sold in every "hip" store. He pulled on a sweater over the top no matter what Dave's argument would be concerning the weather, already a good deal more comfortable. He watched as Terezi flipped through the phone's contents to make sure that nothing had been deleted then pocketed it, sticking her tongue out at each of them then going to the bathroom to catch a shower herself.

"OH MY GOD, YOU TWO," echoed through the room briefly and Karkat turned pink, only just remembering that the bathroom still smelled strongly of cherry syrup.

Dave chuckled and shook his head. "JUST PUT THE VENT ON!" he called back to her, as he moved to wrap his arms around Karkat's waist from behind, resting his head on top of his matesprit's head. "You're going to die this afternoon unless you put a shirt on under it," Dave warned gently. "Shit, she'll need some clean clothes, too." He pressed a kiss to the top of Karkat's head and slipped away to dig out a pair of shorts that he knew would fit Terezi around the waist, and looked over his shoulder at Karkat. "You got a shirt you can lend?" 

His phone buzzed again as he set the shorts aside and he reached over to grab it, looking at the long-winded, warning response. He brushed it off with a **yeah cool gotcha hey my party is at one my time you wanna come?** then adding, **via webcam of course** and then, **kanaya should come too**. "I just invited Rose and Kanaya to the party. Because it's the goddamn future and they can come even if they're in Boston."

"That should be interesting," Karkat nodded then dug through his belongings, finding a shirt that would be loose and cool enough for Terezi before digging one out for himself just to appease Dave. He'd just pulled his clothes straight again when his phone buzzed in his pocket with a message from Sollux, checking up on him after having heard nothing at all from him or Vriska in a couple of days. He frowned slightly and quickly typed out that they were on vacation and would be doing a party-type thing for Dave's birthday. He also mentioned that Terezi, Rose and Kanaya would be attending, the latter two via video call. He seemed reluctant to say anything either way, based upon what he knew from Vriska, but once it had been confirmed that everyone more or less knew exactly what was going on, he finally conceded that it couldn't really hurt anything if he tried to pop in as well. By the time the conversation was over, Terezi had reappeared, one towel secured around her torso while the other was rubbed through her hair.

"So what are we gonna do until we gorge on meaty things with Bro?" she asked from under the shroud of the towel, peeking out at each of them.

Dave smiled once Terezi emerged and started putting things back in his bag for the day, "I don't care. I guess we could take a cab to Fisherman's Wharf, and fuck around the historic district for a while. It's going to be ages until Bro's coherent, so..." He pointed to the bedroom area, to the clothes laid out for her. "You can borrow some of our clothes today if you want, at least until you get sick of wearing them and want to go home to change." He went to the kitchen and tossed a few bottles of water and cans of soda in his bag for good measure.

"If I had my swimsuit with me I'd say we go and dick around by the pool before the tourists decide to flood it," Terezi shrugged and pulled on yesterday's bra, then fished in Karkat's clothes to grab a pair of his boxers and slipped them on as well before dressing in the borrowed clothes. She stood there when she was done with her hands on her hips, looking happy as a well-fed clam. Karkat grabbed a brush out of Dave's belongings and started to drag it through the mess of Terezi's hair, prompting much stuttering and flailing then crossed-arm moping until he'd sorted it out and kissed the part.

Dave laughed as they fussed with each other. "You two are fucking adorable as hell and it's making me sick, like literally, I want to vomit rainbows right now." He waited for Karkat to finish fixing Terezi's hair by way of confirming Rose and Kanaya's presence at the party. Rose thought it was silly, but she'd be there, and Kanaya sent a text to him saying she'd be happy to join in.

Once out the door and in the cab, Dave changed his mind. "Hey, driver guy, take us to Bishop's Palace." He turned to Karkat and explained. "The place has some sick architecture and I've always wanted to take some photos for later use." He had the mind to use its lavish, gothic look and rough textured exterior in a project of photo-splicing, which he'd probably then use as overlay or backdrop for the film project. "It's still in Galveston, it's not like it's too far off from where we were headed.

Karkat and Terezi exchanged looks, then shrugged as they climbed into the cab on either side of Dave and sandwiched him in comfortably. "I really have to see some more of your stuff some time," Terezi stated quite firmly as she looked up at Dave, giving him a toothy little smirk. "Have you taken any more photos of Karkles?"

"A few yesterday, but honestly, I don't usually do people photos," Dave said as he settled in the cab, arms draping over the back seat. "When you come up for the holiday, I'll show you my portfolio." He looked over at Karkat, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of his head. "I think you'll like this place, if only for the look." It was no hive, sure, but Dave figured that the aesthetic of it was pretty firmly cemented into the spooky and beautiful category, no matter who looked at it. 

They were about three blocks away when the huge looming building jutted out before them - a huge Victorian stone castle pierced the scenery and loomed quietly over the historic downtown area. Dave grinned once he saw it and tapped both Terezi and Karkat on the shoulders to look. "Don't ever doubt me, I know my shit."

Terezi pressed her nose against the car window as the enormous place loomed overhead, immediately muttering that it had to be haunted, and that she simply *had* to see inside. Karkat looked up at the place with similar awe, likening it to places on Prospit. He laid a hand on Dave's shoulder as he leaned to get a better look until the taxi stopped to let them out for the tour.

"So what do you intend to do with the photos you'll be getting here?" He asked as he stood and stretched when he was able to climb out of the car, his hands coming up under his arms as he looked it over, admiring the stonework.

"Mostly stock for grunge filters," Dave said, in equal, but more subdued awe as he stepped out to get a look at the place. "There are certain elements of the outside facade that'll look good as backdrop for the project." He immediately started adjusting his camera and caught the corner of his lip between his teeth as he worked. "look at this shit, dudes, it's crazy." He grinned as he set about walking around the front of the house, taking the occasional picture. He nodded over his shoulder at Karkat, "Go on ahead with her, I'll be in pretty quick." 

He followed along inside after a few minutes and was blown away with the interior as much as he had been with the exterior for so many years. He had begged Bro to take him on a tour for years, but it never panned out, and he was absolutely in awe of what he saw. "Damn, it was definitely worth the wait," he murmured as he slung his arms around the others. "See, I know better than to take you weirdos anywhere dull."

Karkat looked around the inside wordlessly, taking in the graceful architecture as Terezi spun some in place to goggle at everything. She gave a gleeful little giggle and pointed upward at the skylight high overhead in the middle of the spiral staircase then went ahead, giving her own ecstatic commentary on everything she saw.

Dave was having trouble following the rules of no photography. Every corner they turned provided him with even more desire to shoot the lavish bookcases or opulent fireplaces. He was in awe of the place. "I can't believe a place like this exists this far west," he said to Karkat offhandedly. "Castle mansions like this are pretty common on the east coast, but this is ridiculous. You know, I bet Boston is just fucking crowded with shit like this."

"I've never been there so I don't know but I think it might be worth a trip to find out," Karkat replied offhand as he slipped away to start exploring some on his own. He could hear the excited, manic laughter coming from wherever Terezi had wandered off to as she grew more excited about the interior design of the castle. As soon as she spotted the dragon statues, she quieted down for all of ten seconds then ran back to Dave and grabbed onto his hand, dragging him toward her find and whining at him about just sneaking one picture.

Dave was happily dragged and then he looked around the room. There was nobody else in the room but them, and, with a quick visual sweep for security cameras, he nodded. "Fine," he whispered to her, "Just this once. But if we get kicked out, I'm going to throw you into the bay." He nudged her with a smile and walked around to find the best angle from which to shoot, before taking five pictures. He hoped at least one of them would come out perfect. He then put his camera back in his bag and kissed Terezi on the forehead. "The things I do for you, you little brat. Let's go find the midget and get going." She hopped on the spot and hugged him tight around the neck, kissing his cheek then jogging out ahead of him to find Karkat standing on the bottom step of the staircase, looking up with a thoughtful expression. He turned his attention away from whatever it was that he'd been looking at as soon as she bumped into his side, looking up the stairs in kind then wrapping her arms around his middle and pulling him to meet back up with Dave.

"I think Karkles saw a ghost," she whispered dramatically, grabbing onto each of their hands and grinning back at the staircase.

Dave raised an eyebrow at Karkat, "What?" He asked, turning to look where Karkat had been fixated on. He didn't see anything. Hell, he didn't even sense anything - not that he was in any way sensitive to shit, but he felt like going on gut for that was better than dismissing it altogether. He squeezed Terezi's hand and then looked over at his boyfriend again. "I don't see shit, for what it's worth."

Karkat shrugged a shoulder. After everything they'd been through, seeing a ghost here shouldn't have really made any more difference than seeing ghosts had during the game. He squeezed back on Terezi's hand and started to follow them out, asking, "You found something suitably shiny?" and smirking as she wrinkled her nose at him then started talking about the statues. The cab was still waiting outside with its meter running, though that wasn't much of an issue as far as they were concerned.

Dave grinned a little, "I got some shots of the dragons for her," he said as they walked down the stairs and walk down to the street. "They were pretty fucking awesome, I've got to admit."

They spent another couple hours bumming around Galveston before Dave got a text from Bro, announcing that shit was set up and the name of the place where they were meeting. He was sort of reluctant to pull them away from the old-timey arcade that they'd found, but he gathered up Terezi and Karkat, and they took another taxi to a ridiculously picturesque park. It didn't take very long to locate exactly where Bro had set up - it was a place near the volleyball courts, with one picnic table completely filled with food, and another one that Dave figured he'd pulled over from another spot that had places to sit, as well as a monitor that had a split screen going on, and a camera attached to it. Between the two tables, there was a cooler, and a large barrel that, without having to look in it, Dave knew were water balloons floating in ice water. 

Bro looked up at their arrival and gave a nod, "Food's almost ready. I saw a couple connects on the stream, only one showed up on screen. Dude with funky glasses and janky teeth."

"Wait, does that mean that Rose still has that stupid blackout shit?" Karkat asked as he took a seat at one of the tables in front of the monitor, looking down at the cooler, then narrowing his eyes at the barrel. When the icy projectiles started flying, he would be taking up residence in the nearest tree, he decided. He reached up as Terezi joined him and pulled her half onto his lap and trying to see who else had connected to the call. He wanted to see about potentially getting Tavros in at least briefly, but he knew that was unlikely due to his work schedule. He looked up as Sollux reappeared on-screen and immediately grinned at him as he looked over the two of them sitting together.

"What the fuck, Terezi? Did you theriouthly jutht appear out of nowhere to crash the party?" He teased, leaning forward on his elbows and glancing at Karkat, who's expression looked as content as he'd ever seen it.

"Maaaaybe," she laughed then scooted off of Karkat to go and watch Bro poking at the food over one of the fire pits, leaving him alone to chat with Sollux until Rose or Kanaya made an appearance.

Dave took a sprawled seat at the picnic table, putting his elbows up on the table itself, crossing his ankles. He looked over his shoulder at the screen and smirked, "Oh shit, who invited the hot blonde?" He said as he saw another screen pop on, and Rose smiled demurely.

"I believe that would be you, Dave. Happy birthday. I also believe that your brother has a gift for you, I sent it out a week ago." Bro looked up from the grill and pointed to the pile of presents under the food table.

"You really didn't have to do that," Dave said, shaking his head. "Can you see Sollux too?"

"Yes, I have him on monitor four. Hello, Sollux." Rose waved and then looked back at the party cam. "Bro cooking. I thought you said neither of you know how to cook."

"I just explained that to Karkat. Barbecue is different. Anyway, I've got a thing to do." He reached under the table and felt around the underside of it, smirking when he found what he was after - it was a heavy-duty power-spraying water gun, which he aimed straight at Terezi. Bro reached over and got Karkat out of the way of the line of fire, pulling him behind himself as Terezi was thoroughly soaked. Karkat nearly fell over himself, grabbing the back of Bro's shirt then peeking around him and snorting as Terezi shrieked and ran toward the barrel to grab a water balloon to lob back at Dave. Rose looked rather amused as Sollux rolled his eyes then turned back to where he could just see Karkat, calling him out for still being a wuss about anything that might be even remotely fun. It earned him a middle finger that was very casually brushed off.

As soon as the short water battle was taken far enough away from the table to let him sit back down without the risk of soaking, Karkat grabbed a soda from the cooler and popped it open then asked where Kanaya had gotten to, hoping to talk to her a little about Dave's film project and just what they might need to have for her beforehand. Sollux's interest piqued and he started asking questions, having only heard of the project in passing. While he wasn't entirely sure about the technical aspects of any of it, Karkat was at least able to give them an overview what they were hoping to do. Rose had heard all of it and then some from Dave, but Sollux looked somewhat fascinated, though he immediately scoffed at Karkat having found someone else to play the part of the Psiioniic.

"It's not like you're going to fly your happy ass out here and do it. In any case you can't act your way out of a fucking paper sack."

"How would you know that, nubth? You've never theen me act in the firtht plathe."

Dave ran past the table to grab a few balloons, his gun having ran out of water. "Sup guys." He heard the discussion - or at least the tail end of it, and then raised both brows. "Sollux, if you can act even half as well as you can be a world-class prick, you're hired." He yelped when Terezi caught up to him and made a graceful leap over the table with a soaked shirt full of water balloons, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, YOUR HONOR." 

Bro snorted. Grown ass adults. Yes fuckin' sir. "Look Sollux, I'm not averse to flying you out to their campus to work on it, but it's up to Dave whether or not you'd play the part."

"Are we discussing the arrangements for Dave's film project?" came the eloquent voice of Kanaya, who flickered onto the screen as well. She was in a dark room, though she was still giving off light of her own. "My apologies for the quality of the picture. Where _is_ Dave?"

Dave popped over the table and waved from the opposite side of where the camera was. "Hey Kanaya." With that, he was off again.

Bro snorted. "He's getting owned by Terezi."

"He did seem rather soggy, yes."

"And I just know I'm going to be the one to have to take care of their dumb asses when they inevitably get sick," Karkat muttered, rolling his eyes then smiling faintly at Kanaya and Rose laughing. He looked up at the rather blurry feed of Kanaya, his head tilting some. "You need a better camera... Anyway, like Bro so kindly interjected, it's ultimately up to Dave whether you even get to do this. Kanaya's more or less agreed to be our Dolorosa because there's nobody here that can really pull it off, and she'd be doing the costume design so you know they'll be fucking amazing."

"Well yeah, that'th a given. Ith anyone elthe joining in on thith or ith it jutht uth? I thought you thaid you'd run into Tavroth before."

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure he's working today and in any case, I don't really want him to have to deal with Spiderbitch Supreme. You know that's the absolute _last_ fucking thing he needs."

"True."

Once they ran out of balloons, Dave, soaked from head to toe, took a seat next to Karkat, leaning over to look at the others on the screen. "Ideally, if we could all pull double-duty on this project, it'd get done faster and better. I've got a shitload to prepare, and we haven't even scouted for locations, except the one I'd found even before I started this shit. But Kanaya, you had the right idea. You'd make a stellar Dolorosa... Are you still a rainbow drinker? Eegh, I don't know how well..."

"I can use body paint, Dave. At least at the beginning. There is evidence to suggest that the Dolorosa herself had turned somewhere between the death of the Sufferer and her own execution. That is, if you have plans to work on the aftermath, and not just the Signless' life."

"Right, okay, that works. Sollux, here's an idea. You have the capabilities to make something go viral basically just by looking at it the right way. I need that kind of exposure to this. Once we get to filming, I can edit together some trailer-type shit, maybe toss together some graphics, and you can work your magic in that way. If you're actually interested in playing the Psiioniic, I'm all the fuck for it. Karkat here's got his part and his secondary role."

Rose covered her mouth to hide a coy smile.

"Secondary role?" This was the first that Karkat had heard of that, to his recollection.

Dave rumpled Karkat's hair affectionately. "You keep me from forgetting important shit." There was an implied 'among other things' in the tone of his voice. The conversation got into fairly important details, and Dave took out his pad of paper from his bag, writing down things he'd surely forget otherwise. After a little bit, Bro set all the cooked food down on the other table, and simultaneously, there was pizza delivered to both Kanaya and Rose's home, as well as to Sollux's place. "Time to eat!" Bro announced. "I winged it with you internet guys, I hope you like supreme pizzas."

Dave shook his head, not even questioning how he managed that for Sollux. He stood and went to grab a plate. The beef ribs were just about the only thing on his mind all day, and they more than met his expectations. He plopped back down to start eating, and Bro did the same on the other side of the table, having strategically piled food onto his plate in such a way that it wound up more a mountain than anything even remotely resembling a proper portion.

Rose went to grab the pizza and joined Kanaya in the same room with the box of it. She thanked Bro for the kind consideration. The chatter more or less ceased as they all started to dig into their respective meals, Kanaya picking a couple of things off her pizza slices before digging in, Sollux doing the same. Terezi managed to make a spectacle of herself as she decided that all barbecue food operated on the 'everything is fingerfood' principle, smearing barbecue across her face and licking her fingers. Karkat wasn't much better about it, but at least he remembered to occasionally utilize napkins. He decided right then that at least once a year they would have to give Bro an excuse to barbecue for them, no matter what the occasion might be. Even "I just really fucking want some crispy meat" felt like it would be a good enough reason. Here and there, more conversation was made concerning the project, then there was small talk about the others and who knew what about whom, which prompted some slightly nervous discussion about what they remembered and what it was triggering, from what Bro had told them.

"As far as we know, Nepeta and Equius don't know anything, but they're sticking together still. That can either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether either of them know that Gamzee's in the same city. We fucked up by getting Tavros to remember, but it's possible that he only remembers the names and faces and things like Terezi. Staying isolated is going to fucking suck, but it'll be better for all of us if we keep shit just the way it is now." Sollux nodded in agreement as he finished his last slice of pizza, sitting back at his desk and looking up at a ping from his Pesterchum that made him grimace. "If it's Vriska, just tell her to fuck off. Her soothsayer bullshit's overplayed."

Dave leaned over with a wet-nap and wiped Terezi's cheeks and chin, chuckling with a shake of his head. "Slow down there, cowgirl," he murmured, and then sat back down to finish his own plate of food. Bro stood and got the cake ready, keeping it obscured from view of the rest of the group as he did.

Vriska was indeed the one who pinged Sollux, but had made no other comment but **Tell the human string8ean happy 8irthday from me, and his 8rother thanks for the cupcake.** That cued another round of doorbells for the others who were internet connected. Rose couldn't help but laugh as she hopped back up and got the door again, bringing back a pair of cupcakes. They were sky blue frosting with pink and yellow lettering that read 'HAPY BIRTDAY DAVID MARYANNE STRIDER GOOD JOB NICE TIEM'. The fine details of the comic sans letters were constrained on the small space they were on for the cupcakes, but when Dave was presented with the full-sized cake he just groaned and laughed, burying his face in his hands, "That is the stupidest thing I've seen all year," he complained, but looked up with a big grin.

Karkat couldn't think of any comment when he finally took in the cake and accompanying cupcakes in their entirety, his expression more or less deadpan with a single very slightly arched eyebrow. He just had to wonder what the decorator had been thinking when they'd added the comic sans. Then he considered just who had to have made it and rolled his eyes, sitting back as he waited for the candles to be lit. He wouldn't sing. Nope, not in public. But he would be right there to dispense birthday-related kisses or whatever else.

"This is certainly interesting, as far as confection goes," Kanaya noted with a small, good-natured smirk at the cake, then the matching cupcake as she dragged a fingertip through the icing and popped it into her mouth.

Dave was thankful for the lack of singing as he blew out the candles and got whapped when he went for the knife to cut it. "Fuck! Bro!" He grumbled and sat back down, letting Bro cut the cake for him. "Jesus christ, just once I'd like to do that," he pouted.

"When you're old enough, kid." Bro said with a smirk. Sure, he'd given the kid his first sword at five, and taught him how to fight from that day on, but he still didn't trust Dave with a cake knife. It baffled Dave more than it upset him. 

There was another lull of quiet before Dave got a text, and he raised his eyebrows at the number. It was familiar, but unprogrammed. **happy birthday Dave!** read the text and he chuckled, shaking his head.

**thanks whos this**

**John!**

Dave just about dropped his phone in surprise. Karkat looked back at him when he froze, frowning slightly as he looked over the top of the phone, expecting to see more sarcasm and snark peppered with eights, only to stop when he caught the name and glance between the phone and its owner then lean back out of the way again. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting to happen when it came to John, but it hadn't been this. He glanced back at the monitor on the off-chance that John had popped up there as well, but all there was at this point was Sollux in his window openly mocking the absurd cupcake while still seeming to enjoy it and Rose and Kanaya in theirs digging in while watching them all with expectant looks.

"Dave? Care to share with the class?" Rose piped up, her look going from expectant to concerned when Dave hadn't moved from his spot, staring at the phone. 

"It's John. We haven't talked in nearly two years." His voice was faraway, until he shook himself out of it with a smile and shake of his head. "I'll get back to him in a while. How's everyone's cupcakes?" He dug into his slice of cake and took a sip of his soda, clearly having pushed down what he'd been feeling QUITE well. "And if you bring up my middle name again, Sollux, I will find you and shove my foot up your waste chute so far that you'll be puking hi-tops. Got that?"

"Jutht try it, Thtrider. The entire fucking internet will know it," Sollux teased then dragged his tongue through the icing on the last remaining half of his cupcake then sticking it out at them.

"Put that back in your mouth you shitsquatting fucktard," Karkat snorted and waved a hand at Sollux's half of the screen, forking a large bite of the cake into his own mouth. He was just glad that Dad Egbert seemed to make his cakes from scratch instead of using the prepackaged stuff and crisco icing. Sollux laughed harshly and leaned forward, pointing his finger at the camera.

"I will when you can keep your bulge to yourthelf you little athwipe. Terezi dethided she would relay the detailth of your morning to Vrithka and in turn _she_ decided to tell _me_ about that shit. I should not have to wake up to that." Karkat turned bright red at that and glared at Terezi as she cackled and scooted away quickly, clutching her plate.

"Blabbermouth," Dave said flatly to Terezi, shaking his head. "And are you _theriouthly_ giving Karkat shit for getting laid? When's the last time _you_ got any, Captor?" He had a cocky grin as he took a sip of his soda, clearly unflustered by his generally private love-life. With this group, he knew he shouldn't have expected anything to say secret for long.

Rose piped up again, "Honestly, we should hold ourselves to a higher class of humiliation than talking about whose privates are going into whom. We have far greater dirt on each other than anybody else than that of the silly gossip of who's in a matespritship with whom, and all the dirty little details. Every single one of us has that _one_ secret on the other. Isn't that right, Dave."

"You shut your whore mouth, Rose." Dave immediately clammed up and stuffed the oversized bite which was the remainder of his cake slice into his mouth, and then got cuffed upside the head by Bro. "Sorry 'bout the 'whore' thing," he muttered.

"And Vriska has more on all of us than we could ever hope to hide," Kanaya sighed with a small smile as she leaned some against Rose, finishing the last of her desert then folding the paper neatly and laying it aside. Karkat shuddered at that and shoved another bite of the cake into his mouth as a distraction, muttering "don't remind me" around it.

"That shouldn't really be a thurprithe to anyone," Sollux shrugged then got up to fetch a drink for himself, his computer pinging with more messages while he was gone. He seemed to be ignoring them now, as well as the implication by Dave concerning his own love life. "Tho how'th thith for your firtht birthday in yearth with all of uth?" He asked when he returned, sitting back and taking a swallow from the bottle of Pepsi he'd grabbed off-screen.

Dave put his arm around Karkat's waist, out of view of the camera, squeezing a little. "It's fucking ridiculous. With the exception of Rose and Bro, I didn't even know any of you were still around, that any of you existed, months ago. Knowing that you weren't all just some dumb dream really fucking owns." He grabbed his camera and handed it off to his brother to get some shots of the party so he could keep talking. "It feels a little empty without some of us around, but I think they're doing great even without being connected." He looked over at Terezi and Karkat, remembering the night before, seeing Feferi. "They're doing real fuckin' good."

Karkat laid his hand in the small of Dave's back and nodded some, cracking half a smile as Sollux did the same with a small nod. "I didn't wake up to any of it until Vrithka found me. I know it'th really fucking rithky, but I'm thtill glad that I know you guyth are thtill around and not jutht thoome thtupid conthruct of my imagination. Jutht wish more of uth were thtill around. Or at leatht that their mindth weren't altered," he sighed. He'd tried once to get in contact with Feferi in the hopes that she wasn't just a delusion, but had come away just as disappointed as Karkat and Terezi had the night before. He looked back at Dave and Karkat sitting there against one-another and shook his head some. "Never thought I'd thee the day nubth would pull the thtick out of hith chute and find thomething to thmile about..."

Rose nodded at that, with a finger to her chin as she looked at the two of them, "The both of them, Sollux. Neither smiled nearly as much as now. It's a blessing, and I think we should take it for what it is." 

Dave's smile went lopsided, "Yeah, it's clearly Armageddon. One of the huge predictions for it was when Karkat smiles this much, right? I'm pretty fuckin' sure that's how that goes."

"Congratulations, Dave, you're the harbinger of doom. How does that feel?" Rose teased, licking the remainder of frosting off her thumb.

"Feels like a great big hardon, babe. So how about we set another one of these up again for around Christmas? Nobody here celebrates, so it'll be a pretty boring day off if we're not doing _something_ " Dave turned to Karkat, then to Terezi. "Unless the two of you were actually conspiring to do something that day."

Karkat had buried his face in his hands throughout most of the exchange, quietly grumbling about hating every single one of them. He looked up when Dave looked between them, glancing up at Terezi and winking as if they did in fact have something planned, even though the case was exactly the opposite. But if it made Dave paranoid it felt like it might be worth it. She was clearly happy to play along, too. "You know we don't give a shit about Christmas except for the clearance sales afterward," he shrugged, then looked back at Sollux, who was nodding as if he hadn't seen a thing. Dave knew they didn't, but he figured he'd put them on the spot. He played along, however, putting on a dramatic pout. "Well, I guess no stream for us then."

Rose tried her very best to keep up a poker face, before she just smiled and shook her head, "You're all crazy. Can you tell me again why I keep you around?"

"Because you can't quit me, Lalonde," Dave responded, "You would shrivel up and die without my guiding light of love and dope fuckin' rhymes."

"You haven't rapped at me in years, Strider," she reminded, before shaking her head. "As fun as this has been, I really must be going. I have a meeting with my publisher in an hour, and I have to get ready. I'm still in my pajamas. Please tell me when the next stream is, Dave, once you get that figured out." She waved to the camera, bidding them all adieu, and as Dave waved back with a fond smile, she disconnected. Kanaya also had to be off, excusing herself with a sweet smile at them, adding just before she shut down her end of the stream that Dave had her number, so they could text her.

Dave's eyes widened, "Oh shit, I never replied back to Egbert." He started that again, splitting his attention between the screen of his phone and the one that had only Sollux on it now. "Sollux, I'll email you what I've got written of the Psiioniic's part once we get back home."

As soon as Kanaya disconnected, Karkat let out a wheeze that he seemed to have been holding the entire time. He leaned up against Dave's side and shook him a little as if he'd forgotten that Sollux was more or less right there, still watching. "Dave she's perfect oh my Jesus fuck did you not fucking see that she's a goddamn bombshell WHY IS SHE THAT HOT SHE SHOULD NOT FUCKING BE THAT HOT STRIDER EXPLAIN."

Terezi and Sollux both nearly fell over themselves laughing.

Dave turned to Karkat with a browarch, "Who? Kanaya? She's always been hot. Get a hold of yourself, dude." He had always assumed she'd be just as gorgeous, and her easy, graceful way of moving simply made him think about how she was going to be a really good Dolorosa, and how well that would translate into his project. She was definitely going to be Hot Mom #1. He got another text from John after his reply, and he chuckled. John had wondered where the heck he'd been and he said he was actually at a party at the moment, and told him they'd catch up in a few hours when things wound down.

"Seriously, though, Karkat? Get a grip. If you hadn't been prepared for that since we were sixteen, you were really damn distracted." He looked up at Sollux, "Shit, dude, you saw her high potential for hotness, right? I'm not the only one?"

"I can't believe you guyth," he scoffed, sitting back with his arms crossed as if Kanaya's development into the ultimate babe had been completely foreseen by him before anyone else. "And you tried to find other people to be your Dolorotha before getting in contact with her? For shame."

Dave snorted, "We didn't know where the hell she was. If I had known that Rose was hiding her away like some sort of holocaust refugee, I would've gone to her first."

Karkat huddled down as Terezi continued to laugh at all of them, completely out of breath by the time she'd come around to get herself a bottle of water. He was still complaining about things in general when she'd circled around behind them quite casually, waving to Sollux then putting a finger to her lips before upending the bottle down the back of Karkat's sweater.

The shriek could have been heard from the other end of the park.

Terezi had taken a place sitting on the ground a couple of feet away five minutes later with a stick, prodding Karkat in the shoulder as he stoutly refused to get up off the ground even to change out of his now slightly sodden sweater.

Bro chuckled. "Hey Sollux, I've sent you some information. If you need any side work, let me know. I always need a crack programmer other than myself around for my sites." He walked around to take the stick away from Terezi and toss it aside then hold a hand out to Karkat. "I can stand here offering a hand up longer than you can lay there like a little bitch. Just do us both a favor and get the hell up."

"Terezi is an awful person and she should feel horrible for nearly stopping my fucking pump biscuit," Karkat griped, but took the hand and used it to haul himself up finally and stripped his sweater off over his head, wringing it out then tying it around his waist. He inched away with a paranoid squint at Terezi, then bolted to the cooler and grabbed one of the last remaining water bottles, prompting her to run away screaming bloody murder as he chased her down with the intent of returning the favor. Sollux raised an eyebrow at the Striders, then shook his head.

"Dave, you broke him..." Then he turned his attention back to Bro, tilting his head as he considered the offer. "Yeah, I thaw you run all of your shit thingle-handed. I'm guething you jutht don't trutht anyone with your porn. What'th in it for me if I do take thith on?"

Dave grinned as he watched Terezi dash off with Karkat after her, and snuck around to go open his gifts. He listened as Bro took a seat and spoke to Sollux. "A yearly salary that any other programmer would shit themselves over. Twice-yearly bonuses. You run through a honeycomb server, right? I'd throw in an extra couple hundred to teach me the basics. I was thinking about upgrading, anyway. And of course, I could swing a one-of-a-kind smuppet your way. Not that that sweetens the deal, I just like the idea of a blue and red one, and would've made one anyway."

Sollux tapped at his chin some as he thought it over. While his regular job was fairly decent and he'd finally been there long enough to get some benefits, what he was being offered would be an excellent tradeoff for a little less sleep. "I'd shake your hand, but there are a few too many mileth in the way tho jutht...Call one of the other athhatth over ath a witneth if you need to. Shoot me an email with more information when you can and you'll have yourthelf a deal."

Karkat was holding Terezi down, sitting on her back and upending the bottle of water over her head as she made overdramatic, illogical threats concerning his waste chute while Dave opened presents. There was one from Karkat that had somehow been sneaked in with the rest that Bro had piled up, wrapped in plain silvery paper and a sticker on one corner with a jagged little K written on it.

Dave looked over Bro's shoulder, showing Sollux the scarf that Rose had knit for him, grinning as he stoically draped it across Bro's broad shoulders. Bro was good at ignoring the idiocy around him. "I'll send you the legal shit in the email, man. You just get back to me when you get that shit signed and whatever, and I'll take you at your word. You've got a good head on your shoulders about your job, and though I've heard things about you blowing your top, you'll be in good company." He didn't want to bring up the dozens of computers that had met their unfortunate end out of windows or impaled on shitty QVC swords.

Dave opened up the smaller gift from Karkat then, his ears burning as he wondered how the little shit managed to sneak that into the pile without his noticing. His jaw dropped as he found that it was a set of copics in various widths. "KARKAT, YOU UTTER SHIT, YOU BOUGHT ME THE BEST PENS ON THE PLANET? DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKING MUCH THAT MEANS TO ME?" He grinned as he chuckled and looked at them once more before setting them aside. Karkat grinned as he squeezed the last few drops of water out of the bottle then patted Terezi's shoulder and got up, stretching languidly as he returned to the picnic tables while she very theatrically sobbed into the ground about abuse, until she realized that nobody was paying attention anymore. She got up and shook her head roughly, sending water in every direction then walking back as well to open one of the last remaining sodas. "Would you two quit being all perfect already? I'm going to puke rainbows," she teased them then looked over the top of the monitor at Bro.

"Between the two of uth we could probably blow up half the country'th computerth," Sollux mused, smirking some at the scarf and leaning his elbows on his desk. "I look forward to working with you, Thtrider. Thith should be interethting."

"One step at a time, Captor. I think it'll be a mutually beneficial arrangement in time. Take care." Bro finally switched off the stream and looked over at Terezi with a smirk. "Heh. Kranki got you all wet. Hope that wasn't _too_ exciting for you. How about you help me out with packing this shit up?" 

Dave wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist as he set aside the still-wrapped present that was obviously a sword from Bro. "I don't know how he thinks we're getting that back home on the plane," he chuckled, holding the last present on his lap. "You're going to hate it when I get you gifts, Vantas. I'm the literal worst at them." He noted that the last present was from Kanaya, when he spotted her handwriting. **This Is Why I Asked Rose For Your Measurements.** He unwrapped it and pulled out a finely tailored pinstripe suit with a subtle hand-embroidered gear emblem on its lapel. "Holy shit," he said with his eyes wide under his glasses. "It's silk!" He looked over at Karkat then, and then back at the suit. Now he knew who he'd be going to for the suits he'd wanted to get Karkat. "You dicks spoil the shit out of me any more and I'll start getting used to it."

"It's apparently taken you twenty years and you're still not used to it," Karkat pointed out in regards to whatever Bro might have possibly done over Dave's lifetime. He smiled faintly as he leaned into Dave's side with his arm wrapped around his back, scratching lightly at his side. He leaned up and kissed just under the edge of his jaw softly before going and helping to pack up the last of the food, of which there was very little after the pack of ravenous adults-in-denial had gotten to it. He let Dave carry his new pens and suit himself, given that both he and Terezi were still slightly damp. Once everything had been deposited back into Bro's car they stood there looking between each other, hashing out what they might want to do tomorrow, Terezi suggesting that they dick around at whatever club they could find that would let them in when they were still under 21. Bro suggested a few, having been DJ for several clubs that let in minors, before just flipping out a notepad from his back pocket and writing them down.

Dave shook his head with a lopsided smile as he leaned against the camaro. "Leave it to my weirdo brother to know every club in the city." He swiftly ducked an incoming hair ruffle, using the same motion to take Bro's arm and swing him down onto the ground. "That's for lying to me about being in a coma, dude," he smirked, glad he finally caught Bro offguard once today.

Bro laughed and shook his head from his spot on the ground, and then stood again. "Good throw, kid."

Dave looked back over at Karkat with the same smirk, pressing a kiss to his cheek before looking over at Terezi. "We _should_ let you go back home so you can feed whatever weird animals you've accumulated, and to change and sleep and stuff, huh?" He held out his phone to her so she could punch in her number. "We'll give you a call tomorrow once we've got a plan." Terezi nodded as she handed back the phone, then stood on tiptoe to press a kiss to Dave's cheek, then to Karkat's and finally to Bro's, dialing for a cab to take her home before he could offer to drive her. "You guys have to promise not to get into too much trouble without me," she chuckled, then jogged off to the curb at which she'd arranged to meet her taxi.

When Karkat was finally settled back into the back seat of the car he made himself stare directly out of the window, leaning forward with his chin on the back of the seat, his hand around the side of it hooked around Dave's. "When we get back do you have anything you really think you wanna do or will we just stay in? Because I'll be perfectly fine with whatever you intend to do with the rest of your birthday."

Dave sprawled out in the passenger seat, grinning a little at the way the day had gone. He knew it wouldn't be long until they'd have a strife, but he was mentally prepared for once. But the thought dissipated when Karkat started gently toying with his fingers. "Mm, I think just settling in for the evening's good. I need to decompress, y'know?" He caught Karkat's hand, squeezing it lightly. He turned to look at Karkat with a fond smile. "I don't want to be a downer, but I think between yesterday and today, both of us could use it."

Karkat butted his head gently against Dave's, nodding and giving a soft, relieved sigh. "Sounds fantastic... Maybe we can order in something small to eat later if we get hungry." He ran his hand up the length of his matesprit's arm to rest on his shoulder, squeezing a little then putting his cheek down against it.

"Mm, they've got some fancy-pants room service, I'm sure," Dave murmured, pressing a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "Probably could get some crazy imported Ukranian space salad or some shit." He put his hand up into Karkat's hair. "I'm glad you came along, Vantas. This vacation would've been pretty boring without you." He then turned to Bro. "Are you seriously going to be employing Sollux? Dude's the most emotionally unstable motherfuck I've ever met."

"Second most, he just doesn't know how to hide it. And you bet your ass I am, kid. He's one of the best damn programmers in the country. Not that you'd hear it from anybody else. He gets overlooked because he's eccentric."

"Eccentric is a nice way of putting it," Dave murmured, still running his nails over Karkat's scalp. "I think it's probably more because he's a troll."

"Oh, yeah, that too probably."

"Sollux has been one of my best friends for a long fucking time now. I know he's unstable as shit but he's fucking good at what he does. And having him in relatively close proximity honestly makes me feel a little better about this clusterfuck we've apparently started." Karkat sighed and leaned his head into the hand in his hair, his thumb rubbing across Dave's sleeve. "I think this will be good for him, too. He needs some real focus so that whatever that duality shit does to him doesn't end up tearing him apart."

"Heh. Shit, I'm a Gemini, too. Not to the extent that kid clearly is," Bro mused with a smile. "We'll fuck some shit _up_. It'll be good to get some help on the back end of the sites, though. I can't unfuck some of the code. Last programmer I hired, I had to fire from being a complete fucking idiot." 

"Don't tell me he got thrown out the window this time." Dave muttered with an eyeroll. He remembered THAT meeting, or at least waiting in the lobby of it and playing games on his phone, before a guy got thrown out of the second floor window and Bro came storming down the stairs to wreck that guy's shit.

"No, not this time. Almost, but I didn't want to go to court again. Here we are. You two want help with the stuff, or should I just bring it home with me 'til you get on the plane again?" Bro said as he swung around to the entrance of the hotel.

"You should probably hold onto the sword at least so we don't get taken aside and accused of being some kind of terrorist cell," Karkat muttered, sitting back and stretching his legs out some then climbing out as soon as the car had come to a stop. Without waiting for Dave to take anything except for the suit, he grabbed what they were taking back up to the room and balanced it easily as he looked back at Bro, lifting a hand in a small, slightly unsure wave. "If things do work out with Sollux all I can really say is good luck. Pretty sure you'll be able to work it all out pretty easily between the two of you."

Dave got out and grabbed his bag and pens, as well as the scarf which had been delicately folded and set between himself and his brother. He started up through the lobby while Bro grinned at Karkat. "Thanks, kid." He paused ,then smiled. "You've been good to those other kids. Keep it up, man." He rolled up his window then and drove off.

"Are you coming or am I going to have room service deliver your dinner to the curb?" Dave called, shouldering the door back open with an expectant look. Karkat watched the car pull away, looking after it then shaking himself mentally and following Dave into the hotel. Did he and Bro just have a moment? He wasn't sure. But it was nice to have his approval, especially where it came to Dave. He shifted everything over to one arm and held the door open then bumped it shut again, letting it lock automatically. The presents were put down on the foot of the bed to be seen to later.

"I kind of wish they had spa facilities here. I could use a decent steam," he groaned as he pulled his shirt off over his head, trying to scratch at the slightly itchy place in the middle of his back where his shirt hadn't quite dried. "Dinner can happen later on. Since we did kind of stuff ourselves on apparently everything Bro had in the refrigerator."

Dave came over to him after he pulled out of his shoes and set his bag down, and he scratched Karkat's back lightly, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "You still assume he uses his fridge for food." He chuckled. "I bet you anything that entire bunch of food was sitting at a butcher or farmer's market as of this morning. Except the soda and chips. He probably had those stashed." He paused as he realized something. It took a couple hours to process, and another few minutes to realize that it was okay to spazz the fuck out. "It's safe now. HOLY SHIT, DID YOU SEE FUCKIN' KANAYA."

Karkat jumped, then turned around to spazz right back at him. "SEE, I FUCKING TOLD YOU. HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST SHE JUST..." He flailed his hands then shook Dave by the shoulders a little. "Rose and Kanaya both fucking bloomed or whatever the fuck and now they're just. Oh my fucking god. Strider. Strider explain this shit to me. Puberty does not account for that shit."

Dave put his hand up in a gesture of 'I fucking know!' and then ran it through his hair, "It has to fuckin' be something in the water there or fuckin' magical lesbian shit or some damn thing, there's NO goddamn way she's actually as hot as that."

"I mean they were both cute before but fuck me _sideways_..." Karkat leaned back against the wall, scratching some at his hair, which had dried even more messy than it had been that morning. "They were probably looking at me like 'well he hasn't changed one fucking bit'. You're all fucking legs now, which is pretty obvious to everyone with a pair of functioning eyes."

"You've changed," Dave assured. "You're... taller?" He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, you haven't changed much, but you were good looking anyway." He shrugged a shoulder and flopped down onto the sofa, putting his hands over his face, "They're screwing the curve up so goddamn bad right now, it's not even funny. And Sollux looks more gangly than he's ever been. And here I thought I had screwy proportions. That kid is nothin' but limbs." He grinned then. "Terezi is fucking beautiful, too. Okay, this is fuckin' unfair as hell. We got screwed out of the cute pool somehow, which is apparently entirely inhabited by the girls."

"They can keep it," Karkat shrugged as he slouched into the couch at he other end, toeing off his shoes and looking back at Dave. "You grew up pretty fucking well yourself, Strider... I don't think I've actually ever told you that. You already looked pretty fucking good back then but now it's better. Relaxing the whole coolkid shit really helped. I'm still a mess and now I've got a fucking belly on top of it but you really came into your own."

"Are you seriously complaining about your weight right now. To me." He looked over his own body down at Karkat with a furrowed brow. "You're not a mess, Vantas. Okay, no. You're a mess, but you're a fucking awesome mess. Deal with it." He blindly fumbled for the remote on the side table to the side of the sofa, and scowled when he realized it was on Karkat's side. "Get the goddamn buttons and put on some TV, you big baby."

"You're so full of shit." Karkat rolled his eyes and handed over the remote, leaning against the arm of the couch and lacing his fingers together behind his head. The channels here were more or less the same as they were at home, plus a few extras if you didn't mind pay-per-view. "But I'm serious, man. When it warms up a little I'm going to try and work it back off before it gets to be a problem."

"If that's what you wanna do, man. I say it's good." He shrugged and flipped through the channels, until he got to the guide, at which point he scrolled through that, instead. "Just laying this out there, Vantas? I'm pretty fuckin' shallow." He briefly looked over at Karkat with a tiny smile.

"Yeah, I can tell. Incredibly vain and no substance at all. Your middle name should have been Narcissus." Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes then reaching one foot out and nudging it against Dave's leg. He sighed and grabbed Karkat's foot, rubbing it with the back of his thumb's knuckle.

"I mean when it comes to who I'm with. At least usually. I've got more reasons to be with you than I've ever had with anybody else, but that's beside the point. Point I'm making is, you've met everybody I've ever slept with, save one, and have you noticed a running theme there? That they're all hot as hell?"

"Dave, spare me. I'm pretty sure even if that was the case, you're the only one that thinks so. But thanks." With a soft smile Karkat crawled along the couch, taking his foot back and settling back down beside his matesprit. "Is there really nothing on?"

"There's literally fuckall on," Dave sighed as he wrapped his arms around Karkat with a sigh. "At least nothing I really feel like watching. Times like this, I'd usually just slap some stupid wild animal show on and tune it out, but that shit gets irritating." He smiled faintly. "Probably isn't even anything on that I'd do that with, right now."

"Somehow it doesn't really surprise me that tv sucks pretty much everywhere," Karkat shrugged, leaning into Dave some and tipping his head back against his shoulder. "But then there is the fact that it's still kind of early and a lot of the better movies don't come on until later. We could figure something out until then?"

Dave stretched under Karkat as he considered the possibilities. Karkat couldn't swim, so the pool was out of the question. They had a hot tub near the pool but it was already balls hot out, so why even bother? He looked around the room and an idea came to him. "This place is really way too tempting to completely wreck. I mean. Look at all these flat surfaces."

Karkat arched a brow then patted his hand against Dave's cheek. "Dave, you're not allowed to wreck this hotel room. I'm not saying 'he was bored' to the hotel staff when someone inevitably gets sent in to check that nobody's getting murdered."

"Flat. Surfaces." Dave reiterated. "I wouldn't trash a room. Just soil it utterly. Come on, I know I'm a fucking Hollywood legend in the making but I haven't really _earned_ hotel trashing." He raised an eyebrow. "Are you even remotely following me, nubby?"

"...Dave. Dave, no. Oh my god." Karkat's ears turned pink at that and he pointedly turned to look back at the menu still up on the tv screen.

Dave snickered, "Wow, you are really, really nervous about that idea." He ran his hand up into Karkat's hair, and over his neck. "You're such a wet blanket, Karkat, I don't even know how to deal." However, the way he said it was fond enough to choke all ire from the meaning of the words. "How about just one thing." He looked around in thought, then pointed to the mini-kitchen's stupid clam-shaped sink and counter. "That thing."

"I have a better idea," Karkat murmured and removed himself from Dave's arms, holding up a finger as he went back to his bag, kneeling at it for a moment then going to the bathroom and ducking in without closing the door. When he came back, he was running his tongue back and forth over his teeth as if searching for food left in between them. "You go sit on the stupid counter," he said, his speech just slightly lispy. Dave looked a little crestfallen at Karkat's removal of self from his arms, but he was curious. What the hell could Karkat possibly have thought up that was better than completely ruining designer furniture? But once Karkat returned, he stood and walked to the counter, leaning up against it momentarily.

"If you think talking like Sollux is a turn-on," Dave mused with a lopsided smile, "you're completely wrong." But he wasn't arguing, as evidenced by the fact that he scooted up into a sitting position on the counter. Rolling his eyes, Karkat hooked his hands under Dave's knees and pulled him just a little bit forward, then bowed his head and slipped his hands up under the other's shirt to push it up to his chest. He pressed his lips to the pale skin then flicked his tongue out over it, tilting to one side to drag the slightly rough flat of it over Dave's nipple. For now he seemed content to tease and work him up.

As he held up his shirt for Karkat, he let out a shivered moan. Something felt very faintly different about Karkat's lips, and he couldn't place it. He just chalked it up to his imagination, and put his free hand behind him to keep himself from tipping off the ledge of the counter. With the sensation of Karkat's tongue over his nipple, he had a wonderful plan for what to do next, but he knew he wouldn't remember through this, if Karkat was keen on pursuing the idea of getting him off. "Don't let me forget, we're going to a piercing place after this." He knew exactly the one he'd go to - it was the same one that had done his tongue and ears. The eyebrows were done up on campus, and he generally didn't like them, especially now that one had grown out. 

He decided that the shirt was getting to be more of a problem than it was worth, and sat up briefly to pull it off and toss it into the bedroom area.

Karkat arched a brow at that, then pulled a lopsided grin. He liked Dave's piercings, even the rather pointless one in his eyebrow, and now he was interested in seeing what the next one would be. He returned to his ministrations just after, taking the other nipple into his mouth and harassing it with his tongue until it had hardened up enough to take it between his teeth. The sensation was a flat pinch rather than piercing as it usually was, but it receded just as quickly and moved down to his stomach then to the ridge of his hip. It only took the feeling of Karkat's teeth very clearly NOT against his nipple as it was pinched that got Dave to look down from his half-lidded staring at the ceiling, shivering a breath. He knew from the route Karkat was taking, things would be getting either extremely disappointing, or very, very weird in just a minute. He started to say 'you really don't have to,' but figured, shit, dude wants to try, go right ahead. It won't hurt anybody. Well, at least with those dental guards in. He put his hand into Karkat's hair and smiled faintly. "Brave as hell to try," he managed to get out, despite the hazy mental state he was in.

"Happy birthday," Karkat muttered then kissed the space just above the button of his jeans, opening them in a couple of quick moves and dipping one hand inside. He dragged a fingertip over the head when he found it, trying the little tricks that he'd discovered over the time they'd actually been together to at least try and make this worth it. His movements were careful, obviously rather nervous just at the idea of what he was about to attempt to do. Especially after Dave's reaction.

Dave closed his eyes and smiled a little, with his hand still in Karkat's hair. He gave an encouraging little murmur as he slipped his hand up just enough to brush his fingers against one of his matesprit's horns. If he had faith in anybody to beat the odds, it was Karkat, if only because the guy's tenacity was bordering on critical level. Karkat wouldn't LET him be disappointed. 

And thus far, even before his mouth became entirely involved, he was doing a goddamn great job. He let out a short, low murmur and kept himself from rocking his hips. One of Karkat's hands pushed down on the waist of Dave's pants until they were at least partially out of the way, the other hand wrapping around the base of the other's cock to stroke up over it and thumb at the space just under the head. He crooked it to graze the nail over the tender skin then leaned his weight against his elbow to lean in and let a hot breath gust over it, followed shortly by his tongue running around the head then down after his hand when it ran back down to squeeze again at the base. This close, he could smell the clean, rather pleasant scent of his lover even when he hadn't showered since that morning, the taste of his skin not quite as strange as he'd been expecting.

"You might actually want to help me out here, Strider," he muttered, keeping his eyes focused on the swelling organ in his hand. Dave was shaken out of watching silently and in rapt attention with Karkat's voice, having been enjoying what was happening thus far. He had to take a moment to find the words for what he wanted.

"Just take it slow," his voice was just above a murmur, "And put some suction in there, and don't try to overdo it and choke, and you'll do better than anybody ever has." He wriggled his jeans down a little more. "And don't forget that even if you can't fit it all in your mouth, that there's still some that needs attention." That last part was something he'd figured out was critical and key, and he'd always forgotten to say something until he wound up thoroughly disappointed and worked up. He tried to think of anything else he could possibly say that would help, and then nodded once. He'd correct Karkat along the way if he did something dumb.

Karkat pulled his lips between his teeth and nodded, taking the tips to heart and leaning back in, pressing open-mouthed kisses along the shaft, dragging his tongue over it slowly and flattening it out to get as much coverage as he could. He adjusted himself some to press his free hand against the wall behind Dave, holding himself up and taking the head between his lips, sucking tentatively as his tongue dragged over the soft skin then dipped into the opening. Every move was careful, calculated as he tried to exploit the little sweet spots he could remember. His jaw dropped open some as he dipped further down, always listening in case Dave had some other piece of advice for him.

Damned if Dave wasn't already seeing where 'take it slow' was good advice. He bowed his head and let out a shuddered breath, while he kept his hand on Karkat's head. He had no desire to guide or pull his matesprit's hair, though he knew he could. He gave a little wordless murmur of encouragement once Karkat sucked harder, and his free hand tightened around the edge of the counter. Karkat pulled up off him after a few more seconds and dragged his mouth down one side of the shaft, pressing his tongue against it flat and using his hand while he felt out what he was doing. He couldn't find a reasonable likeness for it and just resigned himself to the fact that he did actually have a dick in his mouth. When he lifted back up to wrap his lips around it again he was clearly pushing himself to take more, breathing through his nose and struggling some to hold his jaw open as his lower teeth scraped gently across the skin. If not for the guards it might have been painful but as it was, at least there would be no damage.

Dave brushed his knuckles over Karkat's jaw while he shivered another breath. Once Karkat started trying too hard to take too much in, he shook his head and murmured, "Ease up. Keep going like you were before you started struggling, but use your hand, too." It'd keep Karkat from trying to take on more than he could actually keep up with, and thus completely wearing himself out or injuring himself in some ridiculous way. "Just worry about keeping things consistent." He didn't quite realize how patient he was being with Karkat, but he really wanted for him to work this out, and actually get good. He made a quiet sound in his throat as he pulled back, letting out a slightly shaky breath through his nose and returning to his former ministrations, one of his hands wrapped firmly around the base of Dave's cock with the other at his hip, his weight leaned against his arm as his legs started to protest a little at having been made to stand bent over for this long. His tongue pushed down some under the foreskin as he pulled it back, then slipped around the head to try and reestablish his former rhythm. Dave went back to scratching Karkat's scalp lightly, attempting to simply enjoy himself, but he still was distracted, no matter how well Karkat was taking direction. He looked down to Karkat and murmured. "You want to get off your feet?" He asked, motioning in a vaguely couch-ish direction.

"I'm fine," he muttered immediately without taking his mouth away, then dipped down again to take more in and tried to start a steady suction as the hand around Dave started to stroke along the remaining exposed shaft. By now he'd started to drool a little bit and the saliva made the passage of his hand a little easier, his fingers tightening down when he felt comfortable enough doing so. Dave shrugged at that, and leaned back again, tightening his grip on the counter once more as he shuddered a breath. while he brushed his other hand over and through Karkat's hair. He enjoyed the feeling, sure, but it wasn't enough and he damn well knew it. After a few more minutes of Karkat's ministrations, he brought his hand down to Karkat's cheek and jaw. "You're not gonna get me off this way, dude." He smiled apologetically. "You were doing pretty all right, though." He had to give the guy credit for even trying. Different physiology was hard to work with even under a more practiced hand, and he knew Karkat hadn't done anything with any other human guy. He was actually flattered as hell. Dave smiled and shook his head. "Get up here before you give yourself lockjaw."

Karkat pouted some at him but conceded, taking a moment to remove the guards from his teeth and run his tongue over them as he put the guards aside on the counter. They'd been kind of expensive, especially as he'd gotten them custom-fit, and now they were more or less going to waste. He stepped up between Dave's legs with his hands on the other's knees, not quite looking him in the face. "If you say so..."

He pressed a kiss to Karkat's jaw and murmured, "don't worry about it." He put his arm around his matesprit's waist and pulled him closer, smiling faintly. "If you want, we'll try again later." He put the knuckle of his first finger under Karkat's chin and murmured, "Look at me, hey. This isn't a failure by any means. I'm pretty sure you've got this down in theory." He smiled, moving one hand over Karkat's with a sigh, trying to catch his composure again.

Karkat continued to grumble quietly as he laced his fingers between Dave's, tucking his head against the other's neck. "Theory's all fucking well and good but now what the hell am I supposed to do? I'm not going to go around fellating bananas or whatever dumbfuck methods college girls use to get better at this shit."

"You can try again. I'm not in the right headspace for it, though, okay?" Dave put his free hand on the small of Karkat's back. "Just 'cause I didn't get off doesn't mean you failed, holy shit. Giving up on the first try is the dumbest thing I've ever seen anybody do." He turned his head to leave a kiss on Karkat's shoulder. Karkat continued to pout some but butted his forehead against the side of Dave's head gently and wrapped an arm around his neck. He couldn't think of a response that didn't just sound petty anymore so he held his silence for the time being and pressed his lips into the space under Dave's jaw. The hand that was still tangled with Dave's pulled back and came to rest against his thigh, fingertips brushing over the erection still standing between them. "Then what do you want to do now, just stick with the original plan and put me on the counter instead?"

With a soft gasp at the attention to his erection once more, Dave smiled slightly. "We could do that," He replied, sliding his fingertips down along Karkat's beltline. "Or we could just let it go for now and do something else." He knew he had wanted to do something after this, and with a moment to think it over, he smirked. "How about I pull my pants back on, have a cigarette, and then drag you to this body mod place I know, and you can laugh at me while I cry like a little bitch at getting my nipples pierced?" He could survive not having an orgasm for a few hours, he was pretty fucking sure.

"You do realize that if you do that either you'll get the hypersensitivity, or you'll lose feeling more or less completely, right?" Karkat snorted, stepping back to let Dave down off the counter. He went to retrieve his sweater now that it had dried and pulled it back on then grabbed Dave's cigarettes and passed them over to him. "And I know you're not going to shed a single fucking tear over this, you overdramatic pain in the ass."

Dave pulled his pants up once he was back on his feet. "I know the risks, but it's more for the look of it, really. And the practicality in...stuff." He paused with a nervous smile, his ears going red as he thought about how with the right rings, they'd be perfect to pass rope through. He didn't want to really put that out there, though. He took his cigarettes with a nod of thanks, and pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead. "You don't know that I won't," Dave said with a chuckle. "I cried like a complete baby when I got my tongue done." He slipped over to the balcony and looked over his shoulder at his matesprit. "Seriously. Tears for days. And it took weeks until I started talking like a normal human again." He opened the door and flopped down into the nearest deck chair.

"So what do you plan to do for this? Just not wear a shirt until your nipples stop being tender?" Karkat snorted as he wandered out and joined Dave on the balcony, leaning up against his back with his arms wrapped his matesprit's waist loosely. He smirked faintly; he could live with that, as long as they stayed in for those days.

"Sure, why not? Sounds fun. Shit, I should get some sort of piercing on my junk and just call it Naked Month," Dave joked, taking a drag from his cigarette, running his other hand over Karkat's arms. "I was thinking undershirts and gauze."

"Now that one I can imagine you'd cry over," Karkat mused, unsure whether he should be amused or not given that after it happened there would be no sex at all for the subsequent month. He internally shook his head and tightened his hold around Dave's waist.

Dave smirked at that, shaking his head. "I've considered it. Never got past the whole recovery period idea, though." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's jaw and took another drag of his cigarette as he watched the afternoon poolgoers from his spot. "I don't think I've got that kind of mental fortitude." He looked up at Karkat. "How about you, nubby? You ever think about getting any mods?"

Karkat leaned his cheek against Dave's shoulder as he looked down at the pool and the people lounging or doing laps. "Honestly...no. I don't really think there's anything that would look even remotely good on me, piercing or tatto-wise anyway. Why, do you have some idea?"

Dave turned around in his chair to look at Karkat seriously. "Not 'til you asked, no." He looked Karkat's face over, and then his ears, and then scanned lower, mentally envisioning Karkat's body. "You know what would look pretty fucking awesome?" He ran a finger against Karkat's ear. "You could get an orbital in your conch, right here, that'd work for you. Or an industrial lower down." He considered some more, brushing his thumb against Karkat's lower lip, getting a crooked little smile. "Maybe a labret." But that was all he could think of, at the moment. "I knew a girl whose grubscars were more prominent and she got surface piercings in the scar tissue. That was just... fucking hilarious, actually. Because _why_."

Karkat had just started to consider the orbital at least when Dave mentioned the grubscars, and his expression blanked as he tried to imagine it. His own grubscars were somewhat prominent, but definitely not where he would ever consider piercing them with anything. He licked over his lower lip and shook his head. "How much does that shit even cost?"

Dave shrugged, "Anywhere from fifty to a hundred dollars. I'll pay if you actually want one, that way you don't have to feel guilty if you don't like it and want it out at some point. It's not a big problem, okay?" He finished up his cigarette and smiled faintly. "Up. Lemme call them and see if they've even got anything scheduled." He stood and grabbed his phone once he was back inside. He had to dig in his contacts for the number, but once he found it, he was much happier knowing that he hadn't deleted the number when he'd last purged his list.

To his infinite luck, they were slow that evening, and Jay, the piercer that had done his tongue and ears, was there. Dave grinned and smoothly talked his way into a quick appointment for about an hour later, and then smiled to himself as he hung up. "They said ninety for mine, at least." He looked over at Karkat and then motioned to the door with a tilt of his head.

"Birthday present to yourself," Karkat shrugged then sat down on the edge of the armchair. "Just wait until the others learn about this little endeavor. I'll never hear the end of it from Sollux if he sees my ear." He wondered for a moment just how Sollux and Bro Strider were actually getting along, knowing that Sollux would be very likely to take the job offer without a second thought and end up streamlining all of Bro's sites. He ran his thumb over the outside of his ear, then the inner conch, trying to decide where in fact he would want the piercing to go. He stood at the nod and toed his shoes back on before joining him. "So you're actually going to just go out and do this on a whim or have you been planning this little endeavor before we ever got here?"

"I've been planning on this for about a year and a half. I just didn't have the chance to do it last year. Too busy getting my ass kicked." He pulled on his own shoes and grabbed his things, sliding his glasses back on and holding the door open for Karkat. "I sure as shit wasn't going back to the place that fucked up my eyebrows for this. It's a pain in the ass to find a piercer you can trust not to fuck shit up. I trust this guy." He tucked his hands in his pockets as he walked, keeping his stroll slow so Karkat could walk normally. 

They got a taxi from the front of the hotel, and started their way to the shop, which was in the northeast suburbs of the city. When they got there, it wasn't readily obvious that it was any different from any other well-run tattoo parlor. The guy behind the jewelry-filled counter looked up and immediately recognized the tall blond. "Strider!" He said, holding out his hand, and Dave went in for a ~*MANLY HANDSHAKE*~. They got to small talk after the guy behind the counter called into the back to let Jay know that his appointment was there.

"Mike, this is Karkat. Karkat, this is Mike," he said with a smirk. "He's the guy I'm going to be putting my trust in next time we're down here NOT to fuck up my tattoo. And Karkat here's a complicated asshole, but I date him anyway."

"Real fucking nice, Strider," Karkat snorted then shook Mike's hand in a much more civilized manner, tucking his hands under his arms afterward as he looked back up at Dave then glancing down at the jewelery to see what he could find that might look good for the what he'd resigned himself to getting. A plain steel ball seemed like the most logical thing, but there were some rather nice black ones available as well that would match pretty much anything he wore. "How much would it cost to get that?" He asked as he pointed it out, then tucked his hair back away from his ear so that the man could see what he was working with.

Mike smiled amiably, "I'm an ink slinger, but the prices are listed right here," he said, pointing to the pricing chart. "Says sixty." Jay came out to the front then, and gave Dave the same manly handshake, pulling him into an equally masculine back-patting hug. Dave didn't much care for that, but he worked with it anyway. He looked over to see Karkat, and raised his brows. "So this guy's getting an orbital? All right, we'll see what we can do about it after this. Come on back, I'm all set up. You said twelves?" He waved them over to follow him.

It was only then that Dave's nerves started screaming at him, but he pushed it down, giving Karkat a brief, tiny smile. "Yeah, twelves. Tens might be a bit much."

He was told to sit down and take off his shirt, so Dave did as he was asked, pulling the shirt off and setting it aside, before taking Karkat's hand and putting his legs on either side of the seat. Jay went about preparing just a little more, to give Dave time to calm his shit down.

On the outside, Dave seemed chill as always. He turned to Karkat and squeezed his hand. "You'd better not fuckin' laugh," he said.

"Don't give me a reason to," Karkat replied with a small smirk then eased over to the other side out of Jay's way, lacing his fingers between Dave's and leaning against his arm. He leaned over some to watch the piercer go about his routine, strangely fascinated by the process. While he himself had no real interest in piercing or tattoo in general, this wasn't something that everyone got to see up-close as far as he knew.

Dave was told to put his legs up and sit up straight, and he did. Jay took the time to scrub his nipples with gauze and soap and he smirked. "Jesus fuck, I never washed my nips this thoroughly." He then looked over at Karkat again, shaking his head as the piercer worked out the placement. "So you're actually going to get the orbital? What did I say, you'd become a pretentious barista in no time." He took half a second to toss his hair out of his eyes while Jay moved around to mark the other nipple placement.

"It's going to look really good on you. Just hope that 'Rezi doesn't see it and start yanking," he grinned and then laid back again, eying the forceps Jay turned around holding. "I feel like I'm part of some weird-ass alien abduction. Next, Jay's gonna bring out the probe. I fuckin' know it."

"You'd like that," Karkat muttered then leaned his chin against Dave's shoulder, rolling his eyes some at the pretentious comment. "If Terezi comes anywhere near my ears I'll start carrying a squirt bottle full of something smelly to back her off with. She'd probably be more amused with your nipples though given the fact that they're nipples to begin with."

"If she was anybody else, I'd think she has a weird human fetish," Dave said, before Jay pulled the forceps up as well as the nipple, giving Dave reason to hiss a gasp, gritting his teeth briefly. That was the painful part, to him. When the needle went through, he wrinkled his nose and leaned his head back. "Wow, that was really goddamn unpleasant. Can we do that again, hoss?" He deadpanned at Jay, who simply chuckled as he slid the barbell in, then wiped the small drop of blood away. "Gonna have to," Jay said, looking at Karkat. "Trade spots with ya."

Dave cracked his neck. "Well, at least I know it's not that bad. Had a helluva lot worse. And oh my fucking god, if she even LOOKS at my chest, I'm probably going to crumple. This is going to be sore tomorrow, holy damn." Already, he could feel the throb of heat and pain in his chest, and he could only imagine how bad it would be come the next day. He was glad Karkat was there, though. Doing this alone would've been shitty.

"She's already going to be curious as fuck when you decline a full and proper hug," Karkat commented as he moved around to the other side, leaning down and pressing his lips to Dave's shoulder as he watched the clamp close on the other nipple. The area around the first one was already bright red and he could tell it would be tender for some time yet. Sleeping on his stomach obviously would not be an option. With a thoughtful little hum, he sucked in a small breath then blew it across the nipple just to see the reaction before the needle could get near skin.

Dave gasped at the air running over his oversensitive nipple and his eyes went wide as he shot an intense look to Karkat. "Don't." At least, not somewhere and sometime where he couldn't just pull him into a snog. When Jay pushed the needle through again, he let out a lower, louder groan, having hit an adrenaline rush. "I'm going to need to get something to drink after this," Dave grumbled as he squeezed Karkat's hand. "Mouth's gone dry." He was also feeling slightly queasy, but he could overlook that. Once the second barbell was in place, Jay taped some gauze to Dave's chest and explained the healing and aftercare process, to which Dave listened very carefully. It was clearly to be treated as a wound, and would take six to ten weeks to heal. The tenderness would go away in a few days, much to Dave's pleasure. He wasn't into the whole wanting to flip whenever anyone so much breathed on him thing.

Jay smiled, shooing them off, "I'll get ready for you," he said to Karkat, "go get something to drink or a smoke or something. It'll be a few minutes."

Dave gingerly pulled his shirt back on and nodded to the door. Karkat smiled faintly as he laid his hands against Dave's back, pushing him along gently. Just with that little bit of experimentation he was already considering a couple of paths he could go with it. He let Dave go out for his smoke, going to find water for each of them. His own tolerance for pain was fairly high, but he knew that if Dave was already having this much trouble with sensitivity, his ear would be throbbing for days.

"Do you think I should get both ears done or just the one?" He mused as he stepped out with a pair of water bottles handed over by Mike the ink-slinger, holding one out.

Dave had already smoked close to half of his cigarette in the couple minutes it took Karkat to get the water. "Go with one first, and if you're confident with that one, go with the second. That's how I did with my plugs." He took a long swig of his water as he tried to ignore the fact that he was acutely aware of his pectoral muscles and nipples and the wind. "I didn't like the lopsided look, so after I gauged this one out," he said pointing to his right ear, "I stretched this one to bring balance to it." He smiled at Karkat, reaching over to brush a fingertip across his matesprit's ear. "Once it heals, I'll get you some different jewelry. I'll let you know what's garbage. They don't sell shit here, though." He thought about how good a red titanium ring would look, especially with a captive ball of hematite. "It's not like this place is going to disappear off the face of the earth while you heal up."

Karkat closed one eye at the touch then rubbed his ear against his shoulder, smiling faintly. "My only real hope for this is that it doesn't end up rejecting. It was bad enough having to watch the prick in front of me in Aesthetics have a new gauge reject over the course of a week. That shit just looks painful."

Dave wrinkled his nose, "Gauge isn't a noun, dorkfuck. The jewelry are plugs, spirals, or tapers, the latter two aren't good for your ears." He took another drag of his cigarette. "Let's put it this way, you wouldn't call a car a drive, and you wouldn't call a plane a fly, right? Don't call a plug a gauge." He mellowed after that and then grinned. "Orbitals are less likely to reject, since they're in the cartilage. You'll just have to be careful and treat with care during the healing process."

"It's not like I ever spent much time learning this shit, douchewaffle. All I know is that they all fall under the category of stretching your earlobes to ludicrous sizes for no other reason than looking like a dickcheese hipster. At least some people can actually roll with that look," Karkat sneered and rubbed his thumb over the cartilage of his ear where the piercing would go, the nerves starting to sink into his stomach quickly the more he thought about it. "You're probably going to have to help me when it comes to the back of it since you can actually see back there."

Dave tossed the butt of the cigarette out into the street after one last drag, and took Karkat's hand, giving it a small squeeze. "You know I'm going to help you. The chances of it fucking up are pretty minimal if you don't mess with the piercing while it's healing, and you keep it clean." He leaned down with a little murmur - damn chest - and pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "Let's go in there and do this before you puss out." He started back in, still holding his matesprit's hand.

"I'm not going to puss out!" Karkat objected as he followed him back inside, huffing at him then scratching some at the inside of his ear as the nerves actually seemed to grow worse. He squeezed down on Dave's hand as they went back to the room to let Jay do his work once more, glancing at the orbital sitting ready, having already been sanitized. Looking at it now, it seemed a lot bigger than he remembered. "Let's do this..."

Dave held Karkat's hand as he took a seat on the stool beside him. "You're going to be fine," he promised. Jay directed Karkat to lay back as he put on a clean pair of gloves, and asked him to just breathe as he scrubbed the area of Karkat's ear, both back and front.

With an encouraging smile, Dave sat there. "You know what the weirdest thing is about today? Waking up with Terezi there. And even though I hadn't expected to ever see her again, here she is, you know? Fuckin' killin' it and being just as crazy and fun as ever. Like she fit straight back into place." He kept speaking as Jay took the needle that had been sterilized, and worked it through, pushing the arrow's tip in directly afterwards. Dave squeezed Karkat's hand at that. "One down, one to go," he assured.

Karkat's eyes squeezed closed at the pinching sensation then the slowly spreading burning, barely making a sound as he grit his teeth. He let out a thin whistle then looked back at Dave, smiling faintly. "It'd take more than all this shit to change someone like Terezi. If anyone's the force of nature around here, it'd be her." He returned the squeeze then relaxed once more against the back of the chair, closing his eyes then giving a quiet hiss as the needle was worked through again, hurting a little worse this time now that the area was thoroughly tender. "Fff...fuck me that stings..."

Dave chuckled and patted Karkat's hand. "He's putting the ring in now, you'll be done in about ten seconds, here." He watched as Jay cleaned up the area again, and then gave the piercer his time to run through the aftercare stuff, handing Karkat over another paper.

Offering a hand up, Dave grinned. "See, you lived. Shit dude, that'll look boss as hell once your ear stops being so red." He led the way to the counter and Mike handed over some aftercare kits while Dave pulled out his credit card. "I'm gonna have to set something up this summer to get my back piece from you, Mike." He waited as the charge went through, then signed off and took his card back. "Thanks guys!" He said as he pushed the door open with his shoulder. "You hungry, nubs?"

Karkat had to force himself not to touch his ear as they stepped out of the shop, wincing some at a light breeze. He was regretting letting his hair get as long as it was now as it kept tickling at the back of his ear.

"Yeah, food sounds pretty damn good right about now," he decided, hooking his fingers around Dave's loosely with the other hand shoved into his pocket. "Back to the hotel so you can take the shirt off or out somewhere to eat? We haven't actually eaten anywhere besides the aquarium now that I think about it."

Dave shrugged, "Well, the park probably doesn't count." He scratched his head and called them a taxi. "Is that you saying you want to go out to eat?" He wasn't sure if it was just Karkat stating a thing, or if he was hinting. Either way, hotel or restaurant, he didn't mind. He just wanted to eat and then very gingerly pass the fuck out.

Shrugging a shoulder, Karkat looked up at him then at the street to see if there might be a taxi anywhere in the vicinity so they wouldn't have to actually make a phone call. "Before we leave we should try and visit a couple of restaurants. Tonight I just want to go back and figure out how the fuck I'm going to sleep with this in."

"That'll be officially on the schedule, how's that? There's like a thousand restaurants in town, though, you'll have to decide where to go, or I'll just keep choosing the same steakhouse." He looked over Karkat's ear again, barely brushing his fingertip along the sensitive pointed end. "You'll just have to sleep on your other side. I'll make sure you don't roll over, hold you extra tight." He smirked and pressed a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek. Karkat rolled his eyes and butted his head against Dave's then stood up some on tiptoe to return the gesture, keeping a cautious ear out for catcallers in case he would have to try and stop Dave from laying someone else out flat. He didn't know whether people here would know better than that given who Dave was and who he was related to, but he didn't want to brush it off and potentially have it blow up.

"How is that even going to work if your nipples apparently want to fall of it I even look at them?"

"Man, fuck 'em, I've dealt with worse. _Hells of_ worse. Like once, Bro and I were strifing, right? And I went left when I shoulda went right, he got me over here," He said, pointing to his side. "Man, I'm lucky I didn't get a bigger scar from that. That was pretty bad, too." He paused at that, "Maybe I did get a scar but it got unfucked when I god tiered." He shrugged it off. "Point is, I've dealt with worse, and if you need a way not to die from ear pain, I'll pin you." He bent down to give Karkat another kiss, clearly not as worried about assholes catcalling at them as Karkat seemed to be.

"I don't know. I never actually hit god tier during the game so..." Karkat lifted his shirt, looking down at the scar from the stab wound that Jack Noir had given him. Then he frowned, letting it go and looking up at Dave. "I never hit god tier."

"Wait, what, really?" Dave blinked. "I thought you had?" He scratched his head. "Knight of Blood, right? Huh." He shrugged then, and rumpled Karkat's hair gently, careful not to nudge his matesprit's ear. "So that just means you're not allowed to die." He didn't care that he was misled for some reason or another. It was in the past, and would only ever be a problem if shit hit the fan.

"I died and hit god tier in another timeline but me? I never did. I know my aspect, yeah but..." Karkat sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. If shit really did go sideways like Bro had suggested, he wouldn't be able to do anything. He tucked his hands up under his arms, sucking his lip into his mouth to worry at it as he looked down at the ground. "So what the fuck am I supposed to do if it goes wrong? I'm not just sitting on the sidelines like a fucking benchwarmer and letting you risk your fucking life. You don't know that you'd come back from it. Hell, it's a heroic-as-fuck thing to try and defend our reality."

"I don't think _we're _supposed to do anything. You heard what Bro said, dude," Dave mulled it over. He knew that if things did fuck up, he wouldn't be able to stand back from the fight. He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure we're supposed to pretend like we don't know, and if the shit hits the spinny thing, and we're caught in it... Fuck, I just don't know." He looked up at the night sky, polluted by the street lights. "We can just hope that the girls up there know what the hell _they're_ doing. I guess." He smiled faintly. "Look, Vantas. Shit's not going to go sideways, at least not tonight. Let's try not to jinx it, okay?"__

__"Whirling device, and...yeah, I guess. Let's just get back to the hotel and spend the rest of the night being lazy fucks. Room service dinner and whatever movie we can find that doesn't completely suck." Glancing skyward, Karkat took a moment to send their defenders what he felt would be a positive thought then looked around as the cab finally pulled up to take them back to the hotel. It was starting to get cool by Karkat's standards, and he just wanted to crawl into the too-soft bed and doze until they could get some food in them._ _

__The trip back was uneventful, the driver playing an old gospel station that Karkat tried to tune out as he leaned his head against Dave's shoulder, acutely aware of the slow pulse throbbing in the opposite ear when he didn't have anything to distract him. Likewise when they'd made it back to the room and he'd started flipping through channels he tried to keep his hair from brushing against the still reddened skin, ending up bumping his ear with the heel of his hand in the process. He hissed and grumbled quietly then looked around to see if they'd left any water lying around, hoping to dip his fingers into it and hopefully cool down the new wounds._ _

__Dave had stripped out of his shirt first thing. While he watched Karkat channel surf, he dug in the aftercare bag, and wrinkled his nose as he opened up the bottle of oil and caught a whiff of it. "Urgh. Yeah, good times." He set the bag aside and re-capped the bottle before setting it down. He pulled out the side-table's drawer and pulled out the menu for 24-hour room service. "There's ice in the freezer and clean towels in the bathroom. That should numb it," he suggested as he read the menu. "Half this shit sounds like it comes from the goddamn moon."_ _

__"Given that part of it's what they think is native Alternian cuisine that doesn't really surprise me," Karkat muttered as he went to retrieve a towel, draping it around his shoulders then taking a glass from the mini bar and filling it with ice, letting it melt a little before touching it to his ear. His jaw clenched until he'd gotten used to it and he was able to shift it slightly in his fingers. "I don't really care what you order for me as long as it's comes with some kind of fresh vegetable. I don't think I've actually eaten anything that could even remotely count as healthy the entire time I've been here except for breakfast."_ _

__"Corn counts for healthy?" Dave said with a shrug, and looked at the menu for a few more minutes before calling down, ordering himself a cheeseburger (which he thought was ridiculously expensive and was sure that any fucking burger that cost that much should come in its own gold leaf wrapper) a shrimp cocktail, and then intentionally completely fucked up the pronunciation of 'paillad di pollo', some tiramisu, and a large "that salad, I'm not even going to try and humor you with the name."_ _

__He was told that the food would be up shortly, and he hung up. "Sixteen fucking dollars for a burger, Vantas. What the actual hell."_ _

__"I guess just be thankful that it's not you paying the bill? I don't fucking know. Remind me to find the recipes for some of this shit online and I bet you the total cost of that burger that I can make the same thing just as good for half the price. What people pay for is the presentation. Which is bullshit because it will tastes just as fucking good off a paper plate as it does on fine china."_ _

__"I don't fuckin' doubt you could make something _better_ than them. I don't care what something looks like. It's going in my mouth. It's going to be digested soon. I mean sure, I don't want something that looks like a pile of puke, but I'm not going to pay extra for a fucker to plate a salad to look like the Eiffel fucking tower." He shook his head and sighed. "Bro's going to see the bill and have a chat with the head chef, I just know it. Sixteen dollars. I can't believe it." He wrinkled his nose as he moved his arm in such a way that his pec moved and disturbed his new piercing. "Anytime that wants to stop being annoying, it'll be great."_ _

__"There are plenty of dishes that look absolutely disgusting that I can guarantee taste infinitely better than some of the things you'll find in that menu," Karkat shrugged then settled back down into the couch, wiping his hand on the towel around his shoulders then retrieving another ice cube and waving Dave over. "Hey, come here for a minute."_ _

__Dave raised an eyebrow, then slipped closer, settling beside Karkat. "I'm not a fan of food that looks like it's been pre-chewed, that's all. Soup freaks me out. Worse if it's chili. But I'd rather eat two dollar chili that tastes awesome than a sixteen dollar burger that doesn't come with its own personal pleasure device." He dropped the subject and raised an eyebrow to the ice cube._ _

__"My point exactly." Karkat turned some in his seat then flicked a couple of water droplets off his fingers before laying the ice cube just above one of Dave's nipples, letting the cold water drop over the piercing then taking it away again. He figured this would at least be safer from a potential flipping of shit than putting the ice directly on the swollen skin._ _

__Dave arched at the chill of the ice, taking a shuddered gasp of breath, before chuckling it out. "I'm surprised my entire chest isn't bruised. Feels like it," he murmured, settling back again. "That feels pretty good, though. I should make an ice pack or something."_ _

__"I figured a lot of it was probably tender. My entire fucking ear is still sore," Karkat shrugged and laid the ice cube against the other side, dragging his fingers around the aereolas then dropping the ice back into the glass._ _

__After letting out another murmur and curling his fingers in against his own thighs, Dave pressed a gentle kiss to Karkat's forehead. "I'll make an ice pack for your ear," he said quietly. He stood then, and walked off to grab another towel. He took some crushed ice from the freezer and put it into the towel, before wrapping it in on itself. He brought it back with him before sitting on top of the back of the sofa behind Karkat, and very carefully put it against his matesprit's ear. "There. It doesn't work as well as a bag of frozen peas, but we don't have that."_ _

__They had a bag of frozen peas in their freezer at home that had never been used for actual food for the entire time that Dave had lived there. It lived in the back of the freezer, and it was only there for easing pains. Dave had never explained its existence, and when they'd cleaned out the freezer once, Dave had said not to throw it out - sometimes he needed that for things. The only time Karkat had ever seen it used had been the night he'd decided it would be a very good to wander out of his room at 3 am to use the bathroom and had ended up kicking the doorjamb hard enough to jam one of his toes. He glanced up at a knock on the door and went to answer it so that Dave wouldn't have to do so shirtless, muttering his thanks then easing the door closed as he didn't have anything to offer for a tip. He came back with the tray and put it aside, settling back into the couch._ _

__"We can worry about all of that after food, right?"_ _

__Dave had been about to get up and get it, himself, but then settled down again with a small smile. "Oh man, food!" He said with a grin, sliding down off the back of the couch to immediately grab a shrimp out of the little crystal bowl. He had hated being so far inland that good shrimp was impossible to find. "Hnn," he groaned at the taste. "Missed this so much. The chicken's yours, unless you want King Lord High Burger." At least the burger was large, and came with a plate of very fresh, very delicious-looking fries. The chicken breast came with greens of its own, though Dave wasn't interested in it as much as he was sort of eying the most expensive burger he had ever bought, and completely decimating the shrimp cocktail. Karkat completely ignored the shrimp himself, eying the burger then grabbing one of the knives that had came with the meal and cutting it in uneven halves, leaving the larger of the two for Dave then starting on the smaller. It was ok, a little bit dry, but the three fries he'd decided to snag were delicious, most of the grease drained off of them prior to delivery. He grabbed for the chicken, giving Dave an appreciative smile then stabbing his fork into the greens and crunching on them noisily._ _

__Dave nodded to that and once the shrimp was gone, he started in on the burger. "Sad overcooked burger, why," he lamented flatly, but the dryness didn't stop him from finishing it. He stood about halfway through to grab some Sprite for himself, before calling from the kitchenette. "You want something to drink?"_ _

__"I'm ok for now," Karkat replied then went back to his dinner, finishing the majority of it then just sitting back to flip through the tv again until finally he managed to find possibly the stupidest-sounding thing he'd ever heard._ _

__"'John Dies At The End'? What kind of bullshit is that?"_ _

__Dave settled in before Karkat said something and he spun around, immediately regretting it with the chest pain, "Nngh! Are you fucking shitting me? Put that shit on, pronto! Do it! Put it on!" There had never been a time that Dave was ever so adamant about a movie. "Aw hells fucking yes, this movie. Dude, I have the book kickin' around somewhere, back home. You need, _need_ to read that fucking book."_ _

__"Ok fine, Jesus, don't piss yourself, Strider," Karkat snorted then put the movie on, glad he'd come across the on-demand channels now as he set it to play then finished the last of his dinner as the opening rolled. His eyebrow arched up at the quiet commentary, already privately wondering just what he'd gotten himself into._ _

__"You don't understand," murmured Dave into his glass, sipping from it as the intro started. It was the entirely deadpan delivery of the absurd shit that happened, he figured, that was the best part. He grinned wide as he quieted down, refusing to speak, but it was obvious by his body language that he was excited about even having this movie around._ _

__After about twenty minutes, Dave decided to sprawl across the sofa, putting his legs on Karkat's lap, resting the cool glass of soda lightly on his chest to soothe the dull throbbing._ _

__Karkat's expression barely changed for a while, his eyebrow occasionally arching up or furrowing. He refused to ask what the fuck was actually going on, even when a man's mustache decided to become independent of his face. His eyebrows arched up even higher as it went on, confusion mounting at the absurdity until late in the movie, at which point he had grown completely, unwillingly invested in it. He nearly threw himself over the back of the sofa at one point and by the end, he looked and felt more or less baffled._ _

__Dave was grinning the whole time like a goddamn smug idiot. "You can hate it all you want, that shit is brilliant." He said at the end, idly poking at his upper pectorals, because it eased the tenderness, "That's the best example of an unreliable narrator you can ask for." He shrugged at that and nudged Karkat with his leg._ _

__"Strider. I can't possibly fucking hate it. I don't even know what the fuck I just watched," Karkat snorted then looked back at Dave with that huge smile, shaking his head as he grabbed for the other's hands and pulled him over to his side of the couch. "This means when we get home you're watching one of my movies," he stated matter-of-factly. "The one you've been putting off for the last four months."_ _

__"Rrgh, no," Dave said, his nose wrinkling, "I'm not watching Beaches. No. Just no. _Hell_ no. I'm allergic to Bette Midler. Deathly fucking allergic. I'll go impotent!" He protested, sprawling out across Karkat's lap the other way, looking up at him. "I've heard stories, man."_ _

__"It'll be either Beaches or For The Boys. Pick your poison." Karkat scratched his nails through Dave's hair as his own grin crawled across his face. "Of course, we could always watch Queen of the Desert again," he muttered, leaning down over Dave and pulling his bangs back out of his face to kiss the middle of his forehead._ _

__Dave smirked and playfully snapped at Karkat's fingers. "Horror movies don't even make me flinch but you start talking romcoms and I want to hide under my bed. Fucking terrifying," he said, adding a shudder. He leaned up to catch Karkat's lips with his own, smiling against them as a thought came to mind. "I think this might be my very best birthday," he murmured into the kiss._ _

__Karkat's smile softened, his fingers running back through Dave's hair then letting it go to tickle at the underside of his chin, He sat back up to look down at him straight as possible in spite of the upside-down point of view, his fingers tracing over Dave's brow. "I'm glad. You deserve it," he said quietly then took his lips once more for a longer kiss._ _

__Those words were something he had trouble believing when anyone said them, but for once, they hit home. He smiled into the kiss and sat up a little farther, gently pushing himself up to get into a position that properly faced Karkat, before re-engaging the kiss, putting his hand on his matesprit's shoulder, running his thumb up his neck and across the corner of his jaw. He started plotting silently to make Karkat's just as good, filled with friends and things that he absolutely adored._ _

__He murmured against the kiss after a few moments, slipping the tip of his tongue across Karkat's upper lip. "We postponed something," he reminded._ _

__Karkat chuckled quietly into the kiss, nipping at Dave's lower lip and sucking it back into his mouth then brushing the pad of his thumb against the incredibly tender nub of his left nipple. "Thanks for reminding me, not like I remembered trying and failing at shit this afternoon," he muttered then leaned into the kiss as one leg lifted between them, his shin pushing gently against Dave's groin._ _

__"You didn't fail," Dave reminded in a low murmur, which turned into a groan at the tease of Karkat's leg. "If you had failed, do you think I'd suggest it again?" He put his hand into the back of Karkat's hair, running his nails against his matesprit's scalp before he pushed the kiss deeper again. He didn't know why Karkat was so hard on himself, but it was something he desperately wanted to remedy._ _

__Karkat's hands rose to lie against the side of Dave's neck, his thumbs rubbing over the spaces just behind his ears. His tongue slipped past the other's as his head tilted with the kiss then withdrew when he pulled away to press an open-mouthed kiss to his throat. "Maybe you're just a little too forgiving," he muttered then bit gently on the curve of his neck above where the deepest bite still sat as little more than a ring of puncture wounds. Dave tilted his head up and let out a little groan of pleasure, not worrying terribly over the way his matesprit so easily punctured his skin._ _

__"Maybe, for you," he groaned, slipping his hand down to run it down Karkat's chest, before pulling up his sweater to leave a trail of light scratches across his chest. He slid his hand across Karkat's chest, very gently tracing just above one grubscar, murmuring, "But I'm asking. Try again."_ _

__Karkat moved away from the touch, pressing his lips together at the ticklish sensation then sitting back and looking at Dave with a small frown. "Alright," he said quietly then pushed off from the couch to find his guards, rinsing them out in the bathroom sink then taking a moment to rinse out his mouth before pushing them back into place. He rubbed his tongue over them as he tried to get used to them, wrinkling his nose at his reflection. They were designed to look more like human teeth, but were still slightly bulky as they sat over the tops of his own teeth. He came back to the couch and sat down in front of Dave, giving him a wide, slightly uncomfortable grin._ _

__Dave took that time to sprawl back out on the sofa and look at his sore, still-swollen nipples, keeping himself from touching them, as much as he wanted to. He undid his pants as he waited, wriggling them down to his hips. He looked back up when Karkat returned and got just a little wigged out at the uncanny weirdness of the human teeth molds. "Those things are weird-looking," he mentioned, before he gave Karkat a small, grateful smile. "Just remember what I told you and you'll do just fine, okay? Don't fuckin' overdo it, that's all."_ _

__"I'll just take your word for it," he lisped then turned in place to grab for the half-melted glass of ice, dipping out one of the slivers and rubbing it around each nipple slowly until it had fully melted. He sat straight on the couch then leaned onto his side, propping his weight up on his arm and using the free hand to rub over Dave's crotch then hooked his fingers over the waistband of his underwear and dragged them down just enough to be able to reach in and squeeze down on the limp shaft. At first he moved slowly with an almost clinical interest, as he did almost every time he was faced with his matesprit's dick, taking his time and feeling out the places that he knew and searching for those he didn't. He teased his tongue around the head then under the foreskin and as he had earlier that day, he started out shallow, taking Dave's advice and doing what he could with it. Little by little he increased the depth until he'd found the limit of his comfort zone and marked it off with one hand, stroking the remainder with the other._ _

__Dave let out a little groan from the back of his throat. This time, he was in it strictly to enjoy himself, and he didn't overanalyze what Karkat was doing. He gasped monosyllabic encouragement once Karkat found just the right pace to go, and he moved one hand to the back of the sofa to curl his fingers into it, while his other hand went down to brush against Karkat's horns and against his scalp. He had to keep enough sense not to buck his hips forward, but he still let himself get pulled into the sensation of Karkat's ministrations. Breathing evenly through his nose, Karkat started to suck down when he reached what he felt was an optimal pace, pulling up briefly every now and then to gather saliva to slick his hand and spread it over the other's skin. He flattened his tongue to press it against the underside then pushed it over the head and back down again. His jaw started to ache but he managed to ignore it in favor of listening to Dave starting to let go of himself, giving a quiet, triumphant sound and tightening his lips._ _

__Dave caught the corner of his lips between his teeth and let out another low moan through his nose. The rougher texture of Karkat's tongue in addition to his warmer-than-usual mouth was making him more worked up than he'd ever gotten with others. He swore under his breath, taking shallow, shuddered breaths, and lightly tugged Karkat's hair when his hand curled into a weak fist. Karkat's head tilted up with the hand pulling it, his tongue wedging between his bottom teeth and Dave's shaft as he sucked down hard, his eyes opened and rolling up to see the other's face, though he quickly focused back in on what he was doing. He could taste bitter, salty fluid at the back of his tongue, swallowing hard and gulping his tongue against the soft tissue of the head. His hand loosened some and switched grips as it started to tire, cramping up a little the longer he went._ _

__It took Dave a moment to catch a second where he could be anywhere near coherent, and he let out a quiet, "I'm close, Karkat," in a reedy whimper, which was punctuated by a sharp gasp. He moved his hand out of Karkat's hair and down to put over his matesprit's, and tightened his grip to start pumping to Karkat's rhythm. "Bear off," he warned, before he grit his teeth, holding back as long as possible so Karkat could keep from getting choked. He came moments after, breath caught in his throat as he felt his cock pulse in his matesprit's mouth._ _

__At first Karkat wasn't sure what he'd meant and had paused in the hopes of getting an answer. When he did it was in the form of one of the strangest things he'd ever tasted pulsing over his tongue, down his throat and dribbling over his lips when he finally pulled off, coughing into his hand. He was forced to swallow some of it, wrinkling his nose at both the initial taste and then the aftertaste on his tongue as he stuck it out. He grabbed the towel that had been sitting around his shoulders, now hung over the back of the couch, wiping his mouth and spitting some into it then looking down at Dave, pausing then smirking some as he took in the sight of his matesprit streaked with his own come, red-faced and panting and completely undone before him._ _

__Dave rubbed his face with a small, dazed smile, still not quite believing that Karkat managed not only to give him a blowjob he enjoyed, but also wound up getting him to come from it, without whining about his jaw hurting or his hand cramping up. He reached for the towel after Karkat was finished with it, and wiped himself clean. He raised an eyebrow with the small smile still pulling at his lips. "Sorry, I know, s'nasty as hell. I'll drink more orange juice or something."_ _

__Rubbing at his jaw, Karkat stood to fetch a soda, hoping to wash the taste out of his mouth. It would be sore for a while, but he knew better than to gripe about it. At least not yet. He shook his hand out to get the joints moving in his thumb again and grabbed a can from the mini fridge then sat back down at the other end of the couch._ _

__"Yeah, fuckin' _look_ smug, you previously unconfident little shit," Dave teased as he pulled up his boxers, and then pulled his pants the rest of the way off. "You're the first one to get me off that way." He sat up and rolled his shoulders. "And don't think that you're getting away with that without equal retribution, either."_ _

__"I have every reason and right to be smug, Strider," Karkat hummed then took a moment to remove his guards again and swishing the soda around his mouth. He entertained for a moment the idea of one of Dave's old partners coming across him, potentially trying to play some kind of jealousy angle, and then being able to just smirk them off. "I walked on the moon."_ _

__"Any other time and I'd find some way of pulling some awesome joke about moon rocks all over you, but I think you earned this one, Vantas." Dave said as he stood to get himself another glass of soda. He chuckled to himself with a shake of his head, still in awe of the moment. "Now how do you want me to repay the favor?" He asked as he pulled another can of soda out of the fridge._ _

__"You're creative, you can come up with something," Karkat shrugged then flexed his jaw again. At least now he had an ache to focus on that wasn't his ear._ _

__"Man, if I had my toybox, _maybe_ I could have thought of something creative, but here? Medium-creative at best, dude. I don't even know if there's a pail or something here, and fuckin'... you've already told me you were uncomfortable with all the creative places I'm thinking," Dave said as he sat back down. "So we got a couple quasi-creative options, tops." He smirked as he sipped his soda._ _

__Karkat narrowed his eyes some, then chugged down the last of his soda and put the can aside, letting the carbonation back out in a volume-less burp. "You know what, Strider? Fuck it. Fuck the uncomfortable shit. If you want to do something, let's fucking do something."_ _

__Dave raised his brows at that. "Wow, sudden assertiveness. It looks good on you." He looked around the room and pursed his lips in thought, then gave a quick glance to the bedroom area. "Okay. Okay I think I got it," He said, his smile gone crooked once more. "Get in there, get undressed." He matched Karkat's tone of conviction and his smile only grew with that._ _

__Taking a deep breath, Karkat stood and stripped his shirt off over his head, carefully avoiding his ear as he did so, tossing the shirt over his shoulder and pulling open his jeans. He sat down to strip out of them, then scooted back to ease out of his boxers as well. He crawled under the blankets after that and started to search around the edges, pulling up seams then giving a triumphant little laugh. Stain-proof. Just to be sure, he pulled up the edge of the sheet and grinned as he spotted the liner between the mattress and sheet. He sat back up then made his way back out of the blankets to sit at the head of the bed._ _

__Dave had found something that'd suffice for a bucket - a wastebin that was about the same dimensions - and he brought it in with him and set it down. "When you're done poking around over there, I need you to sit in the center, near the head." He tilted his head as he looked around the room, and then spotted the scarf that Rose had knit and sent him. "Thank you, Rose," he whispered before kissing the scarf and turning around to face Karkat. "Arms behind you," he said, his tone dead-serious, in a way that seemed practiced and perfected, with an expression that was just a hair more serious than his usual stoic calm. He was having trouble to keep from smiling, however. This was just too much fuckin' fun for one day. Arching an eyebrow up, Karkat scooted up toward the head of the bed a little closer and put his hands back behind him. He had an idea what Dave intended to do with that scarf, but outside of that, he was legitimately curious and very slightly worried about what his matesprit might actually have planned._ _

__Dave climbed up onto the bed, glad that the scarf was thinner as he pulled it taut, naturally rolling into a ropelike curl that made it easier for Dave to tie around Karkat's wrists, onto the wiry iron headboard, and then around his arms so they stayed in place as well, giving Karkat a rather comfortable position with his arms and hands tied in a way that it'd just be able to hold naturally, before slipping away and moving to look into Karkat's eyes, his expression a sublime, devious smile as he kissed his matesprit deeply, wrapping one hand around Karkat's jaw. He broke the kiss after a few moments, and then murmured, "If you're uncomfortable with this, tell me now."_ _

__Karkat returned the kiss then leaned back with an arched brow, glancing up at the scarf and tugging on it, twisting his hand around then grabbing onto the headboard. "You realize that I've let you tie me down before, right? I'm just wondering what you're going to do now."_ _

__Dave considered for a split second whether or not he wanted to bring more rough play into the deal, but ultimately decided that could wait for another time. He shot Karkat a glare instead and reached down between them quickly, slipping his hand around his matesprit's sheath and nook. "I plan on having you do whatever I want." It was a put-on tone of voice, but no less firm. He wasn't that great of an actor, all told, but he wasn't about to let his act down just because it wasn't very good._ _

__Karkat's eyes widened slightly as he looked back at Dave. The tone was something he wasn't used to, even if it was rather poorly delivered. He sucked in a quiet breath as his hips moved up into Dave's hand then laid his head against his right arm with a small smile. "Plan on telling me what you want or am I just going to have to sit here and wait?"_ _

__Dave shook his head, "Do I have to find something to gag you with, too?" He asked, relaxing the firm tone so it didn't sound so forced, and rubbed his thumb across Karkat's cheek roughly. "I was going to keep you right where you are and repay the favor, and then I'd fuck you, but maybe now I'll just leave you like this and go watch some TV. I dunno." He teased his middle finger down from the bottom of Karkat's bulge sheath, across the opening of his nook, slipping it in briefly. "Depends on how much more attitude you give me."_ _

__Karkat sucked in a breath and held it a couple seconds then arched an eyebrow at Dave, clearly daring him to do any such thing. "Strider, please. You and I both know you're full of shit."_ _

__Dave slipped both his hands away and got off the bed, quiet and collected, and walked out of the bedroom. He lived for that kind of challenge, and with Karkat's sass, he had the motivation to do something he wouldn't have done, usually. "Suit yourself, man," Dave said with a shrug as walked to the sofa, in plain view of the bed, and plopped back down, wincing a little at the soreness of his chest._ _

__Karkat blinked and lifted his head up, watching Dave as he left then sighing and rolling his eyes as he flopped back again. He watched Dave sitting there but refused to call him back, crossing his legs and settling back to wait. It wouldn't be long before he started pulling at the scarf and trying to work enough slack into it to at least get a little feeling back into his fingers. It was a couple minutes before Dave looked over at Karkat with an arched brow. "You know I could just jack off, right? Stop squirming." The idea was interesting. He considered for a moment, and then stood up again, turning off the TV as he passed through to the bedroom. "What if I did, and made you watch? Nah, you'd probably think it's boring, right? Not sexy at all." He sat on the far edge of the bed, looking over at Karkat with a smirk._ _

__"You asshole, at least if you're going to be a fucking exhibitionist you could let me have a hand free," Karkat growled, sounding a little more desperate than he wanted to admit._ _

__Dave chuckled and shook his head, "Where's the fun in being tied up if you're able to do anything? Come on now." He laid back and brushed his fingers over his own hip with one hand. "Maybe I _want_ you worked up. Ever think of that?" He trailed his fingers across the elastic of his boxers, before brushing his fingers down across the fabric, outlining his cock. "I'll get to you once you stop mouthing off." He grabbed himself through his boxers and closed his eyes with a smile. "Maybe about the time you start begging," he added in a murmur as he rocked his hips forward into a firm pump._ _

__Karkat's face colored slightly as he glared from Dave to his hand, back to his face, pressing his lips into a thin line. He forced himself to watch even while trying not-so-subtly to work one hand free. He was fine being pushed into a submissive posture, but like hell he was just going to lie there and let things happen. There was going to be challenge on all sides._ _

__"If you manage to actually reduce me to begging, you can do whatever you want," he muttered, chewing at his lower lip._ _

__Dave shot a look to Karkat when he went back to squirming, "There's not going to be _anything_ happening if you get yourself free, Vantas." He leaned back down and inched his boxers down off his hips. He started pumping himself, underhanded as usual, and with a shuddered breath, he closed his eyes again, murmuring a low 'fucking christ,' as he moved his other hand down to his balls._ _

__"Bullshit, you'd never just leave me hanging. You like getting between my legs too fucking much," Karkat teased, his flush growing darker as he watched with his head leaned against his arm. He flexed his fingers slowly in time with the pumps of Dave's hand._ _

__Dave trailed the tip of his tongue across his bottom lip and arched his back as he sped his pumping. "I wanted, before you started getting fuckin' smart with me, to wrap my mouth around your bulge," his voice was a little strained as he held back a moan to continue talking. "But now I just want to get it wrapped around my dick while I fingerfuck you." He couldn't hold back a moan that time, gritting his teeth around it to muffle it faintly._ _

__"You really think that's all you're going to need?" Karkat hissed, peeling a layer of skin from his lower lip as he watched. He reached a foot out and rested the ball of it against Dave's knee, internally cursing his height as he barely reached it. "You fucking know you wouldn't be content with just that. Not with this setup."_ _

__Dave slipped just out of reach and pumped himself once more. "There's that mouthy pricktitude I keep telling you to curb, again. I really _am_ going to need to shove something in your mouth, huh?" He slipped both hands away again and sat up, brushing his fingers across Karkat's cheek. "So what the hell do you propose if you're so fond of shooting down every idea I have?"_ _

__"I thought you had more planned than just deprivation," Karkat huffed, then snapped his teeth playfully at Dave's fingers. Truth be told, he was actually enjoying himself quite a bit, but he wanted to give Dave just as hard a time as his matesprit was giving him, hoping to make the payoff that much better when it finally came._ _

__"I have a lot planned," Dave said before he slipped his hand down Karkat's neck, trailing over his chest. "I just want to see how worked up I can get you without you getting all friendly with your hands. I also want to see how hard you come when I finally do get around to doing what I want." He slipped his hand away just as it reached a fraction of an inch too close to Karkat's crotch. "Now where was I?" He said as he slipped back once more._ _

__Karkat's breath caught and held for a moment as Dave's fingers pulled away, his eyes turning up to look at he wall over his head then looking back down with a snarl curling his lips but never quite reaching his eyes. "Are you angling to get me into your tiny human waste chute?" He sneered, keeping up the attitude all he wanted as he decided to keep his hands where they were._ _

__Dave slipped his fingers across Karkat's thigh, dragging his nails very lightly over the skin. "Why in hell's name would I go through all this trouble just to let you fuck my ass? Come on." He briefly teased his fingers lightly around his matesprit's sensitive nook. "Nah. Maybe I just like watching you lose your cool."_ _

__"What makes it any different now than any other time you actively try to get me to flip my shit?" Karkat rolled his eyes then crossed his legs, trapping Dave's hand between them._ _

__Dave huffed a chuckle at the way Karkat locked his hand into place. "Because this time I want to see how far I can take it." He continued to tease with his fingers - those were still free to do what he wanted with them - and he looked into Karkat's eyes. "If I untie you, what would happen?"_ _

__"I might turn over and decide to go to sleep," he muttered, his hips shifting some at the fingers toying over him. He smirked faintly with his lip still pulled into his mouth, the point of a tooth just barely drawing blood._ _

__Dave shrugged. "Okay. Like I said, I can just jack off." He moved his fingers up to Karkat's sheath, brushing his knuckles firmly over it. "You know if you ever want to switch places after this, I'm not going to say no." He used his other hand to try and pry Karkat's knees apart again._ _

__"If all you're going to do is fondle yourself then maybe you don't need me." Karkat turned his nose up, his legs coming apart only enough to let Dave's hand go as he attempted to be nothing more than frustrating even with his hands trapped up out of the way._ _

__Dave shook his head and brought his nails up roughly against Karkat's chest again as he leaned in close and murmured into his ear. "I want you to be dripping for me before I even start. I want you to want to do _everything_ once I let you go. I want to see if I can make you get as worked up as you _always_ get me. Do you see what I'm saying?" He pressed a rough kiss to Karkat's neck, carefully avoiding his matesprit's ear._ _

__"Then you'll have to do better than that." One of Karkat's legs lifted and curled around Dave's waist, pulling him down close and trapping him in place, ankles linked together between his legs. He was growing fairly wet but it wasn't much considering what Dave wanted._ _

__Dave gasped sharply before chuckling, his voice low as he wrapped his arms around Karkat, slowly undoing the scarf. "I'm exploring different options other than the tried and true methods," he murmured, rocking his hips to tease against Karkat. "You'll have to tell me what works. This toppy dom shit is getting exhausting." At least, for tonight it was._ _

__"Fucking with you is interesting but yeah, there's only so much of this bondage shit I can deal with before it starts getting dull," Karkat shrugged then drew his hands out of the restraint, flexing his fingers then pulling his knees up to the region of his chest, planting the arches of his feet into the crease of Dave's thighs. He put his hands on the other's shoulders and pushed him back up, only to lift himself up onto his knees and straddle his thighs with a soft smirk._ _

__With a small smile, Dave wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist, and murmured, "Good to see we both agree on that." He knew that his waffling would wear thin. He rolled his hips faintly as he kissed Karkat, running his other hand up his matesprit's thigh. Pressing back into the kiss, Karkat smiled against Dave's lips and nudged the bridge of his nose up against his matesprit's. He laid his hands on either side of Dave's neck, scratching some up the back of his neck then into his hair. He tried to move carefully, keeping his chest from pressing against the still sore nipples._ _

__"You have any of that oil Jay was talking about before?" Karkat muttered, getting the idea that he could try and soothe the pain while getting Dave worked back up all over again._ _

__"Yeah, but it's in the other room on the side table," Dave said with a sigh, clearly not wanting to get up to get it. "I guess I can go get it, but it smells like fresh floral hell." Definitely not his idea of a good time._ _

__"Eugh...ok, yeah, that can stay in there." Shaking his head, Karkat pecked lightly at his lips then down the side of his heck, pausing to nuzzle into the hollow between his collarbones then dragging his tongue back up along the front of Dave's throat. Dave could feel the heat rise back up in his face and chills go down his arms and body with the heat of Karkat's tongue across his neck._ _

__"Places like this always have stupid little bottles of body oil or lotion in the bedside tables," he suggested distractedly as he moved one hand between them to tease Karkat again. "If you're still up for that idea."_ _

__"That shit always leaves this disgusting oily crap and it tends to smell even worse," Karkat snorted then sat back some, his ankles coming to cross behind Dave's back, holding him in place as muscles hidden under the layer of fat flexed and tensed to hold himself up. "We could get the ice?"_ _

__"Man, fucking why are we even dealing with trying to find something to do when we're both clearly naked and like an inch away from fucking?" Dave said with a lopsided smile. "I'd go get the ice, but you're kind of twisted around me like a goddamn rancorous boa constrictor." He kissed Karkat and then flopped down onto his back, smirking as he arched his back to let Karkat get control of his legs again. "Go get the ice, you goddamn perv, I'll be here, assuming you're going to let me do all manner of extremely fun oral things to you after that ice is melted."_ _

__"We'll see," Karkat muttered then smirked and leaned down, propped up on his hands over Dave as he leaned down to peck at his lips then pulled away to step off the bed, retrieving the melted glass of ice and dropping a few more pieces into it to bring back, holding it in one hand as he climbed back up and took a seat straddling Dave's stomach. He put the glass down on top of Dave's sternum. "I'll just let that sit there. Be careful how much you move," he chuckled as he dipped out a piece then dragged a corner of it over the reddened, swollen skin. Dave stayed still once Karkat returned to straddle him, though the chill of the glass was making him have to take shallow breaths, both from the cold, and from his not wanting it to tip over onto him. He held back from gasping and grit his teeth, staring at Karkat as he worked the ice around his nipple._ _

__"I'm surprised the ice doesn't melt like twice as fast when you hold it." He pointed out._ _

__"It does. That's why I didn't just get one piece," Karkat shrugged then held the cube up over Dave's chest, letting it drip steadily as his head tilted with a thoughtful expression. "You should have been keeping the ice on it to begin with, you know. The swelling is only going to get more irritated the longer you leave it."_ _

__"Bluh bluh," Dave mocked, "I've dealt with piercing wounds before, Vantas, and I know you shouldn't put ice on a thing for more than ten minutes at a time, every two or so hours. Any more, and you run the risk of damaging nerve endings, and that's the exact opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish with these piercings." He leaned up into the ice anyway, as much as he could without overturning the glass, and murmured happily. "Christ that feels good though. I guess I just kind of got caught up in the movie and the blowjob and the fact that you look really hot tied up."_ _

__Karkat smiled faintly then circled the other nipple with the ice cube, letting the water trickle down the slope of Dave's chest. "You're obsessed with one of the most disorganized movies I've ever fucking seen," he snorted then put the ice back into the glass, dragging his wet hand through Dave's hair and slicking his bangs back out of his face. "As for the tying up, we can try again when we get back to better restraints."_ _

__"And other toys, besides," Dave added. "Sorry man, without the other stuff around, I lost my inspiration and started waffling. And I figured rough stuff could wait 'til we're both not healing up from fresh piercings." He was having trouble keeping his concentration on the conversation, as his thoughts kept veering south. "Next time I think of it, I'm going to need to get some new stuff. Maybe drag your prudish ass along."_ _

__"Great. So over the next month we're going to busy as fuck getting everything else rolling, new homework loads, and shopping around for BDSM gear." Karkat rolled his eyes and colored slightly as soon as it left his mouth. He dipped a piece of ice from the glass once more and, instead of dragging it over Dave's chest again, popped it into his mouth and bent over him, pressing cooled lips against his chest and up to his neck, dragging the ice along with his tongue until it had melted._ _

__Dave shivered a breath and tilted his head to give Karkat more room to work. "We can put it off 'til the holidays. Merry christmas, have a bunch of plastic dicks." He put his arms up around Karkat's shoulders, and murmured, "I wasn't saying no to that proposition you had earlier, by the way, I just wouldn't go out of my way to work you up into doing just that." His ears burned with the idea - he'd juggled the idea around in his head for several days - before he realized that the only real reason he would have to turn down anal at all is because he knew bulges weren't made for that kind of thing. Not that dicks necessarily were made for it either, but bulges less so. They were more membrane than flesh, and far more susceptible to infection. Karkat sat up in the middle of Dave's stomach and reclined back against his legs, taking the ice water and putting it aside so that at least he could move and adjust without potentially knocking it over._ _

__"Now what was it you had planned for me, Strider? Oh yes, 'all manner of extremely fun oral things'," he grinned then tilted his head back to rest it against Dave's kneecaps, as if he had no intention of moving. "Wow me."_ _

__Dave looked down his body at Karkat, amused at the sight more than aroused, and then took a moment to think about his movements. He eased Karkat's legs up onto his shoulders, and then leaned up, bringing Karkat's torso up with him, effectively bringing himself face first into Karkat's crotch, immediately setting to work with his tongue. It may have put considerable weight on his chest, but he kept Karkat above his nipples and hoped that would last. He didn't need to explain why a piercing rejected because he decided to flip his matesprit practically upside down to work his oral magic, and some sweat got all in there or some shit._ _

__He put the thought aside and made a concentrated effort, as his tongue delved deep into Karkat's nook. He'd get to the bulge in a minute, but for now, he wanted to be wowed, and Dave was doing his level best to wow the fuck out of him. Karkat's hand flailed to find something to keep himself upright, planting his feet on either side of Dave's head as soon as he'd managed to straighten up. He looked down on either side of him to see where he sat in relation to Dave's nipples then put his hands on his matesprit's chest to shift forward until he was more or less straddling his chin. He let out a soft groan and pulled his lip back between his teeth, reaching down and combing his fingers through Dave's hair. Dave continued on, practically vibrating his tongue ring inside Karkat's nook, before slipping it out and pressing flat against the outer area, dragging it up over his matesprit's bulge sheath, coaxing the bulge out with a firm push of his tongue before continuing upward with a low murmur in the back of his throat. He flexed his tongue to pulse against the lower part of Karkat's bulge while he moved a hand up to scratch light lines across his matesprit's thigh. As his bulge slipped out and followed the warmth of Dave's breath down the length of his tongue, curling slowly into his mouth, Karkat's hands fell to brace against the foot of the bed, his weight supported on his knees. He glanced down and smiled faintly at the top of Dave's head between his thighs. By now, his chin was likely coated with pink that was starting to run down the sides of his neck._ _

__Dave moved his hand further inward, brushing his knuckles against the now neglected nook, tugging his tongue lightly back to wrestle against the tight squeezing of Karkat's bulge. He put his free hand against Karkat's chest, leaving a long trail of scratches in its wake before working back up to caress his matesprit's neck. Karkat laid his hand over Dave's at his chest, squeezing tight around it as his hips shifted and pushed forward. He wanted to continue goading Dave on, teasing him into doing better, but at a particularly firm touch his elbow nearly unhinged and tossed him facefirst into the mattress, his mouth hanging half-open. "Fuck, Strider..."_ _

__That kind of reaction was what he was looking for. He repeated exactly as he'd done before, and then tried the same kind of firmness and suction against other known sensitive spots, never letting up. He wanted to learn every single thing that made Karkat crumple like that. Karkat huffed and tensed, his fingers tangling into the bedclothes and pulling at them as he lowered himself down onto his elbow, his forehead against the foot of the bed, He reached a hand down and slipped his fingers around the base of his bulge, pulling it up and out of Dave's mouth to coil around his fingers. Drips of genetic material fell and rolled down the other's cheeks to stain his skin and bits of his hair._ _

__Dave smirked as he laid his head back to look up at Karkat, before pointing in the direction of the wastebasket he'd acquired from the other room. He knew it wouldn't take much to get Karkat off, so he simply brushed his nose across his matesprit's nook, leaving a firm kiss there, and trailed kisses upwards and to Karkat's wrist. Karkat whined quietly, feeling as if he were being teased wordlessly as he leaned over the edge of the bed to fish for the wastebasket. He wrinkled his nose at it but put it to one side, pushing himself back upright to sit on his knees still planted on ether side of Dave's head. He started to press and rub his fingers into the firmer, lightly ridged skin at the base of his bulge close to the top of his nook, his breath growing shallow and catching quietly._ _

__Dave watched Karkat's method and simply followed suit with his tongue, taking Karkat's hand away from where he could reach to apply similar ministrations with his mouth. He committed to memory exactly as he was doing while he moved his hand back up to lay against Karkat's, toying with the end of his bulge before brushing his fingertips firmly over the parts that had wrapped around Karkat's hand. The sounds that parted Karkat's lips were quiet, slightly strangled as his stomach pulled in, back arching up as the bright, sweet fluid began to drip over their fingers again and down their wrists until he finally had to disentangle them and tilt the wastebasket close enough for him to release without the danger of potentially drowning his matesprit. He sat back when it was done, putting it back down on the floor and looking down at Dave as he sat on his chest. He cracked a small smile then laid back with his head on Dave's stomach, reaching a hand up and patting the side of his thigh._ _

__Dave winced faintly when Karkat laid back, feeling him press against both fresh piercings. "Could you please get off my chest and stop causing me undue amounts of serious damage?" He rasped then gave a weak smile, rubbing Karkat's thigh lightly. Carefully, Karkat rolled off to the side and flopped down with his arms tucked under his head, smiling softly. He stretched his legs off the end of the bed then settled back in, his face shoved against the blankets. "Wuss."_ _

__"Fuck you, Vantas," came the tired, deadpan reply, as Dave stood. "Should flick your ear for that." He walked to the bathroom to wash off his face, and then follow the aftercare tips to wash his new piercings. He came back into bed shortly after turning off the lights of the other rooms, the tips of the back of his hair still tinted pinkish. "Should sleep," he muttered as he turned off the light in the bedroom, and slipped carefully under the covers._ _

__"I would not hesitate to twist one of your nipples off," Karkat murmured as he crawled under the blankets himself, resisting the urge to curl up against Dave, instead hugging a pillow to his chest and nodding off almost immediately. On top of everything else, his sleep was more or less dreamless, uncommonly peaceful._ _

__When it came time to meet up with Terezi again for lunch, Karkat had let himself be talked into a tshirt rather than his usual long sleeves, his arms staying firmly crossed the entire time. At first, she didn't seem to be aware of the new mods to either of them, but before long she was leaning close enough to Karkat to eyeball the orbital, nearly shrieking as she laughed at him over it then started to harass Dave as well in the hopes of getting him to tell her why, and then whether he had anything new as well. She poked at his chest and the bandages when she found them, grinning evilly when he fell limp against her._ _

__Lunch ended up being a fairly loud affair with several stares and at least one photo being taken of them via cell phone, and Terezi insisted that she be the one to pay for it all given that she wouldn't get to see them again before they left; school was starting to catch up with her again, after all. She kissed each of their cheeks before catching a cab back to her dormitory, waving out the window and insisting that they keep in contact with her, as if they wouldn't without her repeating it several times before the cab pulled up to a stop light._ _

__Now it was time to brave the Strider apartment and its assortment of shitty, pointy implements and collections of plush, colorful ass._ _

__With the exception of being poked and collapsing, Dave loved every minute he spent with his over-exuberant bouncing pre-law friend. Once they were out of the restaurant, Dave had a look around, and smirked. "You see that building off into the distance? That really tall one?" He pointed across the skyline, where, at least two miles away, there stood a towering building. "That's where we're headed."_ _

__They arrived at a skyscraper that cast a shadow on the street. Around it, there were a crazy amount of crows, even by Strider standards. He gave a cocky salute to the doorman, and stepped in, and led Karkat to the elevator. "There's no goddamn way we're taking the stairs here," he said, narrowing his eyes at the stairwell in contempt. "No. Fuck no." The building itself wasn't particularly ritzy by any means at all. In fact, it was in an apartment building's middle age, where it was in need of remodeling, but was sadly neglected for 'nostalgia' value._ _

__Once in the hallway, Dave pulled out a key and started to unlock the door, before he heard a rustling sound that came from the stairwell and he swiftly turned, on his guard. It was nothing. He unlocked the door and looked in. "HEY ASSHOLE, YOU NEED TO CHANGE YOUR LOCKS where the fuck is he?" He turned to Karkat and shrugged. "Come on in."_ _

__The apartment was in familiar disarray, but had been rearranged since Dave moved out. The futon had been replaced by something _almost_ resembling a real sofa, if they still lived in the mid-80s. Smuppets were strewn about, as were wires to and from rooms. "Yeah, welcome to Strider Central Command," he said to Karkat, still wondering where the hell Bro had gone._ _

__Eyeing the room warily, Karkat stepped over a spare hat that was inexplicably lying in the middle of the walkway, nudging it to one side with his toe then grimacing as he managed to nearly trod on the nose of an unwitting smuppet. His fingers curled into the back of Dave's shirt as he followed him deeper into the apartment, his eyes narrowed at everything. Everything he saw was unnerving, and the fact that Bro could be lurking anywhere and then suddenly be RIGHT THERE was even more so._ _

__"How did you even live in this?" He muttered as he looked around at the cords lying out in the open everywhere. He stepped over one gingerly, only to nearly trip over another one._ _

__"I learned to be light on my feet, and quick to react," Dave explained, knocking on the innermost door, before opening it. It was his old room, but Bro decided to commandeer it for his own. There was still a couple posters on the wall from when it was his room, but the rest of the posters were new. The shelves were stacked with bolts of fabric instead of pickled dead things, and the crows in the window were... still there, being crows. "Looks like he's not here," Dave said. "He should be around soon, it's not like he'll OH JESUS FUCK." He glared at Cal who had suddenly appeared in the hallway behind them. "Cal, don't fucking _do_ that." He turned to Karkat and nodded. "He's here, he's just dicking around."_ _

__Karkat spotted Cal about the same time Dave did, leaning away slowly as his eyes started to bug out. He reminded himself to look away before too long and wedged himself against Dave's side as he looked around the room instead, arching an eyebrow at the birds. "Jesus Strider, what are you, the fucking godfather of feathery assholes?" He muttered_ _

__"What, you mean the crows? Yeah, they just happen, I don't know." Dave said as he picked up Cal and put him under the arm that wasn't secured around Karkat's waist. "They follow me places. Generally they don't mess with me, and I don't mess with them." He walked back into the living room, nodding to the sofa for Karkat to sit down, before looking around in the kitchen, setting Cal on the counter. "They've been around as long as I can remember," he called out to the living room, looking up at the crawlspace door, then back to the fridge. No note, nothing. "Bro, stop being an asshole and get out here!" He shouted, only to turn around and see the empty place where Cal used to be._ _

__Cal was set on the sofa next to Karkat. Dave walked back out and sighed with a roll of his eyes. "Jesus fuck, Bro," he muttered, and picked Cal up again, only to get him pulled away and be slapped with the puppet, who then disappeared. "Okay, on a scale of one to fuck you, Bro, this is getting really fucking tiring." He looked over to Karkat and picked up a sword from one of the numerous stashes of them around the apartment. "Come on, we're going to the roof, nubs. I'm about to have words with my brother."_ _

__Karkat barely even had time to be startled by the sudden appearance-disappearance-reappearance of the puppet before he was being informed of imminent strife. He stood and tucked his hands into his pockets, shrugging a shoulder as he followed Dave up to the roof. It was warmer up here, but windy as hell. He still didn't see anything, except for Cal sitting perched on one of the bars of the antenna looking weirdly smug for a puppet. Dave, for what it was worth, kept his cool. He knew this was coming from the moment he stepped foot off the plane. He knew it was going to be a tough one once he all but challenged Bro, but he kept it calm. "Vantas, sit over there out of the way," he said with a nod to a covered vent that was about bench-height. He looked over his shoulder at him as he cracked his neck, blowing a coy kiss before he got into a stance, waiting for the first attack._ _

__It wasn't long before Dave's stance was disrupted by the force of his brother's katana as Bro stopped flashstepping to finally start the fight. Dave was light on his feet, just as he'd said and although he was primarily on the defensive, he managed to keep himself unscathed. Bro was faster, stronger, and more experienced in this, but even through that, it was obvious that he wasn't holding back on his little brother._ _

__They got into a deadlock with their swords and Bro finally gave a nod to Karkat before saying, "Hey, Shortstack, you gonna just watch or are you actually gonna show me what those are for?" He motioned to Karkat's feet, where there hadn't been scythes previously, but there sure were a set of them now. And not even shitty ones - these were some quality weapons._ _

__"Bro, focus," Dave hissed, before jumping out of the lock and spinning to slice at his brother._ _

__Karkat looked down at his feet, blinking at the weapons. He wasn't experienced with them, but they were roughly the same size and, when he picked them up, the same weight as the sickles that he'd had a few years back. He twirled one, then the other, loosening his wrists then snapping his grip back down tight. He held one up at his chest, the other down at his side as he walked out into the middle of the improvised battlefield, glancing around then barely catching an oncoming blow from the katana Bro had been holding. He twisted the scythe then brought the other one up in a sweep designed to lock and potentially dislocate the elbow using the handle of the weapon but before he could connect, Bro was gone again. He pressed his back against Dave's and kept his stance low, just waiting to be stomped into the ground._ _

__Dave kept his own guard up as Karkat approached, and then backed against him. "Be confident," He murmured, "Don't overestimate him. He's only human." He immediately blocked another attack and countered, silently victorious when he felt an impact, though there was no time for him to revel in it when he felt the air shift. He instinctively blocked and shouted, "DOWN!" to Karkat in the same moment, the brute impact on his sword causing him to stagger back._ _

__"Fuck that. Human my ass," Karkat muttered then took advantage of the momentary distraction of the brothers exchanging blows to sweep one of the scythes up and catch Bro's blade near the guard and wrench it up then around, his body pivoting to sock his hip into the larger Strider's side and lever him up and over. Karkat managed to temporarily disarm Bro and make him shift to the side, but within the blink of an eye, he was on the other side with his sword before the blade could even hit the ground. Dave grit his teeth, knowing that would only make Bro more dead-set on winning. He heard a very faint sound coming from straight in front of Karkat and blocked above his matesprit, before being pushed back and knocked off his feet. The motherfucker faked him out. Dave sprung back up and grit his teeth even harder, a low growl coming from his throat._ _

__Bro came towards Karkat again, and this time, his aim was to disarm him entirely. With a lunge of his sword, he attempted to catch both sickles and twist them free of Karkat's hands with a deft twist of his arm. Karkat hissed as his weapons were yanked away, hopping up and wrapping his arms around Bro's arm then using the momentum to swing his legs up, latching them around the elder Strider's bicep and noisily gnawing at his glove, setting out to either be annoying or actually cumbersome as he refused to let go. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before he was shaken off and he was pretty sure when he hit the ground that his tooth was now chipped, judging by the new pain in his jaw. Bro had just stood there while he was being gnawed, more bemused than anything, and shook Karkat off when he thought it was enough. He was then taken offguard by Dave, who came at him with a fury he hadn't quite seen before. He was put into the defensive, blocking hit after hit, before he was cornered into the wall of the roof, and had a sword's tip pointed at his throat._ _

__"Concede, old man?" Dave growled._ _

__"Psh, never." With that, he hopped up onto the ledge and then with some magnificent parkour fuckery, he hopped to hold his hand out for Karkat to get up. "You okay there, Shortstack?"_ _

__Karkat took the hand and pulled himself upright, spitting to one side then grimacing as he actually spotted a tiny white point that indicated that he had indeed ended up breaking a tooth. He glanced at the glove he'd bitten, shrugging a shoulder. He wouldn't apologize for that, not when it was Bro that had come at him first. "Just fine," he muttered, bending a little and rubbing his back. The adrenaline was starting to wear off a little and he knew he'd be sporting a couple of new aches._ _

__"You've got some raw talent," Bro said. It was pretty high praise, coming from him. "That biting thing came outta left field, real game changer, there." He nodded upward then, "Lemme see the damage, open up."_ _

__Dave walked up to them then, resting his sword on his shoulder. "You're out of practice," he scolded Bro, "You actually let me hit you." Bro was bleeding on one of his forearms - a pretty big slice at that, deep enough where he'd have to stitch himself up once they got downstairs, but he was obviously not giving any fucks about it, more concerned about Karkat's injuries. Dave was amused. He knew Bro's routine pretty well, but it was usually himself in Karkat's place. Karkat sneered a little but opened his mouth, his nose wrinkled. The tooth wasn't damaged to such an extent that it would need any surgical attention, nor was it even bleeding, but the tip had been broken off and it was tender from having been jerked in the first place. He ran his tongue over it as he crossed his arms and tucked his hands under his armpits._ _

__"Just some cosmetic damage, probably gonna be tender for a while, anyway," Bro assured them both, smirking as he patted Karkat on the shoulder. "Tough kid, you'll be fine." He led the way back down the stairs to the apartment with Cal in hand._ _

__Dave stood beside Karkat. "He's got some anesthetic he'll give to you. Come on." He followed Bro down, staying close to his matesprit._ _

__Once back in the apartment, Dave plopped down on the surprisingly comfortable hideous couch. Bro went into the bathroom and grabbed the anesthetic and a cotton ball, and motioned for Karkat to sit down, before handing him the bottle and cotton. "You two make a damn fine team," he said with a smile, and looked at the clock. It was much earlier than he had thought it was, but he brushed it off. "You guys hungry?"_ _

__"We just had lunch with 'Rezi. I'm good." Dave replied, wrapping his arm around Karkat's waist. Moving somewhat carefully, Karkat dabbed the anesthetic around the tooth then held his mouth open to keep it from numbing his entire face. He shook his head at the offer of food as well for the same reason, leaning into Dave's side._ _

__"So is this really all that Striders do when they've got nothing better?" He asked as soon as he felt he could close his mouth, looking between Dave and Bro with a raised brow. Dave laughed quietly and grabbed the remote for the TV and a controller for the console, starting up whatever game Bro had in._ _

__Bro shook his head, not even dignifying that with an answer. Instead, he pointed over to the computer in the corner. "Your buddy fixed up a few really messed up lines of code for me in under an hour. I'd been working at those fuckers for days." He raised a brow, "You said he was good, but damn, son." He then flopped down beside Dave and grabbed the controller. "You don't get to play exclusive betas anymore."_ _

__Dave rolled his eyes. "Yeah anyway, to answer your question, we do shit. Like. I dunno. we got hobbies, you know that." Sudden defensiveness._ _

__"I know about your shitty raps, Dave," Karkat snorted, glancing at the tv then tipped his head back against the back of the sofa. "And yeah, Sollux was one of the best fucking programmers on the planet. Never exactly modest about it either." Rolling his eyes, he slouched further until he was nearly lying flat on the couch with his legs splayed out in front of him._ _

__Dave apparently took that as a sign to flop over as well - across Karkat's lap - and smiled. "You know you love my shitty raps, Vantas, don't even try to front." He looked up to Karkat with a tiny smile and watched his brother playing a racing game that was pretty damn cool-looking. "He's also got his sites, and his games. You still doin' the thing with Cal?"_ _

__"Ventriloquism rapping? Nah man, I got bigger and better shit than that to deal with. Some fucking fartknocker for a PR company asked me to run a blog. So I do. It's fucking retarded as hell."_ _

__Scratching his fingers mindlessly through Dave's hair, Karkat looked up at the game then closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the back of the couch. At the mention of the blog, Karkat's head lifted some. The idea of either Strider running a blog was nothing short of hilariously bad. "Oh that must be all sorts of fun."_ _

__"Nothing like making a national restaurant chain look like a bunch of out-of-touch assholes that don't know a good meme if it bit them in the ass," Bro said with a smirk as he beat the level in record time. "Does double duty, 'cause I can singlehandedly kill whatever meme I hate at any given moment."_ _

__Dave chuckled. "The unsung hero of our age, and he's my fucking brother. Jesus Christ, that sounds dumb though. And tedious."_ _

__"Nah, I shit out a few dumb ideas into a queue and they get posted periodically," Bro explained. He looked over at Karkat and smirked, "So since you're so damn nosy, what do YOU do when you're not bogged down in schoolwork?"_ _

__Karkat shrugged some at that, looking down at the top of Dave's head as his fingers curled some in his matesprit's hair. "It's kind of dumb. I like to cook but it's more of a necessity than a hobby if I don't want to live on frozen food or delivery. As far as actual hobbies go though, I kind of started going by the music department, picking some shit up there..." He shrugged again. It wasn't important and nothing that impressive anyway, at least to him. "Does playing video games with Dave count?"_ _

__"Yeah? What instrument?" Bro asked, brow arched as he started another level. It was likely lost to unfamiliar glances amongst the clutter of the room, but his guitar was set beside the turntables._ _

__Dave wasn't even aware of the music thing, and looked up at Karkat with a browarch. "He can sing and act like crazy, too, but I second that question Bro has. What?"_ _

__"Neither of those count as a hobby," sighed Karkat, returning the eyebrow and shaking his head. "Both of you'd fucking laugh at me if I told you," he muttered and returned his attention to the game._ _

__"Horseshit," came the response in Strider Stereo. Dave grinned at that and chuckled, brushing his hand across Karkat's arm. "Dude look at us, does it look like we give a shit about judging people on their fucking hobbies?"_ _

__"Well, unless it's part of a hobby of giving shit to people," Bro added, finishing the level. "Spill it, shortstack."_ _

__Pressing his lips together, Karkat glanced off to one side, outnumbered and quickly out-stubborned by Striders, not that he really felt he had the force of will just then to refuse anyway._ _

__"Fuck it, fine... I met someone when I was waiting by the music department for one of my study group and they were pulling this big-ass case along that had a broken strap so it was giving them a shitload of trouble, right? So I'm bored as fuck and my friend's not supposed to be there for another five minutes and I take the time to help the guy rearrange his thing and when we manage to get it inside, he offers to show me what he's got. So he pulls out this pretty beaten-up cello that he says he's donating to the school since he's already getting a new one. He asked if I ever played and I told him I've never fucking touched an instrument in my life. So this fucker sits me down and shows me how this shit works and gets out another one from a back room and starts trying to get me to play along. That was like...what, two months ago? Something like that. So I've been learning to play the fucking cello. Happy now?" Rolling his eyes, Karkat fell silent, huffing as if he'd been bullied into revealing some dark secret._ _

__Dave was used to the profane nature of Karkat's anecdotes, and took all of it at face value, his jaw dropping slightly at the story. Bro was just wholly amused by how angry Karkat sounded about it all._ _

__"Wait, so... are you any good?" Dave asked, clearly impressed and pleasantly surprised. "That works so well, like. Holy shit, you can play a thing. All I ever learned was how to sing and mix, that's... Whoa, wow." He didn't look when his brother left the sofa to walk away. Probably off to do something fuckawesome again._ _

__Karkat shrugged again, somewhat flustered at the reaction and barely noticing as the other Strider left the room. "How should I know? The only one that's ever heard me play is Ferrus and even then all he really does is tell me I'm getting better."_ _

__"You're going to let me listen at least once," Dave stated firmly, clearly impressed still, before looking up around the arm of the couch at Bro, who had gone and gotten his guitar. Yep. Something fuckawesome. Dave looked up at Karkat and then motioned to look over at his brother._ _

__Bro made sure it was in tune before he did anything else with the guitar. "I know acoustic guitar isn't exactly known for being some crazy awesome thing, but whatever, I like doing it. If anyone gives you shit about the things you like doing, it's your prerogative to kick their asses," Bro stated. Dave was watching with the barely contained joy of a kid at Christmas. It was rare for Bro to even THINK about playing the guitar, but when he did, it blew him away._ _

__Karkat's brow arched some as he looked between the Striders, not entirely surprised that Bro knew how to play anything. Hell, he could probably learn to play the sousaphone just for the hilarity of it and kick John Phillip Sousa's ass at his own music. He propped his chin against Dave's shoulder as he watched the tuning. "Don't expect me to start playing concerts," he muttered, though now he felt as if he should practice a little more, if for no other reason than stress relief; he always came home pretty calm after he'd stayed after his classes to practice, grateful that the building for the music department was fairly deserted at that time of day._ _

__Dave huffed quietly and shook his head. "Serious stage fright," he murmured, "Don't worry about it." His voice was hushed but he stopped talking completely when his brother finally started to play._ _

__It was a quick song, but no less captivating, and watching Bro play was making Dave feel five years old again, completely struck by his awe of his Bro. He wondered silently how Bro ever had all the time to get so good at goddamn everything he did. He didn't dwell on it, though. Instead, he simply squeezed Karkat's hand and pressed a kiss to his matesprit's knuckles as some minor repayment for putting up with him as uncool as he was being just then. The other hand continued to run through Dave's hair idly as they watched Bro play to the end of the song. He nodded some in lieu of clapping, unwilling to make himself look ridiculous even when his own matesprit looked as if he'd just glimpsed El Dorado. He leaned his chin against the top of Dave's head and pressed his lips to the part of his hair._ _

__Bro set the guitar back down and stepped away from it. "Well _I'm_ hungry, so you two will just have to deal." He wandered into the kitchen and Dave chuckled, shaking his head as he laid back down, looking up at Karkat. "Cello's fucking awesome, though, nubs. It's respectable as hell."_ _

__"Yeah I guess. But just like my fucking degree it's not really gonna get me all that far in life now is it?" Karkat rolled his eyes and dragged his nails back through Dave's hair again, listening to Bro going around the kitchen making whatever it was he was craving at the time._ _

__Dave leaned into the scratch and smiled. "Why don't you go into a cooking class or something? People always need to eat, and you're already fucking apeshit bananas and perpetually stressed, so if you _do_ become a chef, it's not like you'd change much." He was kidding, at least about the latter bits. "You're a great cook."_ _

__"I know how to follow a recipe. That's about it," Karkat muttered and shook his head at the suggestion of classes. "I don't think I could stand taking more classes than I already do. I'm already going to be paying back the student loans for the next twenty years."_ _

__Dave raised an eyebrow to that. "Dude, are you even fucking joking. Okay, first off, that's what cooking classes are for, to teach you how not to need a recipe." He wanted to say more, then, that even if Karkat and he fell out of the flushed - as unlikely as that scenario was - he'd still consider him his best friend, and no friend of his was going to deal with being tied down to something if they didn't fully goddamn enjoy it. "And secondly, can you just stop worrying about your loans?"_ _

__"Loans are a pain in the ass," Bro interjected as he came out of the kitchen with a plate of leftover delivery food. "You don't know about it because you don't have to deal with it, Dave."_ _

__Karkat pressed his lips together and nodded some, letting Bro talk about the problem of loans instead as he actually started to consider the benefit of cooking classes. At the very least learning substitutions and alternatives would be useful for those times they didn't really want to go out and shop for anything. Dave tilted his head as Bro explained how expensive a change of major and classes themselves were, and while it seemed as if Dave understood, that he was more concerned about something else. "Bro, can we talk alone for a sec?" He said, leaning up to kiss Karkat's forehead before hopping up and walking into another room. Bro shrugged and followed after._ _

__"Excuse us, Karkat," he said, setting his plate down on a non-smuppet-filled surface as he went down the hall to talk._ _

__They only returned after a couple minutes and Dave had a smug, victorious smile on his face as he sat down beside Karkat, looking at him briefly, before wrapping his arm around Karkat's waist. Bro sat back down, his entire demeanor unreadable as he started to eat._ _

__"So anyway, summer classes start up right after finals, I'm sure if you wanted something to keep you busy after school lets out, they've got some cooking things." Dave said, his tone aloof. Karkat sat fidgeting until they'd returned, leaning back against him and narrowing his eyes as he looked between them._ _

__"I'm going to assume that whatever just happened involves me and be suitably paranoid for the fact," he muttered then sighed and bumped his head against Dave's chin. "You'd better not be trying to decide my future or whatever the fuck."_ _

__"Nah." Dave said, smirking a little. "We only discuss the fates of our friends and loved ones on Thursdays." He ran his hair gently through Karkat's hair, carefully avoiding his ear, still. "I'm just... helping out a little. You can chill out." His own ears had gone red, and he rubbed his finger and thumb together nervously as he looked at the pause screen of the video game._ _

__"He means he's going to help you pay off your loans with the money he's been making at the cafe," Bro said over a mouthful of food. "His idea, I tried talking him out of it but he's a brick wall."_ _

__Karkat frowned some and sat up, turning to face Dave and crossing his arms. "You have your own shit to worry about. Class equipment, rent, shit like that. You focus on what you need, I'll focus on me. I'll be just fine without this." He knew that it wasn't Dave's intention, but it felt as if his efforts were being invalidated. "Thanks, but...this isn't necessary. I'm sorry I mentioned it."_ _

__Dave shook his head, "No, I know you can, but I want to help. It's not like I use the money." He muttered under his breath then, "Bro pays my way through everything, it's no big deal. I picked up the cafe job to show him I could take care of myself, but he's hellbent on letting me skate my way through, so... I want you to have it okay?" He looked up at Karkat and smiled weakly. "If I can't help you with it, it's just sitting around not making any difference anywhere."_ _

__"You have money to spare, put it toward your own projects. Things for the film. Get a shopping list from Kanaya. Do something productive to your own shit and let me worry about my personal debt. I went into this knowing how much it was going to hurt whatever paycheck I might possibly make and I'm still doing it." Laying his hands on the sides of Dave's head, he grimaced some then leaned up to kiss the center of his forehead. "I appreciate the thought. I really do. But let me take care of myself, ok?"_ _

__Dave scowled and moved out of Karkat's grip. "No, Vantas, you don't get it, do you?" He stood up and shook his head, "I'm not going to let you fuckin' deal with horseshit that you shouldn't have to, just because you fuckin' think you have some goddamn obligation to it. It's fucking extortion, how they think it's okay to charge that much just for some piece of paper saying you did well." He tossed his hands in the air, "I'm goin' out." He shoved his hand in his pocket and walked out the apartment door, stomping up the stairs to the roof._ _

__Bro sighed. "Not my place to get involved." He had a lot of big sparkly opinions about what Dave was actually upset about, but he kept them to himself._ _

__"Dave! DAVE GOD DAMMIT, GET BACK-" he cut off as the door closed behind Dave, sitting down on the edge of the sofa again and rubbing his hand across his forehead then scowling at Bro. "Hey, Great Wall of Fuckass. You are totally fucking involved. Why can't you tell him no? This isn't fucking necessary!" Yelling into his hands, Karkat slouched back against the back of the couch then looking between his fingers up at the ceiling. "What the fuck..."_ _

__Bro turned to Karkat and raised an eyebrow to him before turning away again. "Maybe he thinks it is. He saw a way you were hurting and he wanted to fix it. Can't really fault him for his incompetence about it, though. It's not like he lets people in enough to have experience." He nodded to the door. "He's only going to get more pissed about it the longer he's out there, you should probably go talk to him now before he winds up seething the rest of the vacation."_ _

__"I'm not just going to let him have his way so that he stops pouting," Karkat muttered, but picked himself up off the couch, trudging to the door and making his way up onto the roof. Dave was sitting with one leg up on top of one of the higher vents, the other dangling down as he smoked and stared at the city. Karkat sighed when he spotted Dave and stood off from him, his arms crossed again as he looked out across the rooftops of the unfamiliar city._ _

__"I'm not taking back what I said, Dave...I meant what I said. I can take care of this. Hell, it gives me something solid to focus on if I get a better job. I don't need to be taken care of. I never have. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you're trying to do. The fact that you thought about it at all, that feels pretty fucking good. But think about what might happen if suddenly, Bro can't help you anymore. Where does that leave you?"_ _

__Hearing Karkat made his stomach churn. "It leaves me with a fucking giant-ass inheritance that I won't know what to do with or how to use it." He shook his head. "Look, asshole, eventually you're going to have to let me do something for you without questioning it or complaining about it, or I'm going to go out of my goddamn mind." He pulled his other foot up and laid his head down on his knees, wrapping his arms around his legs._ _

__"You already do too fucking much for me," Karkat sighed and leaned back against the side of the vent, one of his hands up to rub over his face as he tried to find some way to make this conversation not happen. "Never once have I wanted something like this. Nor have I ever needed it, and I'd feel pretty fucking shitty if I just accepted it. I already feel like I don't do nearly enough to make up for you actually letting me move all of my shit into your apartment."_ _

__"You more than make up for that with your sparkling goddamn personality and how you keep my plebe ass in your life like I haven't always been a fucking pustule," muttered Dave, not loud enough for Karkat hear. He spoke up, "Haven't I told you not to worry about that? I needed the company, and even back when I asked, it ripped me the fuck up that I couldn't do more." He flicked his cigarette off the side of the building and hoped it killed someone on the way down._ _

__"So this is your idea of doing more. Dave, you're the reason I even have this fucking job. You're the reason I remember jack shit. You basically saved my fucking life and you still don't feel like you've done enough? Jesus fuck, dude." Watching the glowing butt fly over the edge of the building, Karkat heaved an exasperated sigh then tilted his head back to look up at what little of Dave he could see. "Look, can we just go back inside and figure out what the fuck to do with the rest of our vacation? We can worry about this shit when we go home."_ _

__"I'm worried about this shit all the damn time, Karkat, you don't even fucking know," Dave said with a scowl, but he hopped down anyway and stood in front of his matesprit. "Don't bullshit me and say I saved your life, dude. Don't fucking use hyperbole when it's not you who needed saving, okay? Just. Don't." He grit his teeth and shut up for a minute, turned away. "Let's just go back in," he grumbled._ _

__Karkat wrinkled his nose and grabbed Dave around the wrist, pulling him back around and wrapping an arm around his middle. "Fuck you, Dave. I can be as melo-fucking-dramatic as I like but right now I mean every fucking word and if you can't deal with that, you're an idiot."_ _

__"Better an idiot than a fucking crazy person," Dave said with a scowl, bonking Karkat in the forehead with his knuckle as he wrapped an arm over his shoulders. "You don't even know how much you've fucking kept me going and if _you_ can't deal with me trying to show my goddamn appreciation, _you're_ a fucking madman." He wasn't joking or trying to make this a competition, but it was just how things worked. "It's in the past anyway, who the fuck gives half a shit what kind of stupid shit we might have wound up doing if we didn't run into each other when we did. I'm not going to fucking dwell on it, but I want to make shit fucking even, okay? So stop being such a goddamn asshole about it and let me fucking spoil you like you deserve, alright?"_ _

__"There you go again with that 'like you deserve' shit. I don't know where the fuck you keep getting that but really? If you wanna appreciate it that's fine. But big fucking extravagant gestures don't do it for me. You wanna make me feel loved or whatever, just keep treating me like a fucking person. That's all I want ok?" Butting his head against Dave's chin, Karkat looked up at him then shoved his face against his matesprit's chest, mindful of the piercings as he muffled some against his shirt._ _

__"I want to, though," Dave reiterated, wrapping his arms more firmly around Karkat, burying his face in his matesprit's hair. "If I can't fucking show you in the way I know how, I get all fucked up. If I want to buy you fuckin' designer suits just for the fuckin' fun of it, I'm gonna." He huffed a chuckle. "If I want to take you somewhere fuckin' ritzy, I'm going to. But Jesus fuck, Vantas, look at me. Do I look like I fucking go out of my way to live like some rich fuckin' douchebag? Hell no. I don't give a shit about showing shit off. I don't want to make you feel freaked out with all that shit, but that's just how I do, all right? Just...fucking accept it. Not this, I get this might be fuckin' beyond what you'll accept, but Jesus christ, you goddamn asshole. Just let me do things for you from time to time." He pressed a rough kiss to Karkat's hair. "Treating you like a person isn't love, that's basic goddamn consideration. I want to give you more than that."_ _

__Karkat's fingers curled into the back of Dave's shirt as he held on tighter around him, his face pressed deep into the other's chest for a few moments. When he withdrew, he looked up at Dave with an arched brow. "Did you buy me designer suits, Strider?"_ _

__"Might've. Maybe." Dave said, putting on his poker face immediately. "Might have shopped around a little and decided to talk to you about it first. Because I'm a considerate fucker like that."_ _

__"You're fucking ridiculous..." Karkat shook his head and stepped back, taking Dave's hand and starting back toward the door to go back and inform Bro that they had at least reached some kind of calm point. "We can discuss suits and shit when we go home, ok? For now can we just act like we're on vacation for a couple more days?"_ _

__Dave huffed a chuckle as he followed along. "Don't be a shitlord about it when we get home though. I might sulk a rift straight through to another dimension if you decide to put up another fucking fight over it." He stepped back into the apartment, and Bro was still where he'd been when they both left, still working through the game. "Hey."_ _

__"Sup." Dave dropped himself onto the other side of the sofa from his brother and grumbled, "Okay so I won't pay off his loans but can you at least like. I dunno. Let me do something constructive with the money?" He rubbed his face, "Like maybe pay the rent with it?"_ _

__"You do." Bro answered. "And utilities. And as far as I know you pay for your own food with your tips, so there you go." He turned to Karkat, "I wasn't going to do shit, he's got like fifty bucks saved in there."_ _

__The look on Karkat's face made it clear that somewhere along the line, something had gone Twilight Zone in nature and he was the background character observing his world turning into a Salvador Dali landscape. When he sat back down on the couch, it was with a resounding nonverbal "ok"._ _

__"So. That entire thing. Completely avoidable. Broderick Strider I hate you so much..."_ _

__Bro shook his head, "I tried tellin' him." He shrugged and turned to Karkat then. "Got you two to communicate like fuckin' adults though, right?"_ _

__"I'm going to kill you." Dave said with a deadpan expression and a flat tone. "You mean this entire time I've been doing shit all on my own and you didn't even have the fucking common decency to say something?"_ _

__Bro rolled his eyes and reached over to sock Dave in the shoulder. "Don't be an asshole, Dave. I still pay your way through school and pay off your credit card."_ _

__Dave squawked indignantly and scowled, rubbing his arm. "Whatever. What's the plan now?" He said, changing the subject. "Are we goin' to dinner or...?" He finished soothing his shoulder and wrapped his arm around Karkat, pulling him closer because he had acted like a complete douchebag to his matesprit, and felt like being close again. Karkat laid there limp as everything processed, then looked up at Dave with the same slightly outraged wet kitten expression._ _

__"Can we have chinese?" He muttered, suddenly feeling a great urge to eat his weight in calories._ _

__"Sure. There's a great place just down the block," Dave said with a small smile, running his hands through Karkat's hair gently. "I think we're going to jet, dude. We'll see you tomorrow." He said to his brother, not looking at him and rather, at Karkat._ _

__"Sure thing. I'll pick you up at one, we'll go to Kemah." Bro smiled and stood, walking them to the door._ _

__Once back in the elevator, Dave wrapped his arms around Karkat tightly, sighing heavily. "Seriously, sorry about being such a douche."_ _

__Karkat rested his hands against Dave's arms and pressed his head back against his shoulder, letting a heavy sigh. "I think we're pretty much being mutual assholes. Nothing new, right?" He looked up at Dave, then straightened up and took his hand to get him to calm back down and get their day back on track. "Now, chinese food, no more money bullshit. We can split the bill then go back to the hotel, pass the fuck out, and do whatever the fuck with him tomorrow."_ _

__"Fine, asshole, I'll let you pay your half," Dave said with a tiny smile, "But don't you dare fucking think for a second that tomorrow will suck. It's Kemah. Nothing sucks there. It's arcade games and funnel cake all the way down, nubby." He smirked as he squeezed Karkat's hand. "It's the literal best place in this entire part of Texas. Like. Seriously the best."_ _

__The Chinese place was across the street on the same block, allowing them to walk there in the warm early evening darkness. They were seated and Dave immediately ordered the pork wontons and a large soda, before settling down to figure out what he wanted to assault his tastebuds with this time around, looking at the menu. "I've had everything this place serves. It's quality."_ _

__Karkat nodded absently as he looked over the menu himself, suddenly realizing just how hungry he actually was. It wasn't quite as good as having an entire all-you-can-eat buffet at his disposal, but the portions looked pretty generous and as far as he was concerned, he could live with this._ _

__"So what, Kemah is like some kind of carnival thing?" He asked as they waited for a waiter to come around, sitting back in his seat with his arms and legs crossed._ _

__Dave shook his head, "It's a boardwalk. Kind of like an open-gate amusement park or whatever. It has shops for your usual dumb and ugly tourist shit, and fuckin' artists all over the place selling their work. All sorts of 'em. Knew a glassblower there when I was a kid, dude was fucking crazy as hell. I liked hanging out with him because he'd tell the best fucking stories. And there's a caricaturist, and uh, some beadworkers, and this guy that turns shit he picks up at the boardwalk into art, cans and stuff. It's pretty badass. There's always buskers and stuff, too. Really crazy place. But yeah, there's like three arcades and a rides park just off the boardwalk, and this great view of the piers." He shrugged and grinned when the huge plate of wontons showed up in front of them. He ordered a hunan beef for himself with a side of egg roll and some egg drop soup._ _

__Karkat seemed to have some trouble deciding just what he wanted, ending up mostly picking at random and ending up with an order of the house lo mein, crab rangoon and spring rolls and a bowl of hot and sour soup that, after the waiter left, he realized was going to end up making life hard for him by the end of the night. He shrugged it off though and looked back at Dave, his fingers playing restlessly with the fork he'd plucked out of its napkin roll. "Sounds like a panic attack waiting to happen," he commented, shaking his head some. He was more or less kidding, but there was still the minute possibility of getting overwhelmed by people on all sides being loud and just generally people._ _

__"Yeah, I'd say it's pretty hectic, but it's not the weekend so it's not going to be crowded. Probably wind up with mostly abandoned arcades if we're there before school lets out. One day, before the game, I played hookey and hopped on a bus to Kemah, wound up spending like twenty bucks in quarters. Bro was pissed." He grinned. "I love that place, though. I could spend all day just being braindead and stockpiling tickets." He sipped his soda and looked at Karkat. "If shit gets crowded, we'll find a less crowded place, okay? It's a huge damn place."_ _

__"We need a lot of quarters," Karkat replied immediately. Spending a day hopping between a load of standing game machines, racers, claw machines and rigged prize grabbers would be the way to cap off their week in Texas if he had anything to say about it. He sucked at the straw in his tea, glancing around the restaurant, the people around them and eyeballing anyone that looked back at him until they got uncomfortable and looked away again._ _

__Dave snorted quietly at Karkat's paranoid anger. "Chill out, if they get uppity I'll just kick their asses," he murmured under his breath. "But yeah, that's probably going to be the first stop when we get there. The change machines will be begging for mercy once we're down there." He grabbed a wonton and bit the bottom of it, completely ignoring the upturned corners. "I dunno, maybe between the two of us, we'll rack up enough tickets to actually get something decent."_ _

__Karkat made a face at him for the comment but chose to ignore it for the time being, crunching down on half of a spring roll then dipping the end into his soup and finishing it off in another bite. He entertained the thought of going home with a load of cheap prizes and dropping them all in the middle of his study group so that the two that didn't take their lives so seriously would be able to have their pick. It brought a soft smile to his face and he was able to dig into the rest of his dinner relatively peacefully. Dave raised an eyebrow to the small smile and then smiled, himself. Whenever Karkat actually had a reason to smile like that, things seemed to go better. He couldn't even quantify it for himself, but that kind of smile meant everything was good._ _

__Once they finished their food, Dave got his fortune cookie and broke it open to fish the fortune out. He laughed and handed the slip of paper over. "I think I got yours," he said. The slip of paper read, "You're a pleasant person who makes friends easily."_ _

__Dave was still chuckling._ _

__"Oh har-fucking-har, Strider," Karkat rolled his eyes then finished off his tea before cracking open his own, pausing as he unfolded it. He popped a piece of the cookie into his mouth as he read it then tucked the little slip into his palm, standing with a quiet groan. He was full and, more than that, he was content. "So what now, hotel or do you have any bright ideas?"_ _

__Dave's smile only briefly fell when Karkat didn't let him see the fortune that was in his cookie. "Mm, hotel sounds good," Dave said with an agreeable nod as he stood. He paid half the tab and let Karkat pay the other half, even though he really had problems with it on a subconscious level. They got back to the hotel with smalltalk about the project and Dave's excitement to work with so many of their old friends. He checked his phone once they came back to the hotel, and started texting. "Oh. John says hi. I don't think he remembers you, though." He dumped himself unceremoniously onto the sofa. "Then again, I thought that Rose didn't remember anything for a long time, too."_ _

__Karkat slowed down minutely at that, then nodded his head. Any damn thing was possible. The more he became aware of, the less he was sure about when it came to the stability of his personal reality. He dropped himself into the armchair to rub his fingers over the bridge of his nose, then blinked and looked down at the fortune still in his hand. He tucked it into his wallet for safe-keeping._ _

__That night, sleep was relatively dreamless and peaceful outside of the occasional bump of Karkat's ear or Dave's chest, but the swelling was going down dramatically and it only really stung when they were attempting to clean or move the piercings themselves. Showering was becoming slightly trial-and-error on that front as well. Dave at least would have to wear loose clothes. There wasn't much Karkat could to aside from trying to keep his hair away from the area to stop the tickling. At least none of them seemed to be rejecting, but it was also too early to tell either way._ _

__Come morning, Karkat had monopolized the shower, spending a little extra time cleaning up, making himself look presentable even though all he intended to wear that really classified as looking nice was a relatively new pair of skinny jeans and a new bright red, form-fitting red long-sleeve shirt under his tshirt. He stood as he ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, obviously somewhat nervous about going out and doing anything in public as if he believed he would be put on the spot at some point, no matter how unreasonable the thought was. Dave, on the other hand, was in and out of the shower in record time, though he spent extra time cleaning his piercings and the jewelry, shaving, and primping, so when he stepped out of the bathroom, he had spent nearly as much time as Karkat had. He was wearing a very casual look that day; a faded used-to-be-red shirt that boldly touted 'Tail-of-the-Pup', with a cartoon dachshund holding a hot dog while also occupying a hot dog bun of its own, and a pair of well-fit distressed jeans. His hair was perfectly styled to stay out of his face, while still waving across his forehead. "Hey, look at you," he said with a smile, squeezing Karkat's shoulder as he walked past to grab himself some fruit salad out of the fridge, having seen it the day they came in, and seen it get replaced with fresh fruit every day after. "Looking sexier than usual. You planning on getting mobbed by paparazzi or...?"_ _

__"And you look like a dweeb in that shirt," Karkat replied casually finishing his cereal and gulping the milk down then putting the empty bowl aside. He glanced around then picked up Dave's camera case. "I'm betting you're going to want to take this and spend time shooting everything that will hold still," he commented, bending to pull his shoes on as he did so._ _

__"I look fucking awesome and you can't tell me otherwise. Don't dis the vintage hot dog shirt," he said, grinning as he popped a large cube of melon into his mouth, before taking his camera - still in its protective case - and putting it in his bag. "I'm actually just sort of planning to take it easy today. I've only got four more shots out of all the rolls I brought with me," he said, glad that it was such a productive trip. "I mean, since we go back tonight, it's going to be the last time I really get to hang out with you without life getting in the way. We're going to be scrambling to get caught up on schoolwork, the boss has us scheduled for overtime for the next three weeks... we're going to be swamped." He gave a small, weak smile. "So I was just hoping it'd be you and me, man. Bro's probably just going to drop us off and hang out with his buddy who lives near there."_ _

__Karkat blinked at him, then smiled that same soft smile and stepped up to his side, stealing a grape from his fruit then standing up on tiptoe and pecking his lips. "Fine. No life distracting us today. Just you and me and a shitton of quarters." He took another grape before heading toward the door, his hands in his pockets. "Maybe cotton candy now that my tooth doesn't feel like it's about to fall out?"_ _

__Dave grinned and pushed his bag aside with a nudge of his foot, putting his hand on Karkat's side. "Cotton candy and funnel cake until we're fuckin' diabetic. Soda 'til it comes out our ears. And me kicking your ass at any game you think you have a chance at," he said with a smirk. There was a familiar knock on the door and Dave grinned, kissing the top of Karkat's head as he slipped aside to let Bro in._ _

__"Hey, you chucklefucks ready or am I gonna have to wait 'til you powder your damn noses?" Was the greeting as Bro came in with a fistbump to his little brother. "You two are gonna have it to yourselves. I burned myself out on Kemah ages ago."_ _

__"Bite me, Strider. I'm kicking your ass at every fucking game and then I reserve the right to tell Rose." Karkat smirked as he stepped out past Bro, waiting with his arms crossed until they'd joined him. He fell into step beside Dave and hooked his last two fingers around Dave's, feeling just a little too good about the day to be terribly self-conscious._ _

__"That's fine, I look forward to telling Kanaya how you stomp when you get angry at losing a damn game of Tekken." He smirked as he squeezed his fingers against Karkat's, walking down the stairs slowly, smiling happily._ _

__Once they got there, the breeze off the gulf kept things a reasonable temperature. The crowds were minimal to non-existent outside of the ride lines. Dave wasn't in the mood for rides, anyway; he'd been on all of the same rides far too often, and got tired of them, so he barely even paid attention to their existence. He led the way to the first arcade, and put a $20 bill into a change machine, filling his pockets with the quarters. "You want to pick a game?" Dave asked, already eying the skee-ball machines with contempt. He'd dominate them later. Their hours were numbered._ _

__The fact that the arcade was nearly barren put Karkat at his ease; it meant that he could get as into the games as he damn well pleased without having to deal with a queue. He scanned across the building and the myriad flashing, beeping, noisy machines until he'd found a fighting game that wasn't Tekken, but looked like a knockoff of it at least. He nodded his head at it then led the way over, taking a handful of quarters to carry himself. He plunked in the quarters for both of them and took one side, standing in wait for Dave to join him._ _

__For the rest of the morning, Karkat challenged him to game after game, coming away victorious (and loudly so) maybe four times out of ten. The tickets between them were starting to add up and grow cumbersome, as were the prizes that Karkat was strangely good at grabbing out of the various claw machines. By the time either of them began to grow hungry, he was sporting a small armload of plush animals, including a squeaky, googly-eyed crab that he intended to have Bro send to Terezi's dorm when he had the time. He nudged Dave's side and nodded his head toward a pizza place. "It's half-time and I'm hungry as fuck."_ _

__With his own rather meager winnings of a couple fuckawful bears and more tickets than one supposedly cool kid would have ever won without being obsessed with skill games, Dave was ready to gorge himself stupid. "Oh my fucking god, food," was the response Karkat got, before Dave practically dashed to the pizzeria._ _

__The pizza they got was more than enough to satisfy a family of four on a normal day, but Dave barely had a quarter of a fruit salad that morning, and was ravenous by the time they left the arcade. He ate half of it, an entire basket of funnel cake on his own, and drank down a large soda before they even thought about leaving the pizzeria. He was working on his refill as he asked, "So do you want to get some actual souvenirs? The've got godawful shirts, and some less godawful shirts. I was planning on at least picking up a coffee mug."_ _

__"Dude, we've got coffee mugs out the ass at home," Karkat reminded him as he chewed a piece of his own funnel cake, powdered sugar dusted across his lips. "Where the fuck did you even _get_ all those coffee mugs? We only ever use like...what, two apiece before the dishes get washed? Why the fuck do we need umpteen-fucking-hundred mugs?"_ _

__"Iunno, I just buy 'em," Dave said with a shrug, "I like mugs I guess, I dunno. Fuckin' round the coffee mug market, dude, get in on that before the mugocalypse occurs. You never know." He smirked, "Look, sometimes I'm in a #1 Grandma mood, and sometimes I'm in a Hardly Working mood. Give me a break." He nudged Karkat with his shoe's toe, and took another sip of his drink._ _

__"You're fucking ridiculous," Karkat muttered, shaking his head as he finished off his dessert, then sat back sucking on his lemonade. He looked out at the trickle of pedestrians with a soft smile, chewing some at the end of his straw. "Ok, one mug. But make it a good one or don't get it at all."_ _

__Dave already had a smirk on his face when Karkat said only one - he knew exactly the one he wanted, he'd seen it earlier when they walked past the tourist shop. "It'll give me a chance to use the model paints I have at home. I have _plans _for one of those cups." He stood and stretched, offering Karkat a hand up, and then left the pizzaria, just to walk next door to the place with the tacky GALVESTON and I ♥ Kemah shirts hanging out front.___ _

____"And of course the first thing you do is make me regret letting you get another mug," Karkat muttered as he stood, holding his lemonade in one hand as he kept hold of Dave's hand with the other. He eyeballed the predictably awful shirts and tacky souvenirs, then groaned some at the vast collection of mugs. He stood out of the way when Dave's chosen mug was rung up, his lip curling slightly as the lady behind the counter looked at him in spite of the fact all she'd done was glance in his direction._ _ _ _

____"So what do you feel like doing now?" He asked when they were strolling back down the walkway, glancing around for some amusement before they would have to head back to the hotel._ _ _ _

____"Should cash in these tickets. I still haven't completely taught skee-ball a lesson, but I think after my entire life, they're not going to get rid of them just like that. They'll be here next time." He looked at his plastic bag of tickets and then back to the arcade. "Man, I don't need anything from there. Get something with these." He noticed that the top prizes that summer were fucking smuppets and that was the last damn thing he needed to waste his tickets on. "I'll wait here," he said, taking a seat on a post outside the arcade, grabbing his cigarettes out of his pocket. "Then maybe we'll walk down the pier and see what the artists are hocking."_ _ _ _

____Karkat's nose wrinkled some and he likewise shied away from the smuppets, as well as the vast majority of the other prizes. He picked up a small whiteboard with a chunk of the tickets, then looked down at the ones he still had no use for. He glanced around, then ducked out and started back toward where Dave was waiting. There were a few families trickling in as it got toward the afternoon, a few of them with small children that were yelling about whatever it was that children always saw fit to yell about in public. He approached one couple, an elementary-aged girl perched on the man's shoulders as the woman looked at him suspiciously while he held up the tickets and explained that he already had what he wanted and didn't want to waste an afternoon's work of getting his butt kicked at video games. He did his best to keep himself censored as he talked then handed over the cache and flipped a lazy wave at the girl as she yelled her thanks and hugged the bag to her chest. He bumped against Dave's legs when he got back to him, holding up his new toy. "Alright, finish up turning your lungs into mud and we'll go to the pier."_ _ _ _

____Dave watched the interaction from a distance, and when Karkat came up to him, he was smiling sincerely. He put out his cigarette and tossed the butt in a trash can as they walked past it. He was too goddamn enamored of Karkat to really find words to say how sweet that was, so he just stuck his hands in his pockets and quietly walked._ _ _ _

____They walked down the pier and were assaulted with various different buskers and tacky artists, though Dave did stop in his tracks when they went past a beatboxer and watched for a while. The guy was incredibly talented. It was obvious by how Dave kept himself from moving at all that he was devising rhymes to match the ridiculous drum and bass beat the guy was sustaining. Karkat looked back and forth between the beatboxer and his matesprit, blinking some then smiling faintly. He knew what was going on. He laid a hand in the small of Dave's back, encouraging him to step forward and attempt some kind of freestyling. It had been a long time since he'd heard Dave try to rap and, now that he thought about it, he kind of missed it. Dave looked over at Karkat with a browarch and then shrugged, giving a nod to the beatboxer, making a subtle gesture to ask if he could jam with him for a minute, and with a nod of 'go ahead,' Dave waited for the guy to loop around to the start of another bar before jumping in._ _ _ _

______"Spillin' the dopeness like it's puttin' out  
a raging wildfire, with chillness throughout   
A tsunami of sound hits your eardrums with bliss   
You have never heard a master of the beatbox like this. _ _

______You can't mess with this fucking beat  
On par with nothing, godliness in a dead heat   
You'll hear it in the alleys, shout it from the streets   
With this man spittin' rhythms, you just can't compete. _ _

______You go through your life in a dispassionate blur  
Your dreams unfilled, to conformity you defer   
But this wild man, this fuckin' arteest   
His dreams are his wings, his passion is his feast. _ _

______You drive home at night, throw away your life  
Go home to your boring children and unfulfilling wife   
But this man here, he knows where he's going   
While you're dwindling away, this man's soul is glowing. _ _

______You can't mess with this fucking beat  
On par with nothing, godliness in a dead heat   
You'll hear it in the alleys, shout it from the streets   
With this man spittin' rhythms, you just can't compete. "_ _

____In the time it had taken Dave to put together and spell out his rap, a small crowd had formed, giving him a patter of polite applause. Karkat was sitting there in the front with his hands in his pockets, nodding along until the end of it. He reached out to drag him back out of the spotlight with a small smirk. "You're rusty, Strider."_ _ _ _

____"Eat me, Vantas," Dave said with a lopsided smile, tossing a five into the beatboxer's basket before shuffling out of the small crowd, hand in his matesprit's. "You know that shit was ill enough to inform the CDC about a possible outbreak." He removed his hand from Karkat's once they were clear of the crowd, and put it over his shoulder, rumpling his hair slightly. He felt good about that one. He knew he would likely not remember most of it by the time he had access to a pad and pen, but it was _good_ and that's what mattered._ _ _ _

____"You just keep telling yourself that." Karkat reminded himself later to go on youtube later and do a search for possible videos featuring this impromptu performance. He wrapped his arm around Dave's waist companionably and looked around at the other artists here and there, a woman sitting off to the side with a guitar, a caricature artist taking a smoke break and an old man with a harmonica playing some mellow bluesy music. He felt quite small, surrounded by the natural talent he was seeing and hearing around him._ _ _ _

____"Don't even try and harsh this," Dave warned with a grin that wouldn't get wiped. "You're the one who encouraged me to go up there, dude, you're the one who brought on the full sickness." Once they got to the end of the pier, they were well away from shore, and Dave could see several large ships in the distance. "Mm. See, now that's the kind of shit I miss when we're back at school. Endless water." He felt sort of bad every time he thought of how great it was; there was a Strider out there somewhere that probably was sick to death of ocean, having grown up surrounded by it, on his own. "... You know, I gotta fuckin' wonder," he said, his brow furrowed as he sat down on the railing. "I know it's fucking unimportant to dwell on, but I gotta wonder if I'll turn out like Dirk's Bro. God I fuckin' hope not. I mean, I heard stories, dude. The guy is a class-A fucking asshole."_ _ _ _

____Frowning softly, Karkat wrapped his arms around Dave's neck and leaned his chin against the top of his matesprit's head, one hand splayed against his chest over his heart._ _ _ _

____"That's not going to happen Dave. You're living a completely different life now. Dirk's Bro was a product of his surroundings and circumstances, just like you are now...and you've changed a hell of a lot from when I first started trying to troll you." Smiling some at that, Karkat tilted his head until he could look at Dave's face. "Dirk's got his own reality now that we have nothing to do with. The best we can do is hope he's ok. Yeah, it's shitty, but that's all we can do where we are."_ _ _ _

____Dave scowled a little at how fucking disgusting his other self was. "I hope other me chokes on an expensive fucking lunch and has a life-altering moment of near-death." That said, he smiled and pressed a kiss to Karkat's jaw. "He'll be fine if he has someone there to keep him from crawling into his head too much. Kinda like what I've got, only probably less shouting and insults." He reached up to put his hand on Karkat's chest as well. "C'mon, let's head back to the gate. It's almost time we head off to pack up and get back to the airport."_ _ _ _

____"I'm fairly certain you're the only Strider in any universe that has someone shouting insults into their ear while simultaneously trying to make sure they don't depress themselves to death," Karkat chuckled then pressed his lips to Dave's forehead before stepping back and starting back toward the other end of the walk._ _ _ _

____Getting back to the hotel was rather slow as the afternoon traffic began to pick up, and only when they started to pack their things back up did they realize just how spread throughout the room their belongings had become. After three sweeps and an argument concerning a comb they finally were able to check out, get away from the crowd that was just checking in, settle into their cab, get to the airport and spend another hour there before they were due to board their plane. Karkat slouched in one of the less broken chairs outside where they were to board, the ridiculous googly-eyed crab sitting on his stomach as he fiddled with its claws. He could find a way to send it to Terezi when they got home. Dave was texting as per usual while chewing on a straw that had come with a soda he'd long since finished. He didn't want to deal with the hassle of going through the metal detectors again, having set them off the first time with his new piercings. "Ugh, god, this is literally the worst thing about flying," he said as he sprawled across the aisle of seats at the gate. "Dying of sheer boredom while we wait for our plane." He showed Karkat his phone's screen, however, as John had just sent a selfie of the dumb-looking snowman he'd just built. "At least he's having fun." He turned his camera around on himself and Karkat, looking completely bored as he snapped a pic to send back to John. "Oh yeah, I asked and he sorta remembers some stuff about you. Mostly that you're really funny and bad at hitting on people." He sent the photo after showing it to Karkat._ _ _ _

____"Oh my fucking christ, he's never going to let that go even with brain damage," Karkat muttered and attempted to stop Dave sending the picture a little too late then went back to being bored as shit. The plane ride home would be even worse with the lack of legroom and the fact that their flight was packed. Karkat had the window seat and would spend the majority of the flight with his forehead glued to the window._ _ _ _

____Dave was glad to have the aisle seat, if only because it gave him chance to stretch out ONE of his legs, at least. He chuckled quietly at the response that John sent, which said that they both looked like it was time to take a vacation from their vacation. "He's been giving me shit about trying to hit on him, too. Welcome to Rebuffed by Egbert city, population: us." He looked up when the announcement for the pre-boarding came up and he then got up and stretched. "Enjoy the last few moments of leg room, Vantas, we've got three hours of non-stop speedy tin can travel to deal with." He grabbed his bag and got in line._ _ _ _

____The in-flight movie was some abysmal Ben Affleck flick that Dave decisively tuned out with his earbuds in as he mindlessly doodled in a moleskine sketchbook that he had at one time stuffed deep into his messenger bag. He was utilizing the copics that Karkat had bought him as he passed the time, simply in awe of how smoothly the markers glided across the paper. Finally bored of staring at the tops of clouds, Karkat lolled his head over to see what Dave was doing, smiling faintly at the chance to watch him draw. He kept quiet, watching the piece develop from sketch to lines and details, finding a sort of zen in doing so. He ended up dozing off half an hour before they were due to start descending._ _ _ _

____Touching down jerked Karkat out of his nap and only the sound of the pilot's voice over the intercom stopped him from cussing at everyone in the cabin, but his disgruntled mutters managed to offend and/or frustrate everyone from disembarking passengers to staff all the way until he and Dave had finally managed to find the car, put their things into the trunk then crawl inside. Once at home, the bags barely made it back into Dave's room before the couch was claimed by one perpetually irritable troll, facedown with his arms wrapped around a throwpillow that didn't match the cushions._ _ _ _

____Dave sprawled out on the floor, laying his head on the cushions of the sofa. "Holy shit I missed it here so much." It was then that he was used as a ramp for a hellbent feline who jumped onto the back of the sofa to stare in contempt at Karkat. Em had put on a little weight since they left, but was still angry that they'd left her for a week._ _ _ _

____"Mm, your girl's pissed at you," he muttered sleepily, reaching over to rub Karkat's back idly. "I'll see what we've got in the fridge."_ _ _ _

____He was exhausted and his limbs felt like they had weights tied to them as he got back up to check the fridge. What he expected to find was nothing like what he found in actuality. Cass had cooked them a welcome home meal, and, from what he found in the freezer, left enough food for at least a week's worth of dinners for them. The containers were neatly labeled and stacked in the freezer and fridge, and everything else in the kitchen had been rearranged in a more neat, user-friendly way, as well as scrubbed clean. The living room had undergone the same thorough cleaning, as well as the bathroom, too. Their rooms were left alone, but everything else was cleaned, sorted, and dusted._ _ _ _

____"So apparently Cass was busy as fuck this week," Dave said with a tone of tired amusement as he started to heat up the chicken casserole that had been in the fridge. "And was thoughtful enough to cook for us so we don't have to while we readjust to reality."_ _ _ _

____"Well, at least that means I don't have to bother with that while I get acclimated to my workload again," Karkat yawned as he let Em settle high up on his chest, wedging her face under his jaw and purring like a motorboat. He held her there as he sat back up, wandering into the kitchen to have a helping of the casserole himself before deciding what to do with the rest of his night. Mostly, that consisted of catching up on his required reading for two classes and the first draft of an assignment for another. Dave, in the meanwhile, sat down with his plate of casserole and worked through his required film shit that had accumulated in his email since the Monday prior. It was mostly old boring shit, still, but at least he had come back being less burnt out on it than he was when he'd left. He wrote some notes on what he wanted to write for the assignments, and then rubbed his face, looking at the time. It was still pretty early, so he did a little work on constructing a less-rough draft of the script and what he wanted to capture visually._ _ _ _

____He typed away, keeping in mind the people who'd be acting and how they'd adapt to film. The mannerisms that they had, and the way they moved and spoke lent themselves easily into the draft of the scripts. He frequently looked back at the original stories - the diaries of those involved - and used those as anchorpoints for the script. He only looked up after what felt like a couple hours, over to Karkat. "Hey. You too busy to look at this? I need fresh eyes on it."_ _ _ _

____Karkat looked up blearily from his husktop, pulling his head back out of the assignment and nodding, reaching over to turn Dave's laptop around to start going over his script and notes. Here and there he made notes of his own, but by the time he'd gotten to the end of what Dave had written, he was nodding his approval and smiling tiredly at the progress. "I'm pretty glad you managed to write it to make Mindfang's diary a voice thing rather than actually having her appear."_ _ _ _

____"You know my reasons for that," murmured Dave blearily before letting out a loud, long yawn. "Okay, it's stupid late, we should head to bed, dude. We got work tomorrow." He saved his progress - along with Karkat's notes - and set his laptop down to hibernate. He stood and offered a hand up, before tottering off towards their bed._ _ _ _

____He noticed that the only thing touched about the bedroom was that the sheets were not the ones he'd put on just before they left, but rather, the new black ones he had yet to use. He stripped down and sprawled out, feeling a sort of tightness under him. He crawled his fingers under the fitted sheet and snickered to himself. "I'll be damned. He got us a cover," he blearily mumbled. "Gonna need to pay him back for all of this. Paid him a good amount but he didn't have to go this far." Or maybe Cass thought he did. Whatever, Dave was too goddamn incoherent to really try and suss it out at that point._ _ _ _

____Karkat's brow arched up as he crawled into bed himself, pressing down on the sheets to feel the cover as well. "Jesus, it's like he took it upon himself to be our fucking nanny," he muttered then shuffled under the blankets with a sniff and a wide, achingly tired yawn. He curled up with his head tucked against Dave's shoulder and dozed off relatively quickly. The kitten spent some time outside the door mewling to be let in, but eventually she gave up as well and went to take over the couch instead._ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At time of chapter publishing, Meebs is in a Kansas City greyhound station, bored out of his mind, waiting for a bus that won't be there until midnight, surrounded by weird people. Oh if only they knew what was happening on this laptop...


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #depression
> 
> Enter Spider8itch

Morning was too bright, too cold and altogether too damn early when it hit and all Karkat could bring himself to do was pull the blankets up over his head, curling up into a tight ball to try and ignore it. He knew they both had things to do today. Important, school-related things. But...fuck sunlight. Dave was up like it was his goddamn job to be up, as per usual, before 9:00am rolled around. He spent a while in the shower and cleaning his piercings, before slipping into a long sleeved shirt and black slacks. He brewed the coffee to start the day, and worked fastidiously on revisions to the script that Karkat had proposed, tossing out some less coherent bits to wrestle new, more fluid parts in. His problem was that it was such a short script, lines-wise, and yet, the way it ran in his head, it would be _just_ under the maximum length of time once he had it filmed, if everything played out the way he had it. 

He got himself a bowl of cereal, and had refilled Em's bowls for her as he mulled over more of the film when he got a text. It was Kanaya, asking if he'd checked his mailbox when they got home. He raised an eyebrow to that, and went to the bedroom. "Hey," he murmured quietly to Karkat, "I'm going down to check the mail." He slipped back out of the bedroom and made sure Em stayed in the apartment, then made his way down to the foyer, where the mailboxes were. Opening up theirs, there were scads of snail spam, and a single key to open up the package mailbox. He took it to retrieve the packages, to find a neatly wrapped package that was addressed in a lovely handwriting in jade green pen. He brought it back up, and unwrapped it. Inside, there were two costumes already sewn up and a little card from Kanaya, explaining that she simply couldn't wait to start on the project and that these two costumes came ahead of all her other work. She was inspired.

Dave pulled out the Sufferer's robes and pants, and a jumpsuit that clearly was meant for the Psiioniic. They were so finely tailored that Dave was afraid that even looking at them would somehow tarnish their quality. They were durable, and intricate. Dave sent a message back, praising the work and teasing her about her intense burning seamstress needs.

Karkat trudged out of the bedroom half an hour later, half-dressed and scratching here and there with one hand, pulling his bag along with the other then lifting it to thud on the counter. Breakfast would be a bowl of cereal the size of his head, it had already been decided. He could eat it while he got back to his work, then be able to take an hour to rest before he headed to the campus that day. Staying after class wouldn't really be an option for a while, he knew. He'd have to get in touch with his friend the cellist, inform him of the schedule conflicts and either postpone whatever he'd been planning to teach him next, or else find some convenient time wedged in between work, school and sleep.

He'd barely set up his things when he realized what Dave was looking at, pausing just before he'd poured the milk into his cereal and edging over to him then taking the Psiioniic's costume and holding it up. Seeing Sollux in it would be...interesting. He folded it gingerly and laid it aside, taking his own costume and looking up at Dave. "She works too damn fast sometimes, I swear..."

"Must be nice to have preternatural alien vampire speed," Dave said over his shoulder as he continued to work on his revisions. "That's going to look sick as hell on you. The cloak is fantastic." He looked at the clock and grumbled. "I need to get going," he sighed and picked up his messenger bag that still had the rolls of film and camera in it. "I'll see you at work." He shoved his shoes on and walked over to give Karkat a kiss. "Don't get anything on those, I don't want to have to take them to the dry cleaners before it's even time to start filming." He smiled a little before grabbing his coat and walking out the door, sliding his shades on as he went down the hall. 

The day went pretty swiftly, as he sat in his lecture and utilized the darkroom for his photography course. He'd developed a roll of film from their trip and decided to grab the prints once work was done. What he could see of the ones that he worked on, they all turned out pretty damn well. The photos of the dragon statues looked like they were going to be the best damn thing he'd taken a picture of in months, though the one of the fish and Karkat was rounding speedily into second place for the roll. 

He got to work early and didn't mind shuffling behind the counter before his shift was officially supposed to start. The day had been going so swiftly and smoothly for him, that nothing threw off his groove, even Mister Only Ever Had Starbucks And Used Their Vernacular. He was working on designing a picture in some latte foam when Karkat came in. He looked just the same as when he'd walked into the coffee shop that first day, with his bag under his arm and one of his books up and open, apparently trying to finish his required reading before work started. He stepped behind the counter while dragging his apron on with one hand, leaning up to absently peck Dave's cheek then stashing his things under the counter before getting to work.

Time passed slowly for him as he tried to go over his notes in his head for his next assignment, passing out caffeine on autopilot until a splash of hot black coffee across the back of his hand woke him up with a quietly hissed diatribe. A quick trip to the restroom later and he was right back, though a little slower and definitely more careful.

Dave gave a tiny furrow of his brow when Karkat was scalded, mouthing an "are you ok?" and then when it was confirmed he'd be fine, he went back to work. Things seemed to speed up after that, however. Dave worked smoothly until after the first break; that was the only time something that could be even remotely considered eventful happened.

Into the cafe walked a man holding a dozen red balloons attached to a bouquet of very fragrant flowers accompanied a teddy bear in a black sweater and sunglasses, addressed to Karkles and Coolkid, thanking them for a super-great week of hangouts and shit-shooting. Dave chuckled and set the bouquet and balloons on top of the espresso machine, shaking his head with a grin. He had a sneaking suspicion that this would turn into a war of gracious gift giving, in only the way that the three of them could do, if he decided to respond in kind.

"Karkat, what should we send back?"

"The loudest tie-dye shirt we can find, for starters," Karkat replied as he looked over the flowers, picking one out and reaching up to put it behind Dave's ear, held in place by the earpiece of his glasses. He whipped his phone out of his back pocket to take a picture, then sent it off to Terezi mostly to confirm that the gift had in fact gotten there. He turned back to work when he caught someone approaching the counter and rearranged his face to something a little more professional, until he realized who it was.

"Hey Karkat. I'll just...take my usual to go," Jill said quietly as she held the straps of her bag over her shoulder, glancing over at Dave while Karkat started the drink. Her eyebrow raised some at the flowers, balloons and rather silly-looking bear.

Dave had on his poker face almost immediately. "Hey Jill," he said, taking the flower out from behind his ear. "Look, I'm sorry." He tucked it behind her ear instead and gave a tiny, apologetic smile before he went to work to get her drink. He returned with it shortly, and handed it to her. "I want you to know I didn't want to hurt you with any of my stupid shit, but... yeah. You're too good for the kind of shit I put you through. So, I'm sorry." He looked to Karkat, then. "Will you forgive him, too? You two get along like nothin' I've ever seen, it'd be a pain in the ass to lose that kind of friendship just because I'm a selfish ass." He had been hoping to talk to her about it ever since she'd stomped down the stairs that day she found out.

He was bad at sincerity, but he was giving it his all and she was staring at him by the end of the short speech; it hadn't been what she was expecting. By the look of it, it hadn't been what Karkat had been expecting either. He tucked his hands under his arms as she looked between them, then nodded some. It obviously still didn't feel right, but she made an effort not to make things and more awkward.

"I know...things happen. It sucks, but I'm just going to try and look at the upside. Like, Jase said he's never seen you happy or motivated like this in the time he's known you, so apparently something's going right." She pulled a small smile, reaching to take her coffee and handing over her debit card then turning to go without bothering with her receipt. She pointed back at Dave with a raised eyebrow, starting as an afterthought, "Just try and keep him from working himself into the ground ok? Getting everything done on time is one thing, but killing yourself over it is probably the worst thing you can do." She eyed Karkat as he wrinkled his nose at her, stopping just short of exchanging stuck-out tongues before she'd finally left.

Dave chuckled and shook his head. "No promises!" After she rounded the corner and went out of view, he deflated a little and rubbed his face, before walking to make himself a shot of espresso. He wondered to himself as he took a careful sip of the drink, was he happier than he'd been in the time that he'd known Jase? Sure, but he didn't realize how noticeable it had gotten. He huffed a chuckle to himself when another customer pulled him out of his musings and asked for a latte. And it was true, Karkat worked too hard. It was why he dragged him along to shoots whenever he had a chance. It gave his matesprit time to decompress and get out of that workaholic mode.

Once their last break of the evening came, Dave perched on a chair as he had a cigarette on the back patio, glad that another one of the employees had come in to start their shift - they'd been working overtime, so the overlap was there.

"She's right, I think," he said to Karkat, rubbing his neck.

"Maybe," Karkat replied quietly, sipping on his cappuccino and looking out at the only other patron sitting outside, that same little old man that was always out there with a book and a cup of black coffee that was periodically refreshed. This little old man tipped whoever came out to see him over the course of the day very well, and there were times when Karkat had lingered outside a little too long on a break to chat with this man.

It was to this little man whose name he still didn't know that he'd first brought up the subject of romance after seeing one day that he'd bookmarked a page of his book at the time, an old collection of short stories by some author that he'd never heard of, with a faded photograph that appeared to have been taken right after color photography became the norm. It was a young, round and sweet-faced olive-blooded troll girl with hair that fell down around her shoulders in a drift of soft curls and frizz. He'd been caught looking as he'd poured the coffee, and been told a short story about a love affair that ended with one of them being sent to one end of the country, the other forced to enlist in the army, and letters sent back and forth between them until the day the girl had died. Karkat had sat down at the table by that time and started to talk to this man, getting advice from him and then simply chatting about school, history, movies, and had nearly been docked a day's pay when he'd come back inside to go back to his job. That little old man had made coming to terms with his own feelings that much easier. Dave knew the old man - one of the photos in his portfolio was of the man looking off in a faraway gaze, looking like he'd lived a long, fascinating life, and had enjoyed the brief talks they'd had. None so often or as long as Karkat's talks with him, but Dave knew all the regulars of the cafe.

"When you become some big fuckoff famous Hollywood filmmaker or whatever and get old rolling in piles of money I want you to promise me you'll keep drawing," he said after a little while of introspective silence. "You get this content look, like you're concentrating but you're happy about it..."

"Now why in the hell would I stop doing something I like?" Dave turned to Karkat and wrapped his arm over his matesprit's shoulders. "You know, I was thinking. I've drawn shitloads for 'Rezi over the years - hell, she's the reason Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff are even a thing - but with the exception of those shitty doodles we did for each other on the dumb rock, I haven't really..." He shrugged. "I want to draw something for you. It makes sense, since you gave me the pens and everything."

Karkat looked up at him with his cup at his lips, smiling faintly as he shook his head. "If you want to draw something, then that's up to you. I don't really have any ideas for it... Unless maybe you could do something for the credits or whatever at the end of the film project? Like stylized versions of the characters. Kanaya would like that."

Dave smirked, "You need to get out of my head, dude." He'd already been working on that, scribbling up preliminary doodles while in class. He was going to use the final pictures as promo art. "Sollux'll be needing me to get him some promo stuff to work with soon, so there'll be a little hype prior to even filming it. You know, vague stuff that nobody will really get jazzed about exactly, but it'll put it into their mind. Kind of planting a seed, y'know?" He leaned over to press a kiss to Karkat's temple. "We should go back in, finish up the shift."

Karkat nodded and finished his drink, tossing the cup into the trash can just outside the door. He came back out a couple of minutes later to refill the old man's coffee once more before he would be leaving for the day, returning his smile in silence then returning to finish his shift. When it was time to clock out, he gathered his tips and stuffed them into his pocket to stash at home out of the way. Tonight would be spent writing or helping Dave with his own schoolwork where possible until he fell asleep.

Dinner was a reheated meal that Cass had left for them once again, as well as a couple of ironically frosted cookies apiece while they each went about their business. The costumes were still sitting out on the counter folded neatly with Kanaya's note on top of them.

"Think we should let Kanaya know if mine fits or not?" He mused when he finally let himself take a break from staring into his monitor, popping his back then his neck and laying his head down against the countertop as he looked up at Dave in the living room. Dave had had to grab his photos that he'd developed that morning, but he'd come home only about fifteen minutes after Karkat, and went straight to work on the script, writing out the more minute details for himself so he knew what he'd be needing, what lens in the cameras, how many cameras, how the shot would be filmed. He'd completely sunk himself into his work and it only was when Karkat spoke that he looked up and shook himself out of it.

"Oh, um. Yeah, that sounds snazzy as shit, man, go for it." He smiled faintly. "She'd probably like to hear what needs alterations before getting out here. I'm setting shooting for end of January, but everyone'll be pulled together for rehearsals about the tenth."

"The sooner we know what needs fixed or changed, the better then," Karkat nodded then stood and stretched, picking up the Sufferer's costume and shaking it out gingerly. He was ready to roll his eyes at the pants and how high they went, but when it came to historical accuracy, he knew he could trust Kanaya's judgment. He ducked into the bathroom to pull it on, groaning some at how ridiculous he had to have looked as he smoothed his hands over his chest. He took a moment to pull on the boots for it, which were really little more than thick stockings with the soles padded for comfort, built up just slightly to lend Karkat a little extra height. He came back out with the robe around his shoulders, just slipping the hood into place over his horns then lowering his arms to let the cloak fall around him. "And of course it fits perfectly. I should have known better."

Dave watched him leave with a small smile, and while Karkat got dressed, he saved his progress and sent off the draft to Rose so she could help him with things he might have overlooked, and just help him with the fluidity and naturalness of the lines. Just after he hit send, Dave looked up to see Karkat apparently doing his damnedest to give him a heart attack. He whistled and stood, fixing the hem of the cloak so it fell right, before he crouched down slowly to see how far it'd take for him to see Karkat's eyes in the cloak. He grinned agreeably and nodded. "Works fantastically. You're his spitting image," he muttered, fussing over Karkat's hair to brush it away from his eyebrows and sweep it back a little. "I'm going to have to kiss that brilliant woman. This is perfect. _You're_ perfect. Jesus fuck."

Karkat objected by shaking his hair back down over his forehead, wrinkling his nose as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I have to wonder what Kankri would say to that," he commented then lifted the hood back and let it fall behind him as he looked up at Dave then over at the laptop as an alert came up on his pesterchum. "Now it's just a matter of seeing her Dolorosa and Sollux's Psiioniic. You might want to prune down some of his lines though. I don't exactly trust his delivery on a few of them. Rose will probably fix some of it herself at the very least."

"Kankri would give a two-hour lecture about how calling you perfect is shaming those who aren't, before pontificating at length about how one's descendant could, at best, be a pale imitation. And he'd be wrong." Dave said as he pouted at Karkat's refusal to let him fuss. "You're going to have to let me mess with your hair during the stills shoot I'm going to have to take soon to get an idea of where we're setting this stuff. I've got a couple days booked in a soundstage downstairs in the arts building, but most of this is outside, as you know." He already had people who had agreed to work on sets for him, for the interior scenes. What they couldn't work on, he could fudge digitally. 

"You look amazing, Vantas. You really do." He smirked then, and then pointed, "Now go take it off before you get the fucking thing wrinkled to shit, I really don't need Kanaya riding my ass about getting her beautiful work all mussed." he curled his lip and wrinkled his nose at the tone he imagined she'd take.

"I hope she's aware that we're going to have to put fake blood on it eventually," Karkat snorted as he shooed Dave back to his work, going to change back into his clothes then emerging with the costume neatly folded to put back on the counter until they put both of them away in a drawer to keep the cat hair off them. He settled back down into his work after retrieving a pair of headphones, using the music to be able to focus. He remained there at the counter long into the night and ended up falling asleep with his head down on his arms a page away from finishing his draft. Dave kept working on other projects for a while, awaiting Rose's revisions, but grew bored with the wait and started working on a paper for one of his other classes. He looked up once he heard Karkat's steady, sleeping breath and huffed a chuckle. He saved his progress and turned off his computer, before he got up and wrapped his arm around his matesprit, pressing a kiss to his neck. "Let's get to bed, Vantas," he murmured, kissing his neck once more before slipping his arm under his matesprit's legs and slowly and carefully carried him to the bedroom, light and silent on his feet and gentle enough not to fully wake Karkat.

He sprawled out beside his matesprit once he put him into bed, and smiled faintly. He wasn't tired; the day had gone smoothly and there was nothing that really killed his energy to a point of exhaustion. He looked over at Karkat momentarily, before he grabbed a book that he'd had on his side table, and started to read, drifting off somewhere a couple chapters in from where he'd left off. 

He woke up the next morning and shuffled into his morning routine, checking texts while brushing his teeth. He and Kanaya shot a few back and forth:

**sup kanaya**   
**Good Morning Dave. What Are You Up To?**

A selfie was sent to her of Dave brushing his teeth.

**I See. Shouldn't You Be Paying Attention To That?**   
**i can multitask like a boss btw your sufferer costume fits him perfectly**   
**so good i think i need another two just like it so it one gets fucked up while shooting we dont have to wait for it to get dry cleaned to continue filming**   
**I Am Already Planning On Making Several Costumes Each.**   
**hey did i get the back of my tongue good?**

Another picture was sent, this time of Dave's mouth wide open, teeth still coated with paste.

**"Dave, That Was Disgusting.**

and then he told Sollux that he'd have to see the ridiculous (but well tailored) jumpsuit he had to wear. He was quiet as he let Karkat sleep in, knowing his schedule didn't have him in class until the afternoon.

Karkat rolled out of bed earlier than he needed to, dragged himself to the bathroom and cleaned out his piercing carefully before showering and dressing for the day, a thick turtleneck pulled over loose jeans and falling around the regions of his thighs. He pulled his husktop back up to get back to work, rubbing his fingers into his eyes as he did so. Before long, he'd begun to doze off again, his head slipping off his hand as he scrolled through his resource library to find a last citation. He shot off a couple of emails then got up to make himself a small breakfast to hopefully wake himself up a little more before he would have to leave. Even if he didn't have class immediately, he did still have things to do outside the apartment.

Pulling up youtube, he set a playlist on shuffle and went back to working with his head bobbing gently to the beat, managing to finish off the last of his paper and enter his last source right as he got an email back letting him know that he would be leaving the apartment even sooner than he'd originally planned. At least it would be around the same time Dave did so the pair of them could potentially walk to the campus together.

Sitting on his side of the sofa, Dave worked on his paper until he sent it off to his professor and saw that he had two emails: One from Rose - it was the revisions - and the other was an announcement that his class for the day was canceled because of the professor having to call in sick, and having no ability to find someone to lead the class in such short order. They listed the work that was due. "Mm, means more time in the dark room for me," he said to himself before looking up at Karkat, "Hey fuckhose, I've got the day off 'til work." He waved to get Karkat's attention. "Yo. Asshole mcGee. Are you receiving me?"

Karkat looked up at the waving of the hand and rolled his eyes, pulling his headphones off and flipping Dave off as he paused the music. "Fuck you Strider, I still have shit to do and a limited time to do it in. What do you want?"

"I'm off for the day. You still want me to walk with you to campus? Or we could drive, it's fucking chilly out there," he offered with a faltering smile. "I need to develop all the other photos, so I'll probably be there most of the day 'til work."

"Oh. Uh. Yeah, sure." Karkat smiled back at him then put his headphones back over his ears and cranked the volume up on his laptop as he got back into rereading and revising, pulling one of his schoolbooks out of the bag sitting by his feet to double-check a few things. Writing a paper over the differences between the basic dignities of trolls versus those of humans obviously wasn't the most entertaining subject on the planet, but it seemed to be something that at least Karkat had a handle on and that he was interested in writing about. Dave smiled a little weakly at that and shook his head. He couldn't let this get to him. He had fucking tons of work to do. But what Jill had said, not to let Karkat dig himself into a grave by working himself to death nagged at the back of his head. He shook his head and stood, walking off to grab the photos he'd developed the day before, going through them to look and see if any of them were worth putting in his portfolio.

He looked at one he'd taken of Terezi and smiled fondly. She probably hadn't even known he'd taken a picture of her, or she would've mugged for him in typical fashion. What he got was a hopeful, sweet, thoughtful smile as she stood and looked over the bannister of the old mansion, looking into another room. He set it aside after looking for imperfections and flaws, and looked through the rest. He knew that one of the rolls of film he'd be developing that day had photos that Bro took, so he had marked that one's cap, and made sure he'd develop that last, not wanting to waste other students' time on stuff that couldn't be used for school.

When it was time to get going, Dave pulled on his coat and shoved into his shoes and smiled at Karkat. "I'll grab you something to eat when I get some lunch. What time do you have off from your first class?"

"I get out of it at 10:30 but then I have half an hour before the next lecture. If you feel like doing a brunch thing or some shit I'm perfectly fine with that. I planned on spending my break at the music department so you can find me there." Karkat slid off his perch at the counter and started to pack up his belongings, looking around at the clock and chewing some at his lip. "If we can hurry it up a little so I can get there early that would make my life a hell of a lot easier." He pulled on a pair of older shoes that were broken in almost to the point that they'd start pulling up from the soles before long, but they'd been established as his favorite pair for days when the temperature really dropped. He shouldered his bag and slung his computer case over his back, then grabbed an apple out of the crisper to eat later on when he had a little more time.

The walk to the campus was chilly but thankfully windless and by the time they'd made it there, it had started to warm up the higher the sun rose. There were other students running back and forth, a cyclist weaving along one of the bike paths between buildings then disappearing around a corner before he could collide with another one coming from the opposite direction. Karkat swore loudly as he was nearly sideswiped but left it at that, leading Dave toward the music department rather than Philosophy.

"You think you can wait a minute? This was why I wanted to come in a little early," he said as he pulled open the door to let Dave through, stepping into the warm entrance hall and its library-like hush. Dave waited quietly in the large entrance of the building, having never been there before. He was out of his element. He was a little intimidated by the silence and decided to start texting again, just to alleviate the nervousness, keeping a completely calm facade. He didn't know why it was bothering him so much. Maybe the fact that he was excited to hear Karkat play had made his nerves raw, or something. He pushed it down and stopped caring so deeply. It was just stupid emotional shit. No big deal.

Karkat smiled faintly as he walked the entrance hall, the carpeting quieting his steps. A door creaked open quietly down another hall, but in front of him there was a practice room that he'd just pulled open to peek inside. He called quietly into it before looking back at Dave and waving him over then stepped inside. He could hear movement in a storage room that resolved itself when the door swung open, revealing a tall, soft-looking troll pulling out a massive case, waving back at Karkat then sitting down on the edge of the makeshift stage set up for practicing quartets.

It took a couple of minutes, but soon the pair was sitting and chatting quietly back and forth, the other troll plucking some at the strings of his instrument then watching Karkat do the same. He nodded, then looked around at Dave wondering if he intended to sit down. Dave walked in with a blank face, nodding to the other guy, before he looked around the room and waited for them to get set up. He was impressed with the guy's horns, and idly wondered if he had bad neckaches like he supposed most trolls with horns that size probably had. He'd have to ask Tavros about that if he remembered. 

He didn't say anything when Karkat looked at him, and took a seat in the middle of the room, facing the stage. "Sorry, caught up in thoughts." He nodded an encouraging 'go for it' nod to Karkat. Karkat pressed his lips together and looked toward Ferrus, then nodded again and started to play, dragging the bow across the strings in a long, quiet note. He played the rather simple melody solo for a little bit, then began to pluck the strings with his fingertips in concert with the other until it built back to a point that he had to play melody again. His eyes closed as he rocked gently with the motion of the bow, playing the relatively short piece to its conclusion then looking around when it was done, eyebrow raised. Ferrus was nodding, but leaned to ease his hand up some on the strings that he'd apparently been just a little too low on, making a few of the notes just a bit sharper than necessary. He repositioned his hand then nodded back again before glancing back around at Dave, as if only just noticing that he was still in the room at all.

Dave was impressed; he'd only been doing this for a few months and he'd gotten better at a string instrument than Dave had ever managed to do for all the times he'd even attempted one. Granted, Dave had only ever fucked around with Rose's violin when he was bored and her sylladex was laying out. He smiled and nodded as well. "Great. That was really great. I mean." He shrugged at that, and stood, offering a handshake to the other guy. "It's good to meet you. I should head out, though. Vantas, if you want to grab some food later after this, let me know, okay?" He had a weird feeling; something in his mind wasn't synching up with the rest and it was making him feel fractured.

"I'll be at the art building. You guys keep on, man, this shit's mega impressive," he said as he made his way out of the room, then out of the building.

He didn't immediately head to the art building, but rather, he sat down on the steps of the music building and lit a cigarette, trying to get his shit together.

Karkat's smile in return was somewhat uncomfortable, as he he wasn't sure but it felt as if he'd just sat on something damp. At first he wasn't sure what had brought it on, but then when Dave had left he realized it was the rather dispassionate response. It wasn't his usual stoicism either, not really. He shifted some in place but stayed in his seat, knowing that Dave had a lot of developing to do in a short amount of time and hoping that his having something to focus on would help him get his head back around where he would be ok. He continued to practice with Ferrus in spite of the slightly off feeling until it was time for him to get to his first class of the day. He left through a different door at a jog to get to his Ethics lecture, glancing around to see if he might catch sight of Dave on his way out but reminding himself that nether of them had time for it.

The class was predictably quiet and rather dull that day and Karkat took the time that he was in the class to catch up on a paper that he really should have been working on while he was focused on the dignity paper. He dozed off about an hour in and at least managed to catch up on a little bit of sleep before the end of the class and the pages for the assigned reading that he would have to do that night. He took a moment to pack his things back into his bag before heading back to the music department, intending to spend some more time there practicing before he went to eat with Dave.

Dave, in the meanwhile, had shoved himself straight into his passion, hoping that it would get him out of the familiar headspace that he knew wasn't going to do him any goddamn good being in. He stood in front of the work area with the safelight on as he carefully dipped the paper into the developer and then put it up on a line to drip and develop properly, brow furrowed with his glasses pushed up onto the crown of his head. He felt his phone buzz with a text and he hoped it was Karkat shouting at him to get out of the cave and come to eat. 

He exited the darkroom and pushed his glasses back down, looking at the text. Unfortunately, it was only Sollux replying from the earlier text he'd sent. He sighed and sent a terse, but still clever response to the snarky text, and then said he was busy. He checked the time and was surprised to find it had only been twenty minutes since he'd gotten in. He shrugged it off and went back in to work some more. 

He developed two rolls of film and by the time lunchtime rolled around, and the entire darkroom was absolutely SPRUNG with ace photography, hanging to dry. He grinned as he slipped out again and sent a text to Karkat: **meet up at the sub shop on the hill ill be there in 15**

He was at the sub shop when he said he'd be, and he waited outside, blowing into his gloved hands to keep himself more warm, bundled deep into his thick ski jacket, his hat tugged as far down over his ears as it could be arsed to go. Fuckin' hell, if he was this cold, he could only imagine how damn irascible his matesprit would be after getting there. He prepared himself for a vast shitstorm.

When Karkat arrived, everything above the neck of his sweater was red from the wind and he looked as if he wanted nothing more than to hunker down in a ball and never move again. He was shivering violently on top of that, giving Dave a death glare when he got close enough to look him in the shades. Obviously it was his fault for picking this place and making them both walk there and just where the hell did he get off waiting outside like an idiot when he could have at least been inside keeping warm? He didn't say any of this out loud though. Karkat shooed him inside then plunked himself down as close to one of the vents as he could manage, his arms pulling into his sweater to wrap around himself inside it.

Dave wasn't prepared for silence. He wasn't very good with it, either, but he shrugged it off and pushed it down on top of all the other shit that had been piling up over the day. "What do you want to eat, dicksicle? The hot subs will help," he murmured as he pulled off his gloves. "They probably have tea, too. Every fuckin' place here has tea."

"What I'd really like is a big-ass coffee," Karkat muffled at him, staying entrenched in his coat until the shivering had subsided. He shrugged off his coat and rolled his sleeves up when he was adequately warm then looked up at the menu over the counter until he'd settled on what he wanted, looking back at Dave then digging his wallet out of his pocket. "When do you have class today? I might skip my next lecture and get the assignment off the class's page so I can go home and actually keep my fucking bulge from freezing off."

"The only class I had today got canceled," he reminded, his tone implying 'I already told you that', and he continued, "I'll walk you there then, make sure you don't turn into a walking shitsicle." He teased, though the fire he usually had with that kind of quip wasn't in there. He ordered himself a meatball sub and a hot tea, and shuffled to pay for it on the other side of the counter. The look Karkat gave him very clearly said "fuck you, Strider" as he ordered a slightly overflowing reuben sandwich and a tea for himself, taking a long drink as soon as he'd paid for it. He sat back down in his original seat tucked in close on himself as he ate like a starved man. He sat back when he was done and checked the time on his phone, wrinkling his nose as he debated on walking back to campus and attending his lecture or just following Dave around until they decided to go home.

"So what, are you going to drag your ass home right after this?"

"Got another roll to develop after this, then I gotta get to work," Dave said over the last bite of sandwich, which he washed down with the dregs of the tea he had. "But whatever you wanna do, man, it's not like my plans are set in stone." He scratched his jaw and stood, not quite wanting to go out into that biting cold just yet.

"Right, another double shift today," Karkat muttered, already starting to dread having to go in that afternoon. He decided that just going to his lecture would at least keep him on the right schedule and followed suit, pulling his coat back on and zipping it up to his nose. "I guess I'll see you at work later then. And actually stay inside, fuckstick. I don't need you getting sick before we actually put the film thing into action."

"Nah man, I fucking love this frigid fucking Cocytus weather, gonna go get me hells of frostbite. I hear that shit's fashionable as fuck," Dave replied as he opened the door, holding it for Karkat before walking out to the sidewalk. "I'll see you at work, nubs. Don't stay out here too long." He squeezed Karkat's hand before stuffing his gloved hands into his pockets and walked briskly back to the art building. 

Once at work later that afternoon, Dave wanted weather to have a face, so he could piss in it. Fucking cold pissed him off so much. He pulled on his apron and got in back of the counter, immediately regretting having come in. He spotted at least four douchebag regulars he hated in the shop, and two of them were in the line, looking impatient to get their drinks. He worked quietly as he took and filled the orders, glad that his glasses hid the way he was sure his eyebrows were knit in something of a half scowl. The whole day had that disjointed, unsynchronized feeling to it and Karkat's weird fucking attitude hadn't helped all day, either. 

His boss came out of the back office and asked him to come aside for a minute once the line had been taken care of, and he did. He was absolutely certain he'd done something fucked up and wrong without even knowing it as he walked the short hallway that led out to the back patio. It was empty. The patio was never empty, that was his first clue something was up. 

"Er," his boss started, "You know Pete, right? Older guy?" 

"Yeah, he's out here all the time, reading. He gave me advice and shit, great guy. He's awesome, man, love that guy." Dave's brow furrowed as the knot in his stomach tightened harder. He knew what was coming next. 

"Pete passed on last night. His friend called me 'cause he knew he was always here. I thought I'd let you know. Do you want to tell Karkat, or should I?"

Dave shook his head silently and untied his apron. "When he comes in, tell him I had to go home, would you?" His voice was strained to stay stable and flat. "I need... I can't do this today. Sorry man, I'll make up for it."

"Don't worry about it. I'll let him know. Just get some rest, Dave."

Dave left the cafe before Karkat even made it there, and he was goddamn glad. Karkat didn't need to see him like this. He got home as fast as he could, and not a moment later, he rushed to the bathroom to throw up his lunch.

When Karkat arrived to join Dave for his shift, he didn't really register at first that he was gone. He figured that he'd just stepped outside for his nicotine fix and would be back inside soon. On that thought he made a small drink for him to be able to warm back up then set it aside as he turned to help the small line that had sprung up in Dave's absence.

After he'd managed to reduce the line and see to it that nobody was on their way into the shop, he finally stepped out to see if Dave hadn't gotten caught up talking to the old man; it wouldn't have surprised him, given how Dave had been acting lately. Having a long conversation with Pete always helped put things back into perspective for him, and would definitely have done something for his matesprit as well. When he poked his head out to check, though, the patio was deserted. No Dave. No Pete. That was odd, but he figured that, a cold as it was, the man had likely opted to stay home and keep warm. He stepped back inside to start on another order as soon as she'd approached the counter, the usual not-quite-charm he usually employed for work even less there than usual.

When it was time for his shift to end late in the evening Karkat stopped to ask where Dave had gone before he even got there, and was finally greeted by the news of what had happened. His already slightly worried expression fell further and he stepped back out with a quiet 'oh'. When he got home, he did so quietly, settling down on the edge of the couch then slumping back into it, his hands coming up on reflex to cradle the kitten when she hopped up onto his knees and settled in a purring ball in his lap. Dave had gone to bed as soon as he'd brushed his teeth and washed the splashback off the toilet. He hadn't gotten to sleep, but he was in the bed, in the dark, when he'd heard Karkat come home. He curled himself up under the blankets and, as much as his joints ached and his muscles protested, he still thought it was only right to come out and make an appearance.

Then he second guessed it and sprawled back out on the bed, burying his head in a pillow. Fucking goddammit, he just wanted to stop being such a fucking loser about all this. Karkat had been friends with the guy. He needed someone to talk to, too. He sighed into the pillow and dropped one leg out of the bed and put his foot on the floor, trying to spur himself to get out of his fucking cocoon and just go in there.

And he stayed that way for a few minutes, before he finally hoisted himself out of bed and, even with his entire body protesting, and his mind shouting at him that he was exhausted and just go back to bed, he walked in. He was only in his boxers as he sat down next to Karkat, and wrapped his arms around him. Karkat's head dropped onto his shoulder as soon as he'd sat down, his legs pulling up into the couch to curl up half in his matesprit's lap. They hadn't spoken all that much in the last couple of days, but now there didn't seem to be any real need for it. One of Karkat's hands curled loosely around Dave's as his head tucked down against the other's chest, Em shuffling some between them then nosing up under Dave's arm.

Dave pressed a long kiss to the top of Karkat's head and stayed silent, before letting Em free. He was tired, and still nauseous. He wanted to sleep, and he wanted to apologize to Karkat for not being there at work, but the words wouldn't fit together correctly in his mind, so he stayed silent. He just rubbed Karkat's back quietly for a while, glad that he could even be close to his matesprit for a while. 

After a long while, he finally moved slightly, pulling Karkat closer. Karkat nearly crawled into his lap at that, hooking his legs over the top of Dave's and pressing his cheek against his chest, ear flat against the spot over his heart. Just hearing the quiet thud was comforting in its own right, but then he considered how strange Dave had been acting, how he'd been trying to force himself to be ok, and how wrong that was at the heart of the matter. It wasn't just the death of someone who'd come to be seen as a fixture in their lives. Everything was piling up, and now it was coming crashing back down in an inexorable slow-motion wave. Karkat brought Dave's hand up to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to the knuckles then let it fall back into his lap.

With a softly shuddered sigh, Dave squeezed Karkat's hand tight, before muttering, "I'm gonna go lay back down, dude." His tone was thready and weak, and he sounded less like he was tired and more like he was trying to avoid throwing up again. "Sorry I can't be any better of a fuckin' guy to grieve with but I'm pretty sure you of all people know why."

Nodding, Karkat removed himself from Dave's lap, seeming to debate for a moment on pulling him along or just letting him move in his own time. He sucked his lip into his mouth and ended up retreating to the bedroom, stripping and changing into a pair of pajama pants then crawling into bed simply to wait. Dave took his sweet time trying to compose himself, but he eventually followed along, and curled back into bed, facing Karkat with a weak smile. "Sorry," he whispered. "I should have been there for you at work today dude, but I didn't want to vomit all over our loyal paying dickbaskets."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure someone would have called the CDC and gotten you fired," Karkat muttered as he pulled the blankets up over Dave then draped an arm over his middle, thumb rubbing across his back lightly. He wouldn't ask if Dave was ok, or if he was going to be; the answer was obvious at least for the former. He laid his head against Dave's as his hand came up to rest against the edge of his jaw, his fingers curling into the soft blonde locks tickling at the nape of his neck. "When it warms back up, you need a haircut."

"Nah, gonna grow it out and do that hippie hacky-sack thing for a while. Learn how to play three chords on a guitar, get all the sorority girls," murmured Dave with a yawn following up. "Maybe even do the nasty white boy dreads." He smirked weakly and draped his arm across Karkat's shoulders, brow furrowed as he pushed down a sudden metric fuckton of worst-case scenarios that decided to spring up. What if he found out about the last time he got this low from someone else? Jesus fuck, he didn't want to consider it. "Lemmie tell you something," he started, his voice barely above a whisper. "Last year, about this time actually, something fucking set me off like this. I spent two weeks holed up here in the apartment, didn't go to classes and just did the coursework, and only worked part time so I didn't get fired. I just... I didn't. I couldn't stand myself anymore." He stopped there and buried his head in the pillow again. "So um. If I get so bad that I'm being completely despondent and shit like that, just. Do what you need to make sure I'm not going to fuck up royal, all right?" He muffled into the pillow.

Karkat frowned deeply at that, crumpling internally and wrapping his arms around Dave's neck, cradling his head and pressing his nose to the part of the other's hair. Dave's low points, now that he was really seeing them, weren't like his. There was no intermediate where a jump-start could at least get him through another night. He tangled his fingers into his matesprit's hair then ran a hand down the back of his neck. "You're banned, Strider. Banned from this whole fucking thought process."

"Kinda wish it worked like that." With a heavy sigh, Dave turned back around to kiss Karkat's forehead. "It'd be goddamn beautiful if that worked, y'know." He shook his head and sighed, before murmuring, "It's going to be fine though. It's always fine after a while, right? Shit gets better." The words were hollow, having no weight with them in Dave's mind as he felt his body go heavy and dull again. "Shit gets better," he repeated. "Look, just bear with me, okay? I need you to..." he had a hundred thousand things he could follow that up with, before he shook his head. "I just need you. Just. Don't be a douche about this, alright?"

"Isn't that my default state of being? Karkat Vantas, god-king of douchefucks and useless friends." In spite of the attempt at lightness Karkat wrapped his arms tighter around Dave's neck, curling his legs around one of his matesprit's and holding onto him as he'd failed to do in the last few days.

After a few long moments, he spoke up again in a hushed voice, muffled as his lips stayed pressed against Dave's hair. "Dave. I want you to promise me something ok?"

Dave's brow furrowed deeply. "What's it?" He didn't like making promises, especially not in the mindframe he was in.

Sighing quietly against the top of Dave's head, Karkat scratched lightly against the back of his neck, his eyes closing tight. "No matter how much shit starts to suck, or you feel like...whatever the fuck it is that's going through your head right now, come back to the fact that I'm right fucking here. And that I fucking love your pasty, freckly no-ass-having bullshit and everything that comes with it."

Dave's mind was filled with worst-case scenarios and incomplete information extrapolated in the worst possible ways. It had gained ground over the past few months and he had mostly disconnected from it until it crashed around him entirely. "Yeah, I promise that. I'm not leaving your fucking pathetically negative ass on your own, you fuckin' need me," he hoped. "I'm not going anywhere, dumbass. Not this early in, not for a long goddamn while." He pressed another kiss to the skin closest to his lips. "Just as long as you'll keep my stupid broken fucking brain around, I'll stick with you."

"You're not broken," Karkat replied immediately, sitting up then crawling over the top of Dave and laying flat on top of him, tangling their legs together loosely. He reached up and brushed his fingers over Dave's forehead, pushing his bangs back away from his eyes then laying his hand against the other's cheek and rubbing his thumb just under his eye. "You're off-kilter. Like some fucking masterpiece that some asshole bumped in passing so now you're not sitting right on your nail and tilting to where you look like you're gonna fall off and make some curator shit himself." He stopped for a moment with the rather silly metaphor, looking up at the shape of Dave's face in the darkness and rubbing his thumb across his matesprit's lips. "And you know what? I'm gonna be that one dipshit patron that stands there with his whole fucking body tilted the same direction still appreciating the fuck out of the art. Because just because something's not exactly kosher right now doesn't mean that it's fucked up beyond repair.

"Y'know. If that makes sense."

For a while - well before Karkat even came home - he'd been struggling to keep his shit from completely crumbling under him, but with the way Karkat moved to be as close as possible, the absolute conviction in his voice - as ridiculous as the analogy was - made his eyes well up and even if he kept his composure as far as expression was concerned, it didn't really mean shit when he had tears dripping slowly from his eyes. He didn't bother brushing them away. "That overreached a little bit but yeah, that made plenty fuckin' sense." His lips twitched briefly into a smile, and he added, "And you say you're a useless friend. S'a bunch of goddamn horseshit, Karkat." He leaned up to steal a quick kiss. "Don't fuckin' say that about yourself."

Karkat rolled his eyes and put his head down against Dave's chest. "I don't have class tomorrow," he murmured, tucking his hand up under his chin. "So until you have to go do anything with your photos or classes or whatever, I want you to sit the fuck down and talk to me, ok? We can at least get back into shape to blow our shift out of the fucking water. I seriously doubt Pete'd want us to mope ourselves sick over this," he added with a soft smile, thinking of the photo in Dave's portfolio. He wondered if they might be able to get some smaller copy of it and stick it up somewhere in the coffee shop, put him up as a 'valued patron' or something like that. Some small gesture in return for what he'd done for them.

"Nah, he'd just do his mystic old dude thing," Dave said with a huff of a chuckle, wrapping his arms around Karkat with a shake of his head. "Guy was just a little bit psychic, I think. That or just creepy amounts of observant." He buried his face in Karkat's hair and sighed. "I wonder if Bill'll do a memorial for him or something. I mean like, last fall, when I just started working there, one of the regulars was shipping out to the military, and they had a party for him. I dunno man. It's stupid how goddamn attached to all those assholes I get." He brushed his fingers lightly over Karkat's skin, eyes fluttering closed once the tears dried up. "It's kinda fucked up though. I mean, he was just there yesterday, doing his mystic old dude thing, like nothing was gonna happen."

"You see a face every fucking day you're gonna start getting to know that face more than you ever think," Karkat mused, flattening his hand against Dave's chest and stroking his thumb over the skin lightly. "He was ninety-four years old. I think he just learned to be really fucking good at people. And...I think he knew what was going to happen. But he didn't want to bother us with it. I don't think he realized how much of a goddamn impression he'd leave though..."

"I think he knew exactly how much of an impression he made," Dave murmured, his hand moving from Karkat's spine, up into his hair. He opened his eyes to look up at the ceiling. "And of course he knew how we were going to end up. I wouldn't fuckin' shut up about you." He smirked. "Then again, that was only after he called me out on lookin' at you." He shook his head with a small, tired smile, feeling himself drifting off to sleep. "He was like the goddamn sensei in Karate Kid, except for hipster douchebags instead of mulleted jocks."

"Great. We had our own Miyagi. Now what the fuck are we gonna do for all our mystic old dude needs?" Karkat let a quiet laugh and tucked his head against the side of Dave's neck as he started to doze as well. The heavy, uncomfortable feeling in the air seemed to have dissipated, and he glad for the fact. Just to be safe though, tomorrow he would be doing a sweep of the apartment and hiding a few things, just in case. Falling back into that pit was the worst thing that could happen to either of them, especially at this point in their lives. As he planned what he might want to do, he finally fell asleep, still lying on top of Dave as if he were a bony futon. Dave wasn't feeling much better, but he was well versed in putting proverbial bandaids over equally proverbial amputations. He fell asleep with his arms still around Karkat and didn't have much problem with the position, though somewhere over the course of the night, they wound up on their sides, and Dave was practically balled around his matesprit.

The next morning, Dave was wiped enough that he didn't get up until shortly after 10. And when he did, he only shuffled out of the bedroom to grab his phone and call up his professors for the day to ask them what the coursework was for the week. He then called work only to be told to stay home before he could even ask for a sick day. He huffed half a chuckle at that, shaking his head. Whatever. Fucking awesome boss. He then sprawled out on the sofa and refused to move, even when Em decided that his back was the best bed in the house.

Karkat was up maybe ten minutes after Dave had taken up residence on the couch, scratching here and there and muttering about aches and pains and generally being in a sour mood. He emerged and wandered the kitchen for a moment, glancing over at Dave with Em perched on top of him, then fishing a couple of bags out of a drawer. Without a word, he went to the bathroom to clear a couple of things out of the medicine cabinet, then to the bedroom, leaving out only the bottle of antidepressants as he swept the area for anything else. When the bags were each half-full of various medications that both of them had been on, he crawled up onto the edge of his recuperacoon and carefully placed them both in the slime, poking them down into it for safe keeping. Once that was done, he pulled himself together a little better and went to put on a pot of coffee to share.

"Keeping him from crawling away, meowbeast?" He muttered at Em when he had enough for a mug for himself, sitting down on the floor beside the couch and reaching up to scratch at the kitten's ears. She purred at him quietly without moving from her spot in the small of Dave's back while he halfheartedly played Fruit Ninja.

"She's keeping my back warm. Or doing firsthand tenderizing for later consumption." He looked up at Karkat and gave a smile of exhaustion. "I might just go back to bed again, I don't even fucking know yet. Might go down to grab my photos from the darkroom later when I can convince my legs they actually do in fact work." He moved his legs up at the knees for Karkat to sit down, "See? The power of the mind."

Taking the opportunity, Karkat picked himself off the ground and sat himself down beside Dave's knees. He pulled the legs back down and started rubbing a hand over one of the calves gently. "Good idea. Do it when I go to work later so at least you're keeping yourself occupied while I'm gone."

"Holy shit, that's fucking brilliant. Incredible idea." His tone was flat but he actually thought it was a pretty awesome idea. He set down his phone and flexed his shoulders to dislodge Em, before turning around with care not to knock Karkat's arms with his legs. "You're going to be bored to death with me sleeping all day. Y'know. Because obviously your tiny microcosm revolves around me and my every waking move and you don't have friends you could totally go see today instead of sitting around looking after your idiot matesprit."

"And what if right now, looking after my idiot matesprit is exactly what I want to be doing with my time?" Karkat snorted, lifting his mug up out of the way until Dave had settled down again.

"Maybe you have really weird damn priorities, but your matesprit appreciates it because like hell anybody else on the planet needs to deal with him like he is." Dave rubbed his face and stared at the clock with a raised eyebrow. "Dear god don't tell me that's actually the time." He scowled and shook his head. "I'm glad I called in, there would be no damn way I'd be able to get to class."

"Like you'd even be able to focus on your class shit anyway. This is going to be a lot better for you," Karkat murmured, running his hand over Dave's leg absently as he sipped at his coffee. "This is what being someone's matesprit, or even their moirail really means. Keeping them alive and taking care of them one way or another."

"I know." He sighed and shook his head. "I'd do the same for you." Even if they weren't together in any romantic fashion, Dave would've done the same for Karkat. It was just the simple truth. He narrowed his eyes at the cup of coffee like it had offended him, and then stood up - albeit carefully and rather reluctantly - to get himself a mug. "Mm, could work on painting that mug I got," he thought aloud, "make that fuckin' thing majestic as shit." He rubbed his eyes as he poured himself a large mug of coffee and then wandered back into the living room.

"I might just work on some shit for the project, though. Watch some idiot television for the unemployed and ill, and pass out. Are you sure you don't want to go hang out with other people? I'm fine." He wasn't, really, but he wasn't 'watchful eye needed' un-fine, either.

"Why would I go hang out with other people? Other people suck," Karkat snorted then took a large swallow of his coffee, nudging Em off his lap and standing with a quiet groan. He laid a hand on Dave's arm to keep him from fidgeting much more than he already had and craned his neck to press a light kiss to his jaw. "You could take the day to do nothing at all instead of forcing yourself to do things, too."

With that assurance, Dave shook his head. "I can't just stop, sorry. That's not how I operate." He looked up at Karkat and took a sip of his coffee. "I need to keep myself busy or shit shuts down entirely and that's just really bad fucking news. That's how I got into that mess last year." He took Karkat's hand and squeezed lightly. "You don't want to see me stagnant."

"Then I'll just stay here and keep you on top of your shit if it looks like you're starting to shut back down." Returning the squeeze, Karkat offered a soft, encouraging smile, knowing there wasn't much else he could do for the time being. "Is there anything you think you'll want for lunch? You're probably not exactly up for food but I'm pretty sure you need to eat something."

Dave shrugged. "I'm good for now." He held up his coffee. It was a poor excuse for a food substitute, but he was still feeling slightly nauseous and didn't want to test his luck with solid stuff just yet.

He dragged himself to the bathroom at about 11:30, and leaned against the shower wall as he washed his face and hair. He scrubbed his skin enough to make it temporarily red, but it helped. It felt good to symbolically scrub off all the negative shit that had got onto him over the course of the past month or two that he'd been shoving so far down that he didn't see it until it piled up to a point of overflowing. When he pulled himself together enough to step back out of the shower, Karkat had curled himself up on the couch with another cup of coffee, bundled in an overlarge sweater and pajama pants and watching a documentary about the decline of human civilization since the introduction of Christianity. It wasn't even something that he seemed to be interested in at that point, it was just something that was on that he didn't feel like changing the channel from to find something better. He looked up at Dave wordlessly and gave him another barely-there smile.

Dave had pulled a towel around his hips and was drying his hair as he walked back out. "Hey." He sat down beside Karkat and wrapped his arms around his matesprit, happy to be able to do so. "Thanks for last night. What you said really... it helped, okay, it was fuckin' amateur analogy-wordsmithing but." He trailed off and huffed a weak chuckle against Karkat's shoulder. "Knowing that you're willing to throw yourself off balance just to help... That's more than most people would ever fuckin' do."

"Glad you actually got that out of a shitload of waffle," Karkat muttered, turning to lay his head against Dave's and offering his half-full coffee. "I can try and make up more goofy-sounding shit if it'll make you feel better."

Dave shook his head. He continued to hold onto Karkat for a little while, then set the coffee aside so he could tip them both over and sprawl on the sofa. "Don't let me pull you under with me, too, Vantas. You're better than this bullshit, okay? You're my owly fuckin' light at the end of the tunnel." He tangled his legs with Karkat's and frowned into the back of his matesprit's neck. "Two of us being sad saps is going to do neither of us any good."

"I can be a sap if I damn well please, Strider. Especially if it looks like it's helping you with your issues here. So bite me." He butted his head gently against Dave's chin, tipping his head back against Dave's shoulder to look up at him with a small pout.

With a small chuckle, Dave leaned down and nipped Karkat's neck. "There, now what." He was at least feeling a little less like braised ass, now that he had someone there to just... be there. Karkat's very _existence_ helped, honestly. He hadn't gotten this messed up about shit for ages, and usually it wasn't exactly often that he spiraled down at all. He buried his head in Karkat's hair and murmured, "No seriously though, you're a fuckin' godsend, and you should be aware of that." 

He started to really regret not being clothed. The dampness of his skin was starting to remind him how chilly the apartment was without them. He grumbled wordlessly. "Man, I need clothes on. Don't wanna get up. This eternal struggle between desire to move and comfort is going to wear thin real fuckin' quick."

"If I believed in providence I'd say I was dropped here for a reason," Karkat shrugged then sat up, scooting forward and pulling his sweater off over his head, handing it back to Dave. It was big enough on him that it would more or less fit the other easily.

"You did not just literally give me the shirt off your back." He held the sweater and then shook his head, leaning down to kiss Karkat firmly. "If anyone says you're anything but a fucking saint today, I will kill them." He pulled his matesprit's sweater on and wrinkled his nose at how the sleeves only got about three quarters of the way up his forearm, but didn't bother to argue. He was warm. He laid back down to hold Karkat close.

"You said you wanted to put something on and I don't feel like moving," Karkat shrugged then laid back down against Dave with his head on his matesprit's shoulder, grabbing his coffee and finishing off the lukewarm brew in a couple of swallows. He put the mug back down on the floor to be assaulted by the kitten, who quickly grew bored of it and hopped back up onto the couch instead and crawled up his leg to settle atop his stomach.

Dave didn't want to say that nobody had ever been so considerate to him, because he didn't want it to sound like he was being dramatic or upset about it. He just shook his head silently and sighed. Fucking incredible Karkat. He just wanted to say something about it, but the way he usually managed to string together words just didn't come in this mindframe. He smiled when Em came to lay down, and he gently pet down her back. "Hey Vantas. If you ever get this down, like, fuckin'... can't see the top of the well kind of down, I'll be here for you, too. I'm not gonna split if things get hard for you."

Karkat smiled faintly and laid his hand over the bare space of Dave's arm, stroking his thumb back and forth over his skin. "I know. And that makes me really fucking happy. Like I know it doesn't exactly look look it from there, but I'm glad I can actually be here and do something important with myself. And yes, this is fucking important. Especially to me."

Dammit, and he was going to argue that, too. It was almost annoying how well Karkat knew him, Dave thought. It would be, if it wasn't so fucking heartening that someone bothered to care enough to figure him out. "Yeah well, you've got fucking weird ways of spending your time. Getting awesome on cello, fuckin' cooking like some sort of superstar, keeping a complete fucking poser like me from being a moron. Man, how fucking cool can you get? Isn't there a goddamn quotient for that shit? I'm pretty sure you're way over your limits, man." He smirked and brought his hand up with Karkat's to press a kiss to his matesprit's palm.

"Dude, no. None of that's worth getting excited over. Anyone would rather learn to cook that live on what Crabdad had in the hive. Learning an instrument isn't all that fabulous either. Not like it's actually going to get me all that far in anything. It's stress relief. Like meditation but actually fucking doing something." As for keeping Dave from...well, being Dave, that was another thing entirely. Karkat laid his hand over Dave's cheek, thumbing his lips then letting it fall away to rest against his shoulder. "You have your photos and your music. And you keep me in the right frame of mind. Give me something to focus on outside of myself. And that's a fucking amazing thing."

"You got the tendency to crawl inside your head, too." It was one of those similarities that they had which he was actually not quite as happy to see. He pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead, shaking his head with a tiny, weak smile. "And if you don't think that cooking is fucking impressive, you're wrong all the way down, man. And I don't care that cello isn't anything but stress relief for you, it's cool." He blinked at a thought that came to him. "Hey, next time you go down there and play, can I bring some equipment along to record you and do something?"

With a raised eyebrow Karkat turned over half onto his side to look up at Dave, wincing as Em scrabbled up to lay stable against his hip. "I guess. What are you gonna bring though? I dont' think any of your equipment is small enough except that looping thing...Oh. Ok I get it. I'll have to talk to Ferrus though. He's the one with the keys to the instrument storage."

"That's fine. Whenever's reasonable, you know. Fuckin' show you how talented you are without even knowing," Dave said, stifling a yawn through grit teeth. "Okay but seriously, I should go put pants on." He slipped away to sit up, suddenly acutely aware of how sore he still was. "You never know when one of my idiot manchildren friends will show up." He stood, careful of Em as he got up from the sofa, securing his towel again before grabbing the other towel and walking back to the bedroom.

Sitting back up then leaning against the arm of the couch, Karkat cradled Em in his lap and scratched around her ears with a small smirk. More likely than not if one of Dave's friends dropped by, they would strip down as well and call it a naked party. He shook his head at that, then glanced up at the clock. He would have to go in for his shift in another couple of hours. At least Wednesdays tended to be slower.

"What do you think, Em?" He asked as the kitten kneaded his leg contently. She squeaked back at him then rubbed her face against his leg. "Yeah, what do you know, you're just a cat."

Dave returned, still wearing Karkat's sweater, but at least he had a pair of somewhat presentable corduroy pants on to match. He pulled on a pair of socks while sitting on the arm of the sofa. "Don't mock her feline ways, Vantas. If you cross her, she has every right to shit in your shoes. It's cat law."

"She also knows I'm the one that provides the wet food," Karkat reminded him, putting his head back against Dave's side and scratching at his pants. "Corduroy? Really, Strider?"

Dave smirked, "Yes. Yes really. It's cold out there and my thighs are warm, and corduroy is best matched with sweaters. Yeah, and? You're not getting this back until the end of the night." He leaned over to scratch behind Em's ears. "And anyway, it was this, those yoga pants you've already protested, or track pants. I have laundry to do." Laundry that'd be done only when it was down to aforementioned yoga pants.

Karkat rolled his eyes and turned in place, holding Em out then putting her on the side of Dave's leg to hang there as if made of velcro. "You could actually try to do your laundry more than once in a blue fucking moon," he commented, then stood and stretched his arms up over his head with a quiet groan. If Dave was going to take temporary ownership of his sweater, he would have to find something for himself. 

"Well pardon my ass for having to live most of my life without a washer or dryer in my place," Dave said, his fire back, but still not in full force. "We literally only ever did laundry when we needed to. Have you ever had to drag fifty pounds of laundry down, and then back up seventeen flights of stairs, and wait for hours at a laundromat while your shit got washed?" He shook his head, "I honestly think that's got to be something in Hell. That's like, part of the Hell decathlon." 

"So you think, in a modern Alleghieri-style hell, a laundromat is one of the rings. Nice." Snorting quietly, Karkat moved around to Dave's other side and laid a hand on top of his head, dragging his fingers through the unstyled blonde mess then leaning to press his lips to the center of his matesprit's forehead. Then he kissed his lips as well and lingered there for a long moment before straightening back up and going to find himself a set of clothes for the rest of the day. He responded to the kiss in kind, pouting a little that it ended a bit too soon for his own liking, but got up and went to have his first cigarette of the day. He was happy that it was at least warmer than the day before - his nostrils didn't immediately freeze upon contact with the air outside - and he managed to be comfortable without his coat on.

Smiling faintly, Karkat pulled on a pair of thick carpenter's jeans and another turtleneck sweater, dragging his fingers through his hair then letting it flop back down over his forehead. He sat down at the kitchen counter with half a sandwich after looking out to see Dave smoking on the balcony, setting up his husktop to attempt a little more writing for at least one of his classes. He should have spent the morning doing so, but there were more important things to worry about in his opinion.

Dave returned inside and smiled faintly at Karkat's going back to work. Good, that gave him time to start on one of his fifty thousand projects he had to work on. He perched on the chair with the moleskine and the markers, as well as a single very sharp pencil that he used to outline the work he was doing. He started with the outline of the sufferer's cloak, adding a spot for his horns and accents such as the crossed stitches of the hood. He then extended the cape out to look tattered at the back, and started sketching out finer details, the faces of the other major players of the story inside the cape, highly stylized. He gave it a look over and pursed his lips, brows furrowed and then set the sketchbook down to go grab another cup of coffee. "You wouldn't kill me if I put on some grooves, would you?"

Karkat looked up from his husktop when Dave spoke up again, blinking then finally realizing what he'd meant. "Yeah, go ahead," he replied distractedly then went back to his paper, his fingers tapping lightly across the keyboard. He glanced up at the book, smiling faintly at the sketch. He turned it around to be able to look at it right-side-up, trying to imagine what it was going to look like when it was inked and colored. With a quick refill of his coffee, Dave looked over to see Karkat looking at his picture. "I'll be sending a few versions once it's done over to Sollux, probably send some over to Bro, see which ones would appeal better." He shrugged his shoulder and walked past to grab his iPod from the counter and put it into the speaker system on one of the shelves. He chose a playlist and put it on. It was older mellow rock; Dire Straits was the first band that popped on, though the entire thing was populated with artists like Deep Purple, Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton, and Terry Reid. It was a mix that one of his more rock-oriented friends put together for him. It did the work; Dave nodded his head as he sat back down with his coffee.

"So when you head in, let the bossman know I'll probably be back in tomorrow, unless a new wave of bullshit hits."

"He'll be glad to hear about that," Karkat nodded and passed the sketch back, then focused in on his paper again. He had another hour before his shift, and walking to work would only take a small portion of that. The possibility that Dave could actually be fine enough to work the next day was a comforting one, but he also reminded himself that that minor up could come crashing right back down at any time. "I'm thinking about asking him if we might be able to put up a picture in the shop," he said after a little while, saving his school work and starting to shut down his computer.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Of Pete?" He tilted his head, "I think I've got one in my portfolio, but I'm sure he's got one that's better." He shrugged a shoulder and continued to work on the details in the torn cloak. "I'm pretty sure I have a copy of that one in my portfolio though, if you want to bring it with you?" He pointed to the shelf in the corner that had several large three-ring binders full of photos he'd taken. "Fuckin' good luck, all the shit I've ever developed and didn't hate outright has wound up in those." He stacked 'clean those out' onto the ever-increasing pile of to-do.

"I just think it would be nice to give him a memorial or something, y'know? He spent a hell of a lot of time there so I know we're not the only ones that are going to miss seeing him around. If you have a picture you think would work for it see if you can find it between whatever else you had planned for the day." Karkat started to pack his things back to put out of the way on the counter then headed back to the bedroom to grab his coat, pulling it on when he emerged. He stopped just long enough to press a brief kiss to Dave's cheek then flipped him a quick salute on the way out. Dave smiled faintly then looked over at the binders and then down at his sketch, before he decided shit, Sollux wouldn't need this right away, and Karkat would probably want the photo. He felt a gripping despair when he thought about seeing that picture though. He scowled faintly and shook his head. No, he wasn't going to let shit pull him down again. Fuck that.

He spent a couple hours going through the binders, pulling out the copy of the photo of Pete that he'd put in his portfolio, as well as several others of him that he'd taken over the course of the past year and a half, and set them in one pile, before going through and grabbing out all the shittier prints, putting them in another pile to throw away. He then reorganized the photos so he could put up the large stack that had been set beside the binders at a later time. It was then that Cass dropped by and brought over his newly-developed photos and sat around to schmooze. He'd dropped by the cafe earlier and saw no Dave, so he had to make sure things were okay. Things really weren't, and he'd suspected that, which was why he was here.

He stuck around and watched a movie with Dave and was still there when Karkat got home. Dave hadn't gotten any farther on the picture, but he'd had a small stack of Pete photos to choose from, and when he heard the door open, Dave sat up to look over the counter at Karkat. "Yo."

"Sup." Came Cass' greeting from the chair, waving to Karkat. Most times, Karkat tolerated Cass at best, but when he came home to see him there with Dave it was a relief. It meant that Dave hadn't been alone the entire day, and he was pretty sure that if anyone could help get Dave back around into a more positive outlook, it was Cass.

"I see you've decided to start breathing my oxygen again," he teased as he stepped into the kitchen, bending to grab a soda from the bottom shelf.

Cass' reply was, "I could give it back to you if you want." His tone coy as he winked.

"Do either of you actually know what you want to eat or should I assume that you've already fed yourselves with shitty takeout?"

Dave blinked. Had he even eaten all day? At the mention of food, he realized how hungry he was. "We haven't eaten, no," he replied. "There's still stuff Cass made but if you want, there's some beef chunks and frozen veggies and rice and stuff. It'd make a stir-fry I think."

Cass brightened at that, "Yeah, and I know you've got teriyaki sauce, saw it when I rearranged." 

"We have teriyaki sauce?" Dave said, surprised that they had any condiment that wasn't ketchup or mayo in there.

"Yes, Dave, I bought teriyaki the last time I went grocery shopping. I also picked up hoisin sauce for a couple of different things I wanted to try later on." He started talking about his day at the cafe as he moved around the kitchen, pulling down things and filling a pot with water for rice (mentioning at one point that an actual rice cooker would be something to look into). He cringed when he mentioned a tweaker that had wandered in off the street and had gone into convulsions over his muffin and had to be taken to the hospital. A lot had happened that day after Cass had dropped in. Cass slipped closer to watch Karkat cook, and stayed silent, liking watching others cook.

Dave's brows shot high. "Holy shit, you're fucking joking. That's crazy. At least he was alive when he left the cafe, right? Jesus fuck, that's...yeesh." He shook his head. "That's messed up." He stood from his place on the sofa and hopped up onto the counter across from the stove, out of Karkat's way. "I cleaned out my binders, and then chodeface here came over and we've been shooting the shit ever since. I didn't even know time had gone so quick." He felt the day was dragging, personally. "Got a few messages from the other assholes. Sollux got his lines from Rose and has been practicing them. If I only had the fuckin' video."

"How much do you wanna bet he's practiced his shit for your brother," Karkat snorted, looking back over his shoulder at Dave before starting to cut a couple of fresh vegetables to toss in with the frozen ones, oil starting to warm up in the pan beside him. He hadn't seen the script past the first draft that Dave had had him go over, and he was still worried about Sollux's lines. "Did she at least cut out some of the S's so that the lisp wouldn't get in the way of the delivery?" He asked, putting a pile of the thin-sliced onions into the pan with the frozen vegetable mix and pushing them around some with a spatula.

"You _know_ she did. She managed to somehow completely circumvent s-sounds for the majority of his lines, minus his necessary speech about the Signless." He wrinkled his nose, knowing that would be something he'd have to mess with, or manage to somehow cure his friend's lifelong lisp in a matter of months. "I emailed you your copy, your lines are in red, bluh bluh, you know the drill."

Cass stood at that, "I'll see you two later. Take care of him, Karkat," he said, waving as he grabbed his coat and started out the door. Karkat looked back around as Cass started out, having been under the impression that he would be staying to eat. Now there would be extra left over, but they could always refrigerate that to finish off later. He waved some with the spatula, then turned back to Dave.

"I haven't been able to go over my lines just yet, but I can do that tonight or tomorrow. I have class in the morning but then an hour and a half between lectures. Hell, if you're up for it, we might be able to visit with Ferrus and set up whatever you're thinking of doing with the whole music thing."

"Music? Oh shit, yeah, I'll need tons of that. I was actually going to go with some free use stuff, but original shit would be fucking ace as hell." He felt his stomach growl and he shook his head. "Remind me to eat once in a while, holy shit. I was too damn caught up in my shit that I completely spaced it." Dave stood and started into the kitchen with the mugs that had been left around over the course of the day - all his doing - and put them in the dishwasher, when his phone buzzed with a text. "Ugh god," he muttered and picked it up, to see who did the thing. It was Bro, telling him to check his email, telling him to tell Karkat to do the same. "Bro emailed you, dude."

"Why the fuck would he be emailing me? I'm busy right now." He flipped the vegetables some in their oil, then started to add splashes of cooking wine to keep it from drying out and put a lid over it. "Can't you just open yours and read to me what's there or are they supposed to be two completely different messages?"

"Probably the same thing," Dave said as he pulled his laptop up to the counter and waited for it to load before loading up Bro's email, which was a video. He turned it slightly so Karkat could watch as well, and started the video. Bro was reading the other lines in a flat tone, prompting for Sollux to read his. Dave was trying really hard to take this seriously, but Sollux's griping in between lines was making him laugh. "Wow. He's, um. Really something."

Karkat watched with his arms crossed, snorting as Sollux more or less got his lines but delivered them as if he'd rather be doing anything else at that point in time. He wanted to slap both Sollux and the elder Strider upside the backs of their heads for being stupid about this, but he realized that for now they could afford to. It was when it would actually come down to filming that they would have to keep themselves serious. Having Bro around for the process was more or less a given now that Sollux was really involved. "Well, at least he's actually trying?"

Dave was still chuckling, "Wow, that was some acting on par with Tommy Wiseau. Jesus, Bro is terrible at this, too." He wrote back with a "thanks for keeping him on task," and sent the reply. "Yeah, it's good he's actually working on this. I still can't believe that those two are hanging out and shit. I mean, even online, that's still hanging out. Being...weird and shit." He pursed his lips to try and keep from chuckling a little more. "That was fucking awful, oh fuck."

"You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" Karkat yelled and clutched at Dave's arm as he let himself go limp.

Dave cracked up again at Karkat's spot on impression. "Oh holy shit," he said, trying to catch his breath, his eyes tearing up again a little from laughing so much. Karkat remained hanging there and staring up at Dave a few seconds longer, then shook his head.

"Who the fuck would have thought, these two actually fucking getting along. At best I thought they would just tolerate each other while they made fucktons of money but this is just. I don't know. What the hell, man." Shaking his head, Karkat turned back to the stove to get back to dinner, starting to add a little of the sauce at a time and stirring it in then turning down the heat on the rice before it could overboil.

"Okay, fuck," Dave said with a deep breath, "yeah, I don't fuckin' know. Might be that they're both the same kind of fucking batshit? I can't even imagine what the hell those two even talk about." He snorted, "Not girls, that's for sure." He looked down at the pan of food and then back at Karkat. "That smells like the heavenly lifeforce of all things good and pure."

"Or you're just that hungry." Smirking faintly, Karkat turned the heat down on the stir fry and grabbed a couple of plates, loading them with food and putting them on the counter then taking out a soda for each of them. He stood and leaned over his plate, breathing the steam contently. "How much do you wanna bet they talk about us?"

"Sucker bet; we're totally awesome. It's an inevitability to talk about us." Dave immediately started to eat, groaning happily at the first few bites. "Christalmighty, I really needed this." He was so glad that Karkat had made something to eat as soon as he came home. He hadn't even known how hungry he'd been. "Once everyone's here, I'm just going to be too goddamn distracted by how everyone interacts. It's going to be a circus around here once we get the girls out and Sollux. I dunno if Bro's comin' up, he's usually so busy with everything, and it's not like I'd have anything for him to keep himself occupied."

"He'd probably keep himself entertained fucking with everyone else," Karkat shrugged, blowing on his first bite before popping it into his mouth. He hadn't realized until just then how hungry he actually was either until just then and he gave a quiet, contented hum as he took a larger bite. "He'll probably enjoy Rose's company, taking turns being sarcastic at each other."

Dave's eyes went a little wide at that. "I think I just crapped myself at the implications of those two actually meeting. Man, I should've fuckin' known before Egbert ectobiologically made the other kids that we were related. They're practically the same fucking kind of weird." He shook his head. "You know that look she gets? That judging, sneaky look? Yeah. Yeah, totally got that from Bro." He idly wondered what kind of things he and Mom had in common as he kept eating.

"This is going to be so much fun," Karkat muttered, rolling his eyes some then digging back into his meal. The smalltalk dwindled off as the meal was demolished, then the dishes rinsed and put in the dishwasher with the various mugs. The leftovers were put in their own tupperware and stacked together in the fridge to be eaten for lunch the next day if either of them remembered. When he was done fussing around the kitchen, Karkat pressed his hands into the small of his back then circled around Dave, pressing his lips to the back of his matesprit's neck then heading down the hall with the hopes of taking a shower before throwing himself back into schoolwork.

With a browarch, Dave turned to watch Karkat go, and he caught the corner of his lip with his teeth, considering following along. Nah, Karkat probably wanted to just wash up and get back to the crazy amount of work he had to do for his classes. He sighed a little, and rubbed his upper arm momentarily, before he poured the dregs of the coffee out of the pot and turned the coffee maker off. Karkat didn't take long in the shower, mostly just rinsing off the day and scrubbing at his hair then barely bothering to dry it when he got back out again. He pulled on one of Dave's tanktops and a pair of pajama pants when he came back to grab his husktop and sit down on the couch to do his homework comfortably. He was tired and it was obvious by how much he started to yawn not too far into it that he wanted to sleep, but trying to help Dave had meant that his assignments needed extra catching up.

Dave was working on his own schoolwork that he had to make up for. He looked up once Karkat started yawning and poked him in the leg with his toes. "Go to bed, jackass." He knew that Karkat had a lot to work on, but it was near impossible to type a coherent report when your eyes were closing on you. "You'll have time tomorrow to work on it."

"Never," Karkat muttered, rubbing his hands into his eyes and focusing back in on the assignment, which was quickly becoming one of the most horrendously dull things he'd ever had to write. He changed how he was sitting and propped the computer up on top of his knees, slouching down against the arm of the couch to continue. Not ten minutes later, his head fell back and a gentle snore disturbed the silence.

"Fuckin' thickheaded dolt," murmured Dave as he set his laptop down to slip up to his feet. He carefully removed the husktop from Karkat's lap as well and set it aside on the table, crouching down to see what he was doing. He saved the word file everything else before shutting the top. He looked around the room and then turned off the light, and only once there were no other reasons or excuses for Karkat to make to stay up, he rolled his shoulders, and even though he was still stiff and sore, he picked up his matesprit very slowly and gently, to bring him back to bed. Karkat pulled the blankets up to his nose as he fell into a deeper sleep, muttering near inaudibly at Dave then finally falling silent. He slept deeply, the sleep of one who'd been stretched just a little too thin and finally felt easy enough to rest.

Come morning, it was decided that Dave take one more day off, just in case something happened that would trigger a backslide. He seemed to be feeling a lot better, but all things considered, this was safer for now. They would both have to work another day's overtime for it, but that would be easy enough. Karkat was off to his first class, getting a text on the way there informing him that he would not, in fact, be meeting with Ferrus that day. Something about an appointment that couldn't be missed for anything. The message was forwarded to Dave so that he'd know he could stay home instead of meeting on-campus.

The work shift ran long that evening as well, prompting another text to Dave that told him to warm up the leftover stir fry. He would be home late, that was all he really said. There was no specified time.

During that day, Dave had worked on the promo art, which came easily to him now that his depression was subsiding and letting him finally work on the more aesthetic things. He grabbed the scanner out of his closet and scanned the art he'd done, and sent it off to Karkat with the promise that it'd be finished ASAP.

Once he got the text from Karkat at the cafe in the evening, he shrugged and looked over his shoulder into the kitchen. Damn, he didn't get the time Karkat was planning on getting there. He checked the time and decided to toss the food in the microwave, just in case it was anytime soon. It wouldn't ruin the food to be nuked twice if it was longer. 

He put his headphones on when he got back to the sofa and put his mp3 player on random so he could let himself relax for the last few minutes of alone time, and let his mind wander. 

It didn't take long for his mind to find a destination. He'd been severely lacking any play as of late. They had shitty schedules that kept sex from really being anything but a rare commodity since they got back from vacation. His lips twitched faintly upwards as he remembered the way they wound up fucking with Terezi in the next room. Jesus fuck, that shouldn't have been nearly as hot as it was, he thought. He decided, y'know what? Fuck it, there wasn't going to be a chance to get Karkat tonight, with the hectic schedule he'd been keeping, and he wasn't there, so. Dave pushed his track pants down with a rough scratch of his nails down his hips, raking against the skin. He wrapped his hand around his dick and worked himself into full erection easily, biting the corner of his lip as he started a steady rhythm. He knew he wanted to mess with his new piercings but that was disallowed - which sucked so many flavors of dick at that point - so he simply moved his hand down to play with his balls. He wasn't very gentle with himself, needing that kind of roughness to get off quickly.

By the time Karkat came home it was obvious the day had been long, but without the frustrations of the previous one at least. He moved quietly in case Dave was concentrating on some project, or else sleeping. He paused when he stepped in and the light was still on, opening his mouth to call out and ask where Dave was in the apartment, until he finally spotted the tuft of blonde over the back of the couch. He put his bags down on the floor and crept forward to see if Dave had dozed off until he realized that he was moving. Then the sound reached his ears. With a quick glance at the headphones Dave was sporting, Karkat smirked faintly and made his slow way around the couch to take in the sight. Eyes closed, hands occupied, outside noise blocked out by music...

Slipping his coat off his shoulders, Karkat lowered himself to his knees just in front of Dave, keeping one eye on him as he leaned up to let a warm breath against his matesprit's skin then bowed his head to bite down on an exposed thigh. The sudden gust made his breath hitch, and his eyes flutter open, just in time to see Karkat there, about to bite. He let out a low groan, hand going to Karkat's shoulder. "Oh no you caught me." He squeezed his matesprit's shoulder before pulling out an earbud and letting go of his dick. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what was going to happen next. He'd never been caught before. This was new.

"You're about as subtle as a brick to the temple," Karkat muttered, smirking then pressing his lips to the spot instead. He rocked up onto his knees and looked up at Dave as if he expected him to stop him as he dragged his tongue over the head of the erection in front of his face.

He had thought stopping him until he felt Karkat's tongue against him and he groaned. "Yeah well, wasn't planning on having you home as soon as all that, and it's not like I was thinking about keeping you up all night." Hells yes he was. He was thinking about dragging Karkat away from his husktop and tying him down and getting him off so many times he'd be dehydrated. He moved his hand back down to Karkat's shoulder. "If you leave even a little scratch, you're gonna regret it."

"Really." That was Karkat's only response before he eased down the waistband of Dave's pants and slowly, neatly sank his teeth into the inside of the other's thigh, just as he'd intended to do in the first place. He sucked a huge purple hickey into the pale skin then lifted back up to see just what his retribution would be.

Dave groaned loud, gripping the back of the sofa tight with one hand as his other went down into Karkat's hair, tugging gently. He sat up once Karkat bore off and pulled his matesprit into a rough kiss. He let go only once he needed to breathe. "You're so wrecked, Vantas," he muttered against his lips, as he worked Karkat's shirt up. "I was just going to let you get back to work on school shit, but now you're completely fucked."

"Is that so," Karkat hissed against his mouth then lifted his arms to let his shirt slide up and off, shoving it to the ground as he crawled into Dave's lap. His fingers twisted into the other's hair and pulled his head back, his mouth latching to the front of Dave's throat and sucking a moist path down to his collarbones. He wouldn't readily admit it, but he needed this. After as long as they'd both gone without, it was all Karkat could do to keep from simply mounting him right then. Dave gasped as he tilted his head back and put his hands against Karkat's sides, squeezing firmly before working one inward to undo his fly.

"Yep. Utterly boned. Probably all night if you can stay up that long," he huffed. He tugged the zipper down and pushed Karkat's pants down as best he could, before simply moving his hand down into them, brushing his fingers roughly against his bulge sheath.

"I don't have class until later in the morning so I think I can handle whatever the fuck you want from me," Karkat growled as his hips pushed forward into Dave's hand, his bulge slipping out without hesitation to twist around his fingers. He pushed his lips hard against Dave's and invaded his mouth in a rough, rather messy kiss that only ended when they both needed to come up for air.

"Good," was his groaned answer as he worked his fingers against Karkat's bulge and pushed into the kiss with another low groan. Once they broke the kiss, Dave nipped Karkat's jaw and murmured, "I want you to tie me down," before brushing his lips against his matesprit's neck and continued, "and completely take advantage of that. Do anything you've wanted." The smirk that came onto his face was downright dark. The look Karkat gave him was something close to drugged, his pupils dilated until the irises were simply a thin ring of red. He dragged his fingers down the sides of Dave's neck then hooked them to claw into his chest through his shirt. He slipped backward off of Dave's lap with one hand wrapped in the cloth, pulling him after then dragging him in the direction of the bedroom. He would have been fine with doing it on the couch, except there were no convenient places to tie anything to. When the door had been closed behind them to keep the kitten out, Dave was shoved off while Karkat dug for the toy box, tossing a couple of things onto the bed then stripping out of his jeans and boxers and leaving them there on the floor.

"On your back," he said quietly, the command in his voice clear.

The sting of the scratches and the look Karkat gave him were enough to send his heart pounding in his chest. Dave came along without protest, shedding his pants at the sofa and pulled out of his shirt, tossing it aside before dutifully slipping onto the bed and laying down. He chewed lightly at the corner of his lip as he watched Karkat silently, looking him over and truly just admiring the sight. Karkat was holding the spreader bar in one hand, letting it turn deftly between his fingers for a moment before putting it down on the foot of the bed. He crawled up over Dave with a pair of cuffs in one hand, a blindfold in the other. He worked quickly to secure Dave's hands up over his head, looping the chain around the bars of the headboard in such a way to keep him from moving much at all. He looked his matesprit in the face on the off-chance he would see any apprehension. They hadn't established a safeword after all, but then he reminded himself that 'stop' was a pretty good safeword in itself. He pressed his lips to the center of Dave's forehead, then tied the blindfold into place.

"Make as much noise as you want," he murmured, then kissed his way down the center of the other's chest, lamenting that he couldn't do anything with his nipples given how fresh the piercings were. Dave tested the give on the cuffs, but didn't get far and that was more than fine. He smiled briefly at the kiss to his forehead, and he tilted his head forward to give Karkat room to work the blindfold on. However much he liked to watch Karkat move, and how visually oriented he was, this was a welcome, if not just the slightest bit disorienting, change. He arched faintly, letting out a content little murmur.

"When do I ever shut up?" He joked, his voice pitched lower than usual, and just the slightest bit rougher.

Karkat just chuckled quietly at that and made a point to drag his tongue as close to one of the nipples as he dared before drawing away again. He moved carefully and pushed his way between Dave's legs, kissing the rather painful-looking bite mark then making another one to match on the other thigh, Dave giving a short, loud moan at the sensation. Karkat licked his lips when it was done and leaned in to brush up against the erection lying against Dave's hip before sitting back up and extending the spreader to a comfortable width. It was secured to each of Dave's ankles, then tied to the footboard of the bed by the same scarf that Dave had tried to tie his hands with. When it was done he crawled off the bed, moving quietly around the room until he'd found Dave's iPod to put into its dock. He flipped it to an ambient station, nodding in approval as the first thing he heard was Telefon Tel Aviv.

With an uneasy gasp, Dave arched at Karkat's tongue so close to his still-healing piercing, though he chuckled quietly once he slipped away, enjoying how close his matesprit was, and how warm his skin was. Once his legs were secured - which he also tested just enough to see how much give he had out of curiosity - he wondered what Karkat was up to. The sound of the music made one corner of his lip twitch up for a split second. He liked this song. "Heh. Have this entire album."

"Doesn't surprise me," Karkat replied quietly then crawled back into bed, sitting on his knees between Dave's legs. He ran his hand over the skin, fingering an old strife scar lovingly. He scratched a nail over the skin light enough to register as a tickle. His tongue dragged over the space just above the other's groin only to be replaced by the points of his teeth. "I bet I could get you to come without touching your dick again," he mused, then squeezed down in a gentle grip on his balls.

Dave let out a content breath at the touch and tease. "Doubt it. Might get me begging though," Dave said, just before he let a groan out and his hips rocked slightly. He flexed his arms faintly to get them more comfortable in their position.

"We'll see." Karkat's lips pressed in a haphazard pattern around Dave's stomach, lapping some at his skin while one hand continued to squeeze and rub over his balls. The whereabouts of the other hand became apparent soon after as the air began to take on a sweet scent. The focus wouldn't remain there though, as the scarf was loosened and Dave's knees lifted up until the whole of him was exposed. A round, soft plasticine thing touched the pucker of his ass, slick and warm as it just barely breached the opening. "Your only job here is to tell me if something hurts."

The scent that came into the air managed to work him up further, and Dave's ears went red as he brought his legs up to whatever position Karkat wanted them. At the sensation of something against his ass, he gasped sharply again, not expecting that by any means, though he relaxed after the surprise. He nodded to Karkat, murmuring, "you'll know if it does," because he'd probably wind up using the bar to knock Karkat onto the floor with a reflexive kick. However, he wasn't exactly new to this, either. He bought that particular toy specifically because his finger wasn't really doing the trick. It was eased forward until the bulb of the egg was flush with the opening, then worked some against the muscle, tilted gently to feel out where Dave's prostate would be. On an anatomical chart it was easy enough to locate, but in reality he was more or less shooting blindly. He slipped the toy in until finally all he could see was the base handle, then settled himself down and stretched his legs out under Dave's so close that their hips were nearly socked together. The end of Karkat's bulge was twisting slowly around his fingers until it was eventually guided to wrap around his matesprit's testicles in a tight, hot squeeze. With a loud moan of "Jesus fuck," Dave rocked down against the egg, his lips parted as he took shallow breaths, Dave felt the toy finally pull in. He wasn't expecting what Karkat had done next, either, and he shuddered another faint noise, pulling at the cuffs in a vain attempt to wrap his arms around Karkat before huffing in amusement. Oh yeah. Those. He tilted his head up as his hips rocked into the heat and then down to subtly move the base of the egg inside him, giving another near-whisper of a moan.

Karkat watched him squirm for a few moments before pulling his bulge back crawling over the top of Dave' body before settling down at his chest. He ran his fingers over the other's lips lightly then dipped them into his mouth briefly. "How is it?" He asked quietly, knowing the answer but wanting to hear Dave try to form a coherent thought. There was a moment between Karkat's question and his thickly spoken response, as he was too preoccupied with Karkat's fingertips to really say anything. He traced a firm line against his matesprit's fingertip with the tip of his tongue, then murmured, "A little thicker than I thought." That was by no means an an objection to the toy. "Rest of it is good, too." He was a little upset that he couldn't put his hands all over his matesprit right then, but that was part of the fun, really. He just wanted very much to touch something.

The smile was evident in Karkat's voice as he bent to peck at Dave's lips, light and teasing and barely there then moving down his neck and up under his jaw. He worried at Dave's earlobe for a few seconds, then sat back up, straddled across his matesprit's shoulders. His bulge had started to retreat by now, so one hand had dipped between his legs to find that one spot that would bring it back out and make him begin to drip over Dave's neck. He'd tried to respond to the kiss in kind and was left with nothing but air by the time he did, and then huffed, tilting his head for Karkat to have better access When Karkat repositioned, he knew well enough where he was and caught the scent of his matesprit's fluid before it dripped down onto him, hot and slick. He didn't make a move, though it was obvious that he wanted to, the corners of his lips twitching upward into a smile. "Don't tease, Karkat," he murmured. "C'mon."

"You're not really in a position to argue with anything," Karkat pointed out, but slipped forward just enough to position himself over Dave's mouth, one hand dragging through the other's hair and scratching at his scalp affectionately.

"No?" Dave asked before he arched his head up that fraction of an inch to make contact, blindly mapping out where he was with his tongue and mouth, before getting his bearings and immediately going straight to those points he'd found that had made his matesprit buckle over the last time. He flexed his hands in the cuffs and groaned through his nose, happy to show off for the time. Karkat's hands planted against the wall behind the bed as his hips rocked forward into the sensation, his mouth falling open in a quiet gasp. His nails scratched some at the wallpaper then curled in to cut into his palms instead. His bulge had curled downward toward the heat source that was Dave's mouth, pushing in to play around his tongue. "I hope you realize...this isn't going to be over for a long- Ah! Long time..." He intended to keep Dave there, finding creative ways to get off together until neither of them could move.

With a muffled murmur in the affirmative, Dave pulled his tongue back briefly, coaxing Karkat's bulge into his mouth further before tangling with it and wrapping his lips around and sucking, putting pressure on it with the roof of his mouth and flat of his tongue, the ball of his piercing pushing up into a place he knew was particularly sensitive. He swallowed the fluid that dripped into his mouth, and pulled at the cuffs again when he wanted to put his hands on Karkat's hips and pull him closer, the chain clattering behind his head.

Karkat let out a quiet, amused sound at the chain rattling below him, wondering just how long it would take before Dave actually asked him to undo the cuffs. He bit hard on the inside of his lip when the other's tongue rode up against that one almost painfully sensitive spot, his hips bucking as his arms pressed flat against the wall to keep him from falling forward. He made a wordless, hushed sound, trying to make Dave work for anything more.

Once Karkat bucked forward, Dave took the opportunity presented to him to tilt his head forward just enough to bring more of Karkat's bulge into his mouth, careful to not let it snake itself deep into his throat and, instead, to curl and writhe against his tongue as he found another sensitive point to tease against with his piercing, rolling the bar across the side. He wasn't going to ask to be let free for a while, and certainly couldn't, not with the way his mouth was occupied.

Karkat whined quietly as he squirmed some in place, most of his weight falling against the wall. He was already getting close to his peak, between Dave's ministrations and how long he'd waited for Dave to recover in between his own schedule. One hand curled back into Dave's hair and squeezed down in warning. Dave's sucking abated in lieu of letting his jaw go slack, continuing to tease Karkat's bulge against the roof of his mouth and tongue. He rolled the sides of his tongue against his matesprit's bulge and rocked his own hips, letting out a huff through his nose as he managed to rock the base of the toy against the mattress and bring it against his prostate momentarily. Karkat huffed then took a deep breath through his nose as the building orgasm backed off just enough, his bulge starting to ache some as a result. He drew back and wrapped his fingers around the base of it, twisting it around his fingers and bending to fish for the bucket then leaving it to one side as he settled back over Dave's mouth. "A little more...come on."

Smiling faintly before he arched forward to bring Karkat's bulge back into his mouth and coaxing it in with his tongue, Dave flexed his hands again. He let out a low groan that reverberated through his mouth, which was something he had yet to do with Karkat. He redoubled his efforts with absolutely no intention of letting Karkat do anything but lose his cool. He may have been the one bound, but Dave knew he had Karkat under his control, if just briefly. Karkat let a high, slightly breathless sound at that, his eyes slipping closed as his hips bucked once more on reflex, genetic material starting to leak heavily until finally it was safer for Karkat just to pull back, manipulating himself with his fingers until he finally released the pent load in a few hard pulses. He kept one hand against the wall as he did then let it slip away when it had finished. The bucket was put back down on the floor for the time being as the air filled with the sweet, syrupy scent. He sat back against Dave's chest for a few moments before moving a bit awkwardly until once more he was between the other's legs. He readjusted the toy a bit, fiddling with it for a bit then clicking a button that sent vibrations up through the plug, against Dave's prostate when it was adjusted just right. The improvised vibe wasn't as strong as a regular toy, but he didn't see anything else that could rightfully be used as such. A buzzing cockring around the base of the plug would have to do for now.

Dave let the genetic material spill out of his mouth once it got to a point where he couldn't swallow it all down fast enough, glad that Karkat pulled away when he did. By that time, the blindfold had slipped up enough where he could see Karkat with one eye and he smirked a little, his neck and chin covered in fluid. But once the buzzing started, Karkat had won again and it made Dave drop his head back with a sharp breath. When Karkat tilted it, however, that made Dave hiss, "holy fucking shit," and squirm down against it. "You're going to drive me fuckin' crazy before you get me off that way, just... fucking christ, do something." So it wasn't begging, but it was close. Dave chewed at the corner of his lip, brow furrowed under the blindfold as he tried to rock his hips down against the toy again. Karkat gave a small, triumphant little laugh as he watched Dave writhe, licking his lips then leaning down between his legs to kiss, lick, bite suck everywhere but where he wanted. He kept one hand on the base of the toy, working and moving it slowly inside of the other's body, the other resting against his hip and teasing his thumb over the base of his cock every now and then. Dave was starting to lose it, and that was when he was the most fun to toy with.

With increasingly sharp breaths and groans, Dave pulled at the cuffs again, more to keep himself focused than anything. He didn't want to relent to Karkat, although his body was gradually convincing him that yeah, he did. He gasped once again once Karkat angled the toy just right, and rocked down against it. He grit his teeth around a faint plead to his matesprit, his ears gone red again. "C'mon, Karkat, I wouldn't do this to you," he murmured.

"Yeah, ok," Karkat replied sarcastically and thumbed the switch on the ring to up the vibrations, though now it was at its highest setting so if it wasn't enough there wasn't much else he could do with it. He angled the plug to press into the spot that seemed to make Dave react the hardest, wiggling it back and forth minutely. He reached one hand up to drag a fingertip around a nipple, nudging gently against the piercing. Dave grit his teeth against an altogether undignified keening sound, his cheeks gone red as well as he felt himself creep up closer to his release. He tipped his head to the side and was nearly panting as he continued to rock his hips down. What few faculties he had moments prior had left him altogether, and he just hoped that Karkat knew better than to stop anything he was doing, or to slow down.

Once he'd found his rhythm, Karkat shifted himself upward to start teasing at Dave's chest with his mouth, one hand creeping up between them and hooking to leave dark, stinging scratches down his side, very nearly breaking the skin. He kept an eye on his matesprit's expression and used it as a guide for every move even after the blindfold had loosened and fallen off. Dave's eyes had shut tightly a while ago, but with the scratches to his side, they snapped open and he moaned loudly, his brows creased close together as he blindly looked forward, nearly at his peak, but never close enough.

"Karkat," he groaned. "Please." It was to the point where it was getting obnoxious how much he just wanted to get off. Karkat rocked up onto his knees and lifted himself up onto his free hand as the other started to move just a little harder, faster, keeping that pressure on Dave's sweetspot. He craned his neck to kiss and mouth along the shelf of Dave's jaw, nosing against his cheek then taking his lips, biting on the lower one. He slipped his knee up to keep a steady pressure on the toy while the other hand wrapped around his balls then squeezed down and tugged until the skin was straining. His orgasm snuck up on him, and once it hit, Dave groaned loud into the kiss, his body tensing under Karkat and his own come splattering against his stomach. Dave couldn't remember the last time he'd been so fucking _grateful_ that he came. Once he'd come down from the brief endorphin high, he drew out of the kiss and looked into Karkat's eyes, smirking faintly. "I can't feel my left arm," he decided to say, instead of anything else.

Karkat sat up and wiped the thin film of semen off his side where it'd splattered, flicking it off his hand then glancing up at Dave's hand. "Well yeah, you kept pulling on it until you fucked up the blood circulation," he snorted then reached up to undo the cuffs, unwinding them from the headboard. He ruffled a hand through Dave's hair then reached down to turn off the vibe, easing the plug back out and setting it aside. It wouldn't be going back into the box until it was cleaned. Then he grinned toothily and looked back at Dave. "Told you I could get you to come without doing anything to your dick."

Dave dropped his arms down and sighed merrily as he felt the circulation come back into his arm, rubbing his wrists where the cuffs had left clear red lines. "Yeah, you said that. Drove me up a wall, too, but you did." He sat up and reached down to the side of the bed to grab a towel so he could wipe himself off, as well as the drops that had gotten onto the bedding. He wiped his neck and his jaw as well, getting the little bit of fluid that was still on them, although a good portion of it had dried. He pulled Karkat close to him after he tossed the towel aside, and kissed him firmly. "Time to eat?" He suggested against his matesprit's lips, nudging Karkat's nose with his own. Karkat draped his arms around Dave's neck and returned the kiss then nuzzled against his cheek, smiling contently. He nodded then turned to take the bar from between Dave's ankles and put it on the floor. They could easily go again after they'd eaten.

"I'm guessing you already got out the leftovers?" He murmured against Dave's cheek before standing and stretching, then fetching something from his school bag. He picked out a small package, then from that took a towelette with which to scrub the red still dried on Dave's cheeks. He sat still as Karkat cleaned his face, putting his hand over his matesprit's side. "Yeah, it's in the microwave. Enough for one. I can grab a sandwich." He looked over at Karkat with a tiny smile as he pulled one leg up to rub his ankle. "Don't forget to drink some water with it," he reminded. Once Karkat was done fussing over him, Dave stood and wandered into the living room to retrieve his pants and put them on. "I sent you the rough art in your email. Sent it to Sollux too. As soon as I can, I'll fuck around with it in photoshop, see what I can make of it."

"Do you even have a working title yet?" He asked as he pulled his boxers back on, grabbing an oversized sweater out of the closet to pull on over them then crossing his arms as he followed back out to the kitchen.

"Pff, no." Dave shrugged as he pulled out the stuff to make his sandwich. "I mean, I've been calling it 'Equalizer' in my head, but that's a dumbass title." He thought about it, and remembered calling it that to Sollux at least once on accident, and wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah, no. I'm not playing the main character in something called 'Equalizer'," Karkat shook his head then set the leftover stir fry in the microwave to reheat, then sat up on the counter under the microwave. He reached out one foot and kicked at Dave's ass just for thinking it. "Ask Rose for suggestions."

"It'd wind up with some ridiculous Fall Out Boy title or some shit. Or like. Blood Wizard." Dave shook his head. "Honestly, it doesn't need a title this early in. Once we get everyone together, I'll have thought up something that isn't 'How the fuck is this guy an alternate Kankri?' and we'll all be fine." He started making his sandwich. "I'll never stop hating that guy."

"Take pride in the fact that you were apparently the only one to ever actually make him shut up," Karkat replied then hopped down to grab his food out of the microwave, stirring it around with his fork then grabbing for his husktop in the hopes of getting something done while he was eating at least.

"When some douchebag talks more than _me_? That's fucked up beyond all realms of belief. I mean, come the fuck on. Nothing he ever fucking said was even _interesting._ Loquacious SJ fuckers need to not." Dave pointed the top of the ketchup bottle at Karkat. "I'll tell you something, dude, if he just eased up on talking about micro-aggressions and privilege, I _might_ have given a shit. But holy fuck."

"I'm sure there was _something_ interesting or relevant in there somewhere. The problem is how fucking much he let his mouth completely fucking overload and then whenever someone actually attempted to address issues that he had missed he just completely fucking dismissed them and claimed they weren't worth his time. His brand of social justice was completely selfish and comprised of bullshit logic. How he ended up becoming the Signless I'll never fucking know. But it's not like personality was perfectly preserved when they hit the Scratch." Shrugging a shoulder, Karkat flipped open his husktop and started to tap on his project with his fork sticking out of his mouth.

"That's the thing," Dave said as he finished making his sandwich, flipping his hair out of his face before taking a bite, "Jake and all them seemed to be pretty par for course with our guardians. I mean, from what I know. It makes me wonder why they didn't get as fuckered up as your ancestors did with the scratch. Maybe I'm just overthinking shit again, Iunno. But man, it'd be fuckin' crazy to think that Jabberjaw McCarbon Copy ever gained followers with a boring approach to mouthwords like that." He slipped around to wrap his arm around Karkat's waist, resting his chin against his matesprit's shoulder. "If I have to carry you to bed again tonight, you're going to spend all weekend bereft of the ability to do homework." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and slipped away again to drop himself down on the sofa.

"I guess he managed to actually grow up and learn a little about what he was preaching." Taking the fork out of his mouth, Karkat leaned the side of his head against Dave's until he moved away then simply rolled his eyes as he got back to work. "That's why I'm sitting up here instead of in there, genius. If I fall asleep in here I'll end up falling off the fucking stool."

"Didn't seem to stop you last night," Dave pointed out with a wag of his sandwich in Karkat's general direction. "I mean it, Vantas, you are no longer allowed to do homework after one AM unless it's midterms or finals." He tapped at his phone and finished off his sandwich in silence.

"But it is midterms. Like next fucking week," Karkat reminded him but put his chin on his hand and shut his laptop, letting it go into hibernation."Did you actually manage to forget that we're halfway through the damn semester?"

"Yep, I completely forgot that I have roughly five hundred hours of shit to do in just under sixty-four." Dave said with a browarch. "And guess what, that's _next week_." He looked at the clock at that, and his brow furrowed heavily. "Wait, what time did you get home?" No later than 9:45, he figured. It was only 10:17. That couldn't be fucking right. There was no way.

"Right around 9:30 I think, why?" Karkat turned in place to glance up to the clock as well, eyebrow arching some. "Huh. Anyway, since it's next week and you have a skrillion fucking ours of work to do, shouldn't you actually try to get a start on that so you're completely fucked by the time it's actually due?"

"Maybe if you promise not to work _your_ fucking thickheaded brain into melting out your goddamn ears, sure." He grabbed his laptop and pulled up his papers he had to write. "Honestly, just give me some of that motivation you've got. I seem to need it more than you do." He curled his legs under him and pursed his lips, not entirely sure why he put off writing all these relatively easy peasy things.

"How about every time I actually start working, you get out your shit and do the same. Keep pace or whatever. I swear you'll get a hell of a lot more done and end up not cramming yourself to death in the last two days leading up to midterms." It was sound logic to him, at least.

"Because at least two of my courses aren't sit-down-and-grind kind of things, is why." He stopped arguing at that, and got to work. He was silent, and only got up once to go to the bathroom. He finished two papers that he'd started who-knows-how-long-ago, before looking up at Karkat with a small smile. Yeah, this was all right, just so long as Karkat was awake with him. He continued to work, scratching his head when he got stumped for a word that he wanted to use, and then usually just going and using a similar word. A few hours later Karkat finally gave up on his writing, having stopped looking back at the clock in favor of focusing himself entirely on his classwork. He slipped off the stool to stretch his legs and grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator, shaking it after pouring a packet of flavoring into it. He walked around the back of the couch to lean over Dave and peek at whatever he was working on at the time, his chin propped on his matesprit's head. Dave was about 200 words away from finishing up another paper, and he smiled as Karkat leaned against him, moving his hand away from the keyboard to put it over Karkat's. "Hey. Almost done, just gotta finish this one up." He had been writing a paper on the impact that the advent of television had on the entertainment industry as a whole, and how it managed to bolster the economy in a Post-War America. His paper was well-worded, albeit a little dry on delivery. "Sometimes I wonder why we put forth all this effort when you know our professors don't actually read half this shit."

"They have websites around that actually go through and scan your work for plagiarized bits. So really nobody actually reads your shit but you," Karkat commented, then yawned widely and put his chin down against Dave's shoulder and glanced at the clock in the corner of the monitor. Then he looked back up at the clock on the wall, then back to the laptop. Apparently time had been dragging that slowly? Or he'd just completed a huge amount of work in a single hour.

"Yeah, well, at least it's done." He rubbed his face and saved the paper, sending it off to his professor. "They can eat my ass if they think I give half a shit about what I just wrote, too." He looked over at Karkat with a smile. "What? You look like the wall grew a set of tits." Dave pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and set his laptop down.

Karkat shook his head and straightened back up, then crawled over the back of the couch to settle down beside Dave and lean against his side. "So apparently we _still_ have an entire fucking night with which to do fuck-all," he commented, putting his head back on Dave's shoulder.

"Yeah. I dunno man, we could watch a movie, or get back to what we were doing before we called time-out for food?" He smirked a little, but then shook his head, dismissing the idea, although his hand went around Karkat's waist. "Whatever you want to do, nubs."

Shrugging some, Karkat looked toward the tv, then the hall back to the bedroom, to Dave, back to the tv then finally giving up. "And apparently I'm not allowed to work until I fall asleep again so I think it's your turn to actually come up with an idea."

Dave grabbed his phone and checked the weather, then smiled a little. "It's pretty warm out there right now. Want to go for a walk? It's pretty nice this time of the night, not that many people." He smiled faintly. "Maybe we could just take a drive, instead, if you don't want that. Just driving, you know?" He laid his head back. "Haven't done that for months. When I got my license, dude, that's basically all I ever did when I needed to get out. I didn't even have anywhere I wanted to be, I just wanted to get out." He closed his eyes with a fond smile.

"You probably haven't done it in a few months because that's around when I came around," Karkat mused, looking toward the balcony door at the clear sky. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he nodded, pushing himself up off the couch and heading back to the bedroom to find a pair of jeans to slip into. His shoes were under the couch with the remote (when that had migrated down there, he had no idea) and he sat back down to pull them on. Dave smiled a little and went to get dressed as well, pulling on a long sleeve shirt and a pair of warm socks, before pulling his coat and shoes on. He slid his sunglasses on and smirked, grabbing his wallet and tucking it into his coat pocket.

"Maybe if we drive that direction, we'll go get some late night breakfast." There was a row of 24-hour diners down on the major freeway intersection, and he tended to go down that way, if he didn't decide to go driving up into the mountains for a while. It was too cold for mountain driving, he decided - black ice was a motherbitch and he didn't want to hit a patch of it and slide them both to their idiot doom - and once they were in the car, he drove out to the south end of town and then looked over at Karkat. "Which way?" He said at a stop light. "Pick a way."

Karkat slouched back in the passenger seat some and looked each direction, debating whether to head them toward somewhere more quiet and suburban, or else where there were lights and noise and people. He gave a quiet yawn after a second though and pointed toward the less populated direction. Maybe when they got somewhere, they could walk until they got bored of it and chose to go home.

Dave nodded once and then smirked as he headed in the opposite direction. "Sorry man, you should've seen that coming." He poked his barbell out between his teeth in a puckish grin, and started to go towards the larger city that was south of their little college town. He lit a cigarette and cracked his window open, grinning a little as he tapped his fingers to the beat of the song. 

The next light they stopped at was several miles down the road, and while they were waiting for the light to turn, a cerulean blue car pulled up next to them in the other lane and revved its engine. Dave couldn't take THAT challenge lightly and he revved his in turn, turning to look at the other driver. His jaw nearly dropped straight off. "Yo. Nubby. Look who it is." He rolled down his window while the other driver rolled down hers.

"How about that, a pair of losers in a souped up car. No surprise to me, you know. Are you compensating for something, Strider?" Came the snide voice of one Vriska Serket from the other car.

"It's not compensation, it's advertisement."

"Oh no. Oh _fuck_ no. No. NO." Karkat dropped his head into his hands with a loud growl then whipped back around to glare at Vriska. "I thought YOU were the one that said we weren't supposed to be all in each other's shit!"

"And you wouldn't leave well enough alone; YOU'RE still talking to everybody! Are we gonna do this or what?" She revved again, and sneered at the boys in the other car. 

Dave rolled his eyes mightily at that and looked at the lights on the intersection, noting that they just turned yellow. Instead of revving back, he put his hand on the stick shift and tore out as their light turned green, getting a head start on Vriska while she still was distracted. His car was by no means the performance vehicle it could have been - he hadn't had the time or desire to keep it up to snuff - but it did all right in a quarter mile of casual dragging. He stopped at the next light, having barely beat her by half a car's length. "So what, you're going to antagonize our fuckin' lives in person now, or is this a one time dicking around?"

She looked past Dave to Karkat. "I want in on whatever you're doing. If you two are hellbent on screwing everybody over in the most passive way possible, it'd behoove you both to have someone who's dealt with what happens when you stick your noses into shit that shouldn't be tampered with."

When Karkat had calmed down and stopped clutching at the seat behind him, he put his head back and glared at the roof of the car until he could bring himself to look back at Vriska. She hadn't changed. At all. At the most, her hair was longer.

"For one thing, do you really think we have _any_ reason to trust you won't fuck us over and get us killed anyway, and two, where the fuck did you even come from? I thought you were somewhere in Anaheim or some shit." He paused, then glanced up at the traffic light as it changed again. "Can we have this discussion somewhere where we wouldn't get a fucking ticket? Jesus..."

Dave interjected, "I'm just gonna go to the Waffle House. If you two cockjerks want to keep talking, we can do it there." He flicked his cigarette out his window at Vriska's car and rolled up his window, turning off the highway, into the frontage road which brought him to the parking lot of the diner. Vriska followed and once Dave parked and got out, Vriska was there, standing near as tall as he was - wearing heels under her ripped jeans - and they glared at each other.

"Look at you, all growed up," he said, "Looking every bit the mega bitch you've always been. How's life treating you? No wait, yeah. Don't care."

"So glad to see we've all matured so gracefully," she retorted, turning her gaze to Karkat. "Come on, we've got shit to discuss." She led the way into the restaurant, haughty as ever. Dave sneered at her back and then squeezed Karkat's shoulder. Karkat pressed his lips into a thin line, looking ready to slap Vriska sooner than talk to her. He arched a brow at her hip-switching walk, shaking his head internally and regretting coming out for this ride already. He waited until she'd seated herself in a booth then slouched into the bench seat on the opposite side with his arms crossed. Dave took a seat next to Karkat and immediately ordered coffee for the three of them. They had an ashtray, so he took that as permission, as Vriska seemed to do as well.

"So what the fuck do you want, Serket?" Karkat demanded even as she took in his appearance in the light, her eyes lingering on the still-healing orbital before flicking back to his face. He knew she was going to make some comment about Dave being a bad influence or something of that nature and cut her off before she could open her mouth again. "You're not going to screw with what we're doing. Everyone that's involved either already had their minds back, or were in the process of getting them. As far as anyone else knows, this is nothing personal."

"I'm not going to bullshit you. I don't give a shit what you two are doing," Vriska huffed. "I just don't want it to collapse our pretty little dream. I've seen what happens when people go digging, okay?" She took a drag of her cigarette, glaring at the waitress as she brought them their carafe of coffee and mugs. "Look, I've been keeping tabs on everyone since we got here. I didn't remember what happened, what got us here, so I tried to figure shit out on my own. Turns out that Gamzee knew everything, and he was running his fucking idiot mouth. He got locked up, by the way. I didn't want him to be summoning the dark forces down on our heads. Which by the way? He did." She took a bitter drag of her cigarette and looked peeved. "I've been on the road ever since."

"So you mean to tell us," Dave said, leaning back with his head tilted, "That you're actually doing something somewhat selfless for a change by getting Gamzee committed and stalking us? Give me a break, Vriska."

"On the contrary. I'm selfish as hell. I just like it here. It's not ideal, but it's better than anything else we got going on, right?" She ashed her cigarette and looked back to Karkat. "And if you two fucktards decide that it's all-consuming important to keep talking to everybody else, then I don't want you to go at it unprepared. YOU, Karkat, could wind up dead. Permanently. And I'm pretty fucking sure that's not something you want."

"I already knew about Gamzee being locked up. It was one of the first things I learned when I woke up or whatever the fuck it was that happened. Don't even ask how I remembered enough to get the information. All I had to go on was a few names and some fucked up nightmares." Karkat poured himself a mug full of coffee and continued, "So what does the apparently all-knowing spiderbitch want with us? Or specifically me, apparently. You don't fucking like me, I don't fucking like you. You shouldn't give a shit about something happening to me, though it's pretty obvious you really don't anyway. You said you wanted in on whatever we're doing though, and that raises the obvious question of you being a fucking hypocrite."

"You're a goddamn moron, you know that? I just fucking told you. I'm the only one of our group that went godtier, and you _didn't_. I'm still capable of actually using my powers, and that single fucking thing is what kept MY ass from getting obliterated by a pissed off horrorterror back in Boston. Jesus, you're dense." She poured herself a coffee with her free hand and then took a sip of it black. "And when _you_ have to put up with those, and you _will_ if you keep doing what you're doing? You're going to become mutant paté." She shook her head. "As for YOU, Dave-human. You're going to locate this absolute waste of air's quest bed, if you want to make sure he'll be around for your nuptials." 

Dave grit his teeth at both the way she talked to Karkat and how she so casually spoke about their relationship and Karkat's death. "Right. Because somehow his quest bed is here and not on his planet."

"Because of what Nepeta did to make this possible, everybody has the potential to reach god tier here, if anything goes pear-shaped," Vriska explained. "To keep the bubble from bursting."

"Great, so Nepeta's involved in this. But I was under the impression that she didn't remember jack shit. Or did you fuck with her too?" Karkat sneered. "And you didn't mention shit about your powers until just fucking now, smart one. The biggest point is that _you_ were apparently attacked by the outer gods and now you're coming to us? Yeah. Real fucking nice. So what, are you going to bodily insert yourselves into our lives under the assumption that we actually fucking want or need your special brand of help? We have our own bullshit to get to that doesn't need any interjection from you and I'm pretty sure nobody that's involved wants you to get in the middle of it either. Especially with this soothsayer shit you're pulling."

"She doesn't remember fuckall, idiot. She was the one who made the wish, she's probably the most clueless one of us. Her and her dope-ass moirail are living in blissful ignorance of the dire situation we're in." She stubbed out her cigarette and scowled. "I don't _care_ if you don't want my help. You'll fucking _need_ it eventually, Karkat. You'd be dead already if it weren't for my intervention. You can insinuate that I'm more of a burden than a help to you, but if it weren't for me keeping you two from fucking everything up? Distracting you at the right times? You'd be the ones on the run." She downed her coffee and stood. "Ugh. I'm done trying to convince you morons of anything. This is getting boring. Enjoy your grease-food. I'll be in touch." She tapped the table and left.

Dave was glaring as she left, just processing the information. He had to find Karkat's quest bed. He had to figure out how to hone his godtier powers again. She was beating back horrorterrors like his brother and keeping them safe. Fine. Despite the fact that she was a complete cunt, she was doing what she needed to do. As she got into her car and sped off, he slid into the seat that she'd been occupying and looking over at Karkat with a serious expression, waiting for his matesprit to weigh in. The only thing that kept Karkat from raging was the fact that they were in public and would most likely get thrown out before he even finished his coffee. He thumped his forehead against the table a couple of times then slumped back, digging his fingers into his eyes before threading them into his hair.

"Ok. So Nepeta and Equius are still outside the situation. They're safe. More or less. But none of the others have mentioned Vriska fucking with them even though we're not the only ones that remember. Rose has been writing about this shit but has she ever once mentioned being attacked by giant fucking tentacles or chittering netherbeasts or miss fussyfangs and her everlasting propensity for making everyone rue their own existence?"

"To be fair, we haven't really _asked_ ," Dave pointed out. "And it's obvious that she's talked to more than just us. Anyway, I don't think that's important. Who the fuck cares what she's doing? She's going to continue doing it with or without our knowledge or permission, and it's a little too late to break ties with our friends just to keep her off our dicks." He poured himself a cup of coffee and the waitress came to give them menus before silently leaving them alone. He sighed and pushed the menu aside. "My psychotic-bitch-to-English translation is a little rusty, but I'm pretty sure what she was trying to tell us is that you're going to be up shit creek soon. You personally. And that I'll need to circumvent that somehow."

"Yeah, I got that. I just... Why? Why me? What the everlasting FUCK did I do to deserve this? Where's my normal life? Where's my fucking metaphorical flower shop and brainless moirail and massive collection of cats and peace of fucking mind?" Karkat finished his first coffee and pushed the mug aside for the time being, grabbing the menu and scowling at it. "If she goes anywhere near Tavros I'm going to flay her alive."

"Take a number, dude," Dave said to the thought of her going near Tavros. "I don't know why you. Maybe it's not just you." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and grouchily texted Bro, knowing he would be awake at that hour, asking if he knew anything about the quest beds and what Vriska was doing, and then asked why Karkat was being targeted, if indeed he was. "Look, I just don't know. Right now I guess you'll just have to settle for a single cat and a sexy-ass matesprit instead, okay? Calm your fucking bulge." He shooed the waitress away wordlessly when she came around again.

"My bulge is fucking calm, Strider. It's the rest of me that thinks this is fucked up. They probably came after her because she was the first one to start meddling where she should have stayed the fuck out of it. But she doesn't know how to leave well enough the fuck alone." Rubbing his hand over his forehead, Karkat leaned against the table. It was going bad and he couldn't do shit about, he had been reminded again. How the fuck was he supposed to find his quest bed? What the fuck did a Knight of Blood even fucking _do_? He groaned and thumped his head back down onto the table, his arms over it.

Dave reached out and patted Karkat's head lightly, shushing him faintly as he read the response from Bro. "Seems like you're not the only one who's dealing with this particular flavor of horseshit, though. Bro says Sollux bit it and if it weren't for her intervention in getting him onto his quest bed, we wouldn't have our lispy little buddy." He rubbed his jaw, scratching at the faint stubble there. "So laserface went godtier, that would've been nice to know before tonight. And that's why those two are in contact with each other. Gotta wonder about Makara, though. Hn." He started piecing things together and his brows gradually rose. "Holy shit, hold the fucking phone," he said as something clicked into place in his brain. He texted Bro again, looking for confirmation. "If she's doing what I think she's doing, she might not be half the selfish cunt she pretends to be. She has prescience to a degree, right?"

"So Sollux died and ascended and didn't say a fucking word. That's just lovely. And my guess is that Bro didn't say shit either for our protection too. Same with everything else he never said. And getting Gamzee shut up in the hospital...Honestly, that would have been the best for him regardless of who'd done it or why. He was most likely the beginning of the descent into fucked up territory." Sighing heavily, Karkat picked his head up off the table, glancing at his menu again then waiting for the waitress to come back so that he could order something greasy as the stress started to creep up again. "Maybe one of these days we should actually make a trip to Boston."

"Mm, we really should," Dave said with a browfurrow. "I would text one of the girls right now and ask them about Vriska, but I don't want to risk the wrath of either of them because I'd woken them up." He looked at his own menu and wrinkled his nose. "Ugh. I think I've already got my daily calories just by breathing the air in here." He sipped his coffee, grumbling at how burnt it tasted. "Bro wouldn't say shit because he doesn't say shit unless asked straight out." He got another text, confirming his suspicions. "Figured that's what was going on. She's basically a wild card that they really hadn't predicted; she's working less like one of us, and more like the guardians or the girls up there. She's keeping us safe, and, as fucking aggravating as she is, she's putting us in the position to save ourselves." He rubbed his arm as he thought that over, brow furrowed. 

"If she thinks you're next, dude, I'm not going to argue with her, I'm just going to protect you."

"She really needs to stop taking these things upon herself. First in the game and now this. And even before that when she fucked with Tavros and Eridan during their FLARP sessions," Karkat grumbled, then looked up as the waitress returned, giving her his order quickly then putting his head back down to wait for his plate of eggs and sausage. "She remembered and started doing this because she's always had the powers to do it and the will to actually use them, unlike Tavros and his animal whisperer shit. I mean he's using it now and everything but there really isn't much he could do for this that I'm aware of anyway."

Dave ordered a plate of pancakes and thought it over. He shook his head after a moment. "I don't want to get him involved if we can help it. He deserves a fucking normal life after all he's been through. I mean, shit, we _all_ do, but he's been through _all_ the shit. Let's just keep him as far out of it as possible until and unless it becomes an inevitability." He put another cigarette between his lips, stressed as hell. "Fuckin' christ, she has great fuckin' timing."

"Maybe we could just...I don't know, keep her occupied. So that she doesn't decide to go and find him to fuck up his life," Karkat suggested as he refilled his coffee, then straightened up, tapping his fingers against his lips. "If she wants to actually be involved with shit, why not let her be the voice of Mindfang's journal?"

Dave paused in his fiddling with his lighter and turned to face Karkat with a smile. "There you go being incredible again." He set his cigarette and lighter down. "It'd give her something else to focus on. I mean, fuck. She's probably all entangled in this shit and hasn't had the time to even _think_ about doing normal shit. Pull her back down to earth." He tapped his fingers on the table, nodding a little. "Yeah, that'd be good." He still was distracted by her warning, the few things she actually told him specifically.

"I just want to try and limit how much havoc she can wreak. We have enough to worry about just trying to keep shit going as normal as possible. And at least with this, the only one outside the situation entirely when it comes to the production is our Disciple." Sitting back, Karkat tried to be relieved that they could at least keep Vriska more or less in their line of sight. If she had this to concentrate on, she wouldn't have to harass the others any more than she already had. Not only that, she wouldn't be able to overstay her welcome; after they got her into a sound studio and were able to get her part recorded (provided she agreed in the first place) they could let her go. The less any of them thought about the reality of their situation, the safer they were, at least in theory. He looked up as the waitress returned not too long after he'd finished another half cup of mediocre coffee, thanking her quietly as he passed their plates to them.

With a nod of thanks to the waitress, Dave set into his pancakes, completely lost in thought. He piped up a few bites in with, "I don't think she's actually wreaking any havoc this time around. Call me utterly duped if you want, but she seems sincerely dedicated to keeping shit afloat. Obsessively so. It's a little disconcerting." He fiddled with the fork momentarily, his brow still furrowed in concentration. "Shift of topic. Is there anywhere in the area you're immediately drawn to? I mean like, what's the first place you think of when you just think of a place around here?" He nudged another wedge of pancake into the syrup that had pooled on the plate.

With a sausage speared on the end of his fork, Karkat thought about that one. There were a couple of places, but the first one that came to mind was an overlook that offered a view of the forest surrounding the southeast side of their little town that made it look as if the world was nothing but trees. "You know that little gravel rest spot off the highway like...three miles east of here?" He said finally, biting the sausage in half.

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Sorta. I've driven past there a couple times." He scratched his jaw. "Might as well check it out. If anything, it'll be an interesting place to shoot some of the outdoor scenes." He pushed his glasses up to rub his eyes wearily. This shit was taking its toll on his brain. He was sick of living two lives. He'd done that fucking plenty in the past, and wound up having to deal with his dead and sprite-selves' memories in the process as a side effect, it seemed. "Okay, we'll check it out this weekend."

Karkat nodded and started to dig into his late-night not-really-breakfast, thinking about the spot a little harder. He'd been up to that spot a few times in the past few years. It always cleared his head, helped him think straight when his life started getting needlessly complicated. He could remember turning on the spot several times just to watch the stark change from trees to nothing to city, then stopped.

"That mill," he muttered after a second. "I could see the roof of that mill from the lookout. Like...ok, you know the place, it has these huge rocks around the outside of the parking area. If you stand on top of one you can actually see the mill where we found Em."

"Mm, I've already figured we'd shoot there for the Final Sermon scene. It's good and grunge and has the best backdrop for that particular scene. It's going to be one hell of a scene to shoot, too." He could already tell that it'd be the most visceral scene, especially with how he'd had it laid out mentally. He licked his lips once he finished his plate of food and sat back. "Actually, I was thinking of getting over there this weekend with you in costume. The prop weirdos finally got their shit together, and have a few things set out. Got the shackles, got some of the jewelry for the Dolorosa, and a few other essentials. Once we get some stills to send to laserface, he'll start the rumor mill."

"You know what would be good for after all of this is over? A bonfire," Karkat commented as he finished the last of his food, pushing the plate away and feeling somewhat nauseous for the sheer volume of grease and salt. He drained his coffee mug for the last time then sat back and glanced out of the window at the car. "So, home after this or do you still feel like driving?"

"Home. I don't want to accidentally run into Satan while we're out here." Dave snorted and shook his head. "Fuckin' hell, man."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shaking off deep trauma is one of the hardest things in the 'verse to do quickly. Depression can also strike without warning, with no obvious trigger, and make even the most hardened or cheerful people want to curl up and cease existing. It's not something you can cure by yelling, or by being patronizing, or spouting cheerleading phrases until the depressed person gets up and moves. Often, it simply makes it worse, and can trigger severe anxiety and panic attacks. The best thing is just to keep an eye on them, to offer them small things, and simply be there for them.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which All The Things happen, including development of headcanon for potential Blood powers.
> 
> Also, Brollux.

Midterms, lovingly dubbed Hell Week, came and went with few surprises, save for discrepancies in time and how it passed; work swiftly came and went like it was only an hour, while time at home it dragged languidly along. Dave had finally settled things with the group of people involved and got ahold of Vriska, asking her to do the voice of Mindfang, to which she called him directly to say yes in the most frantically delighted way he'd ever heard come out of her. Things were running smoothly. The holidays came and passed, and all that really changed in that time was there were new, extremely lavish gifts from Bro in the house: a cello and a professional video camera and muvi dolly.

It was the first week of January when Dave had scheduled a full meet-up of the cast and crew. While Sollux COULD have stayed at a hotel (as Bro had offered,) he opted, rather, to stay at Karkat and Dave's apartment, just to catch up with Karkat and really get things done on a face-to-face level with Dave. He hadn't yet arrived, but Dave was already setting things up so that he could stay in the newly-organized spare room. He'd cleaned it out for Terezi's stay with them, and he figured if it was good enough for 'then Captor could just fuckin' deal if it wasn't up to snuff. He'd sent Karkat out with the car to go pick Sollux up at the airport, so he could clean the apartment enough where it didn't look like... well, like he lived there.

"I thtill don't thee why the fuck thomeone would give _you_ a driver'th lithenthe," Sollux was arguing when Karkat let him into the apartment. He had a couple of overstuffed bags slung over his shoulders and was walking backward as he came in, turning on the spot and taking in the rather comfortable living space. He jumped badly at a high-pitched screech from under his feet and subsequent scrabbling of claws on the carpet as the kitten he'd just stepped on bolted into the bedroom and under the bed. He stared after her, then turned back to Karkat, who was glaring some at him. "Chritht, thorry I wathn't expecting a fucking cat to be underfoot the thecond I walked in," he muttered, rolling his eyes and going to drop his bags in the spare room that Karkat pointed out to him.

Dave looked up as the door swung open and his brows arched WAY high at how tall Sollux was, "And here I fucking thought I was the beanpole," he said with a lopsided smile, before he walked over, "She'll be fine, just keep your shoes guarded." He tossed the papers he'd been gathering up onto the counter before offering a hand. "Great to finally meet you in person, dude."

"Yeah," Sollux agreed as he shook Dave's hand once then took a seat at the counter, looking between the two of them with a raised eyebrow himself. "Tho ith there thome protocol I'm gonna have to follow or ith it generally every man for himthelf here?"

"Uh...just don't mess up our shit and we'll be just fine? That's about all I can think of. Also, dishes get put straight in the dishwasher when you're done using them. And don't touch the Number One Grandma mug, that's Dave's favorite for whatever fucking reason."

"Because I'm the best grandma ever, duh," Dave said as if it was obvious. "I guess the best advice is don't make noise after ten, and no biclopsing the walls, that's all I ask." He smirked, though that fell when he heard the sound of a particularly loud stereo system blasting a particularly familiar song went past. "Oh Jesus fuck, why." He walked swiftly to the patio just in time to see the ironiCamaro roll into the parking lot. "Sollux, why didn't you fucking say my brother was coming up." 

Not that Bro told anybody.

"Becauthe that reaction wath worth it," he smirked and looked back at Karkat as both hands were slapped over his face. "Jethuth, KK you thtill pull the betht fathepalm comboth."

"Fuck you, man. You know what this guy's like, he's too fucking embarrassing to handle even at the best of times."

"Tho?"

Dave sighed as he walked to the door and opened it for Bro before the guy could even knock. "Thanks for the fucking phone call and prior warning, dude, that's really considerate. You know, because that's what normal fucking people would do." 

"Don't mention it. Hey look who's here!" Bro said as he walked past Sollux, giving him a passing fistbump. "I'm bunking at a lodge just west of town here," he said as he dropped himself into the chair and looked around. "I see you found the rest of the cameras."

"Yeah, just got the one now," Dave said. Both Striders were deadpan as they spoke and then Dave turned to Karkat. "So what should to the four of us stellar individuals do tonight, since we're not expecting the girls 'til tomorrow afternoon?"

Sollux was grinning as he watched them with his chin on one hand, glancing at Bro then back at Karkat as he paced some, then eventually shrugged. "Do I look like some kind of goddamn party planner? I don't fucking know. Do any of you even know what you want to eat so I know if I have to go to the store first?"

"Thtrider, you let him do all the shopping?" Sollux interrupted, his grin growing wider.

"I'm the one that actually cooks shit around here so yes, I'm the one that does the grocery shopping," Karkat replied with an exaggerated eyeroll.

Dave shook his head, "I manage to somehow set cereal on fire. Nubs is the resident chef." He leaned against the side of the chair and used Bro's head as an armrest. "Okay, how about this. Karkat, get a shitload of snacks and some fresh veggies and soda, and like, four boxes of spaghetti and a ridiculously sized thing of sauce, and then we'll be set for the night while we work on the final revisions, and while we wait for you we can go over the publicity shit." 

Bro tolerated the arm on his head until Em jumped onto his lap and he had to move to let her get cozy. "Sounds ace, li'l man."

"Great, I should just let you write all my shopping lists," Karkat snorted and shook his head as he pulled his coat right back on after having only just taken it off; the sooner he made the food run the easier it would be to pull things together when it was actually time to eat. Sollux continued to smirk to himself as he watched then waved his fingers some as Karkat left again. Then his attention turned back to the Striders he'd been left alone with.

"Tho where'th thith cothtume I'm thuppothed to be wearing for thith freakshow," he asked casually, an eyebrow arched up at Dave.

"It's hung up in the guest closet. Down the hall and to the left," he said, pointing towards the hall briefly. "I'd apologize for the extreme tightness of the costume, but it's not my idea and it's not my fault. Kanaya said she'll be bringing the extras with her. You want to go try the thing on, just to see if it fits?" He looked down at Bro and snickered when he saw that his brother had become Em's new bed. She was kneading his leg, purring audibly. Sollux watched for a moment then shook his head and got back up to find the costume.

"The thooner I know it fitth the longer I can wait until I have to wear it again," he reasoned then went to the spare room, pulling out the suit and wrinkling his nose at it. He pulled it on nonetheless, pulling the belt snug around his waist and tapping the toes of the boots against the ground. He was pulling at the strips around his face some when he came back out to be not-so-silently judged. Dave made small talk with his brother while they waited, and once Sollux returned, he looked up and scratched his head, deliberating momentarily.

"Questionable as your ancestor's taste in attire was, it looks all right. The cowl's a little wonk, but I'm sure Kanaya will fix that for you. You look all right, dude."

Bro cracked the fuck up, however, and shook his head, "That's the dumbest goddamn thing I ever fuckin' seen. Holy shit."

"Yeah yeah, fuck you too," Sollux spat then stuck his tongue out at Bro, crossing his arms over his chest. As much as he hated to admit it, the outfit was comfortable even if it was weird-looking. "I have to athk, do your prop guyth have the Helmthman thetup with the freaky pink tentacleth or whatever? I saw in the thcript you at leatht wanted thome thtillth of the whole thing with that after the death of the Thignleth."

While Bro responded by sticking his own tongue out at Sollux, Dave bowed his head and tried really hard to keep his composure at his brother's frankness. He mostly succeeded, nodding silently to Sollux's question, clearing his throat, "Yeah, uh, we've got some stuff that we're going to use to be replaced by special effects. Green screening. It's part of the final's requirements to have one scene with special effects included, and I figured if there's one thing that would leave a mark on the memory, it'd be that. I'm fucking terrible with special effects, which is why this asshole here is helping out." He nudged his brother, who shoved back a bit rougher, making Dave wrinkle his nose. "The props are in the greenscreen room, and I've got a key, we can go do that once Karkat gets back. Speaking of stills, did you get the ones of Karkat I sent you a week ago? What'd you think?" He'd touched them up to make it darker than it was, and took his sweet time making the blood look realistic.

"The oneth you did in the warehouth thing? Yeah. I actually uthed a couple of them to make promo imageth. Cropped tho that it wathn't really obviouth or anything but so there wath obviouth blood. Should reel in the horror movie crowd. There wath one that wath kind of overexpothed but overall they looked damn good." He was about to go back to change into his day clothes when Karkat shouldered in with a couple of shopping bags, stopping to raise an eyebrow at Sollux then shake his head.

"Good times, I can't wait to run into it in the wild. That'll be a blast." Dave looked up once Karkat returned, smiling warmly.

"At least the Psiioniic being taller is canon but Jesus fuck you look like a mutated string bean," Karkat snorted, putting the bags down on the counter then reaching up, having to stand up on tiptoe as he rearranged the cowl around Sollux's face then brushed his hair out of it to fall where it needed to. "There, looks a lot better," he stated then walked around Sollux to start unloading things to put in the cupboards.

"Mutated stringbean or not, he fits the bill better than literally anybody else on this planet, so."

Bro moved Em from his lap swiftly and without waking her, standing up and letting her take the seat. He wandered over to Sollux and eyed his hair, "If you need someone to fix your peoples' hair and not halfass, kid," he said to Dave, as he rumpled Sollux's. "Go get out of the dayglow spanx, dude."

Dave looked over his shoulder as he put the chips away, "Dude, if you're going to be here, you'd _better_ be doing their hair." He shook his head. "Better give me a haircut, too. It's getting stupid unruly."

"I'm pretty thure our hair matterth more than yourth for thith," Sollux commented then went to change finally, stripping off the top of the costume as he went. He came back in his day clothes, slouching on the opposite side of the couch from the kitten.

Karkat was starting to fidget some around the kitchen, suddenly full of nervous energy, grabbing a drink for himself then setting one out for Sollux, eyeballing Bro before putting one out for him as well. He should have thought to pick up another case of soda while he was out, but that could be done later on, by someone else. Dave put his hands on Karkat's shoulders, stepping closer to press a kiss to the top of his head. "Yeah, well, he's the only guy I trust with my hair, and he's my brother so fuck you, Captor." He pressed another kiss to Karkat's head and sighed. "What did we say we were going to do again?"

Bro shook his head. "Revisions, scatterbrain." He shooed Karkat and Dave out of the kitchen so he could start making a snack platter out of the veggies Karkat bought. 

"Right, those." He settled down on the arm of the chair, and grabbed his laptop off the side table. "Sollux, are there any lines you feel uncomfortable saying? Rose did her best to circumvent s sounds for you, but are there any other lines that just don't feel right when you say them?"

"A lot of it'th pretty weird for me jutht becauthe it'th not my perthonal thpeech pattern," Sollux shrugged, then took a seat beside Dave to look over the script with him in the hopes they could at least fix a few of the more awkward-sounding lines. He popped a small yellow tomato into his mouth as he started to read over the script, pointing out here and there where something could potentially be fixed. Karkat continued to shuffle around the kitchen, eventually deciding to start the water for the spaghetti so that they could potentially have an early dinner before Bro decided to go do whatever it was he intended to do with the rest of his day. Dave started to get a feel for how Sollux delivered the lines and then worked out a way to make his lines far easier to deliver, either by changing the words subtly to give him a clearer direction with it, or by explaining the context and emotion behind them, guiding gradually through the entire script. 

Bro stepped in and joined Karkat, leaning against the counter with his arms over his chest. "How's shit with you, shortstack? You doin' all right lately?"

Karkat looked back around at him with a shrug, peeling back the wrapper on one of the three massive packs of pasta he'd gotten, trying to determine how much each of them would eat then settling on another one, mostly for Bro's sake. He turned his back to the stove to face him with his hands in his pockets "I'm ok. Kicked the shit out of my midterms, got to walk around in pants up to my grubscars. Fun shit."

Bro nodded, "Good times. Get much time to play?" He said, thumbing over to the cello. "I know it's gotta calm your head down some." He was hoping that there was something he could do to help guide Karkat into a more disciplined mindset before he wound up with the powers he was going to inevitably get - powers that he knew were beyond dangerous in the wrong hands.

"Not for a while now, no. Between the movie stuff, school and work it's fallen off a little. But I know I need to pick it back up. Dave wants me to do some original music for the movie. But uh...I don't know how to read music, let alone write it. I play by ear." Karkat shrugged again then looked back around at the pot of water as it began to steam, putting a lid over it to help speed the process after salting it.

Dave looked up at his brother and matesprit briefly before huffing a chuckle and going back to the script with Sollux. "You ask him about moiraillegiance yet?" He asked, more offhand than anything.

Sollux was watching the conversation when Dave spoke up, arching an eyebrow at him then shaking his head. "Nah, we've got a good thing going. I'm fine with thingth the way they are."

Dave smiled at that and nodded. "Figured I'd ask. Bro's been chronically single since as far back as I can remember, and he won't shut the hell up about you, so I assumed. But I'm sure he's cool with it. He'd be making a move if he wasn't." With that, he let the subject drop and explained how he was going to set up the Helmsman scene. It was one of the more elaborate things he'd put in front of himself and he had absolutely no fucking idea if he'd pull it off gracefully without his brother's help, but he was going to give it his damnedest to make it work.

Sollux pressed his lips together, refraining from commenting on the situation with Bro for the time being. He focused back in on the project, grateful for the distraction and asking the occasional question and suggesting a couple of different rigging methods for at least the graphics that would be placed around his own shots.

"He'll figure out a way to turn it into somethin', you know how he is," Bro assured Karkat, "but yeah, find a little time in your day to do that, pretty much as often as you can. It'll keep you centered, I think. Shit's good for lowerin' high blood pressure and shit like that. That's kinda why I picked up guitar." He took a sip of his soda, and smirked a little. "Y'know, I don't think I've seen lil' man this focused? You really got his head somewhere good."

"What, like trying to keep me from studying myself to death is like therapy for him?" Karkat snorted and knelt to dig out a saucepan to warm the sauce in, setting it on the stove then leaning against the other side of the counter across from Bro. "I still haven't taken his sleeping pills out of hiding,just in case. I don't want to see him as bad as he was last month, you know?"

Bro shook his head, "He didn't say anything about it to me. Didn't say anything last Christmas, either, 'til I had to come up and assure the docs he'd be fine." He shook his head again and sighed. "Sucks that he got saddled with that shit. I'd been hoping he'd avoid it, wouldn't get the same problems as me. I just hope Rose doesn't have the same fuckin' thing." He leaned over and patted Karkat on the back. "If it'd make you feel better, you can leave those pills with me 'til he needs 'em again. He hasn't been having night terrors for a while. He said so." 

Dave looked up into the kitchen and called them out, "I hear you talking about me in there. Knock it off before I start throwing stuff at you." He rolled his eyes and then went back to Sollux. "That's a good idea, rigging it up on a four-point mount. You'd be okay in a harness? I've been in one, and let's just say you're going to need hells of breaks in between takes if you don't want to feel like your legs are going to fall off."

"Yeah. It's nice not waking up every other night to screaming anymore," Karkat murmured, his weight settled onto his arms on the counter. He smirked back at Dave until he and Sollux had returned to their discussion then focused back on Bro. "I know pretty damn well too. I never fell to self-medicating, but...well, you probably know exactly how tempting things like that can be, huh."

Bro nodded silently and took another sip of his soda. "Dunno which way to cope is worse, but it's not like either's a good solution." He looked over at Karkat again. "But you're doin' all right now." Bro had a way about seeing through into the soul of the situation. "You ain't doin' that shit anymore, right?" 

Sollux was looking at a couple of pictures that had been taken of the Helmsman setup that was nearly finished and emailed to Dave, nodding thoughtfully. "I can do a harneth, yeah. At leatht the prop thetup will be eathy to get in and out of, it'th jutht being thtrung up in that rigging that'th going to fucking thuck ath far at getting down ith contherned."

Dave nodded. "C'mon, we can go check out the stage right now if you want." He set his laptop aside and stood. "We can go there and get back and food'll be done." He gave Bro the 'I'm watching you' sign as he grabbed his coat. "We're gonna go look at the soundstage to give Sollux a better idea of what he's getting his bulge into, both literally and proverbially," he said to Karkat.

"Not for a long time now," Karkat confirmed, thinking back to the night he and Dave had gotten together, what he'd said about just accepting the marks on him as a part of him that didn't need questioning. He straightened up and took a few swallows of his soda before turning back to the stove to see the water starting to boil. He occupied himself with that for the time being, unsure how to feel about the conversation anymore. He looked back at the announcement that Dave and Sollux were going, nodding then adding before they could leave, "Pick up another couple of cases of soda would you? Whatever kind you find, I don't care."

Dave grinned and gave a mock salute as he led the way down to the car, chuckling as he made small talk with Sollux.

Bro shook his head at the sudden disappearance of his bro and his bud, and then shrugged. "So I hear Roxanne's going to be comin' up with the girls. You ever meet her?" He paused, "Nah, probably not. Ever meet other her?"

"Roxanne? Oh, Mom Lalonde. Nah, never met her. Met Roxy once but it was pretty brief. I heard about her sleepwalking all over John though, that's pretty funny." Karkat continued to chat about nothing in particular, mostly talking simply to talk, at times about Dave or school or work, or whatever anxieties he had for no real reason other than Bro was strangely good at listening. Bro listened contentedly, going around to sit on the stool at the counter at some point and not moving as he watched Karkat move. During a lull in the conversation, he tilted his head. "You know what? C'mere, let's help the kid out. You go grab your cello, I'll record you playing some notes, so he can mess with 'em later." He stood up and went to grab the digital recorder and microphone that he saw placed up on the top shelf of one of the bookcases in the living room. It was partly for the reason he mentioned, but mostly, he figured it'd give Karkat something to do while they waited for the other guys to return.

"Huh. Uh. Ok." Karkat shrugged internally and set the spaghetti to boil a little slower before going to fetch the cello, grabbing one of the stools to perch on while he waited for Bro to set up the recording. Just for the sake of tuning, he plucked some at the strings, then started to drag the bow across them in quick sweeps. He repositioned his fingers after a moment, starting to play an actual tune on the highest register he could remember, his head bobbing some along with it. He licked his lips and started to sing softly to himself.

Bro raised an eyebrow to the singing and caught Karkat's attention, so as not to stop him, but pantomimed to sing louder. He walked carefully and silently so as not to disturb the recording, and went to make a sign for the door that read, "recording, stfu plz" which he clipped up on the binder clip that Dave had epoxied to the door just after Karkat had moved in.

It was only a few minutes of recording before Dave got back with Sollux and saw the sign, hearing the cello through the door. "Huh, cool," he said quietly as he set down one of the 24-packs of soda that he was carrying on the ground to quietly as possible, open the door. He picked up the soda again and held the door open for Sollux to pass through.

Karkat blinked, then shrugged and picked up the song at an appropriate crescendo, seemingly enjoying himself even as their little session was intruded upon by the others returning. The song was set to end soon and he'd stopped singing by then anyway, offering a crooked smile to Sollux as the other goggled at him. Apparently he hadn't foreseen this development, nor had he heard mention of it from anyone. He drew the song to a close and glanced back at Bro, giving him the cutoff gesture before sliding off the stool and going to grab a fresh soda. "Convenient time to start being a musical asshole," he shrugged as he turned he heat back up on the spaghetti, starting to warm the sauce as well.

Bro turned off the recorder and set it back aside, nodding to Sollux and chuckling. "He's not bad. Could use a little fuckin' self esteem, though." He took a seat on the sofa and stretched his legs out, propping his arms on the back. "How's the rig lookin'?" He asked Sollux. 

Dave, in the meanwhile, had gotten much more than soda. He had made sure there was plenty of breakfast food at hand for the next morning, knowing full well that Bro would be coming to raid the kitchen once he woke up. "You know you're lucky, right?" He asked Karkat as he put away the donuts, cereal, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, and milk. "It's Tuesday, and Bro is clothed."

Karkat's eyebrow arched up at that, but he shook his head as he prodded at the noodles that were sticking together. "I'm not even going to ask..."

"The rig could be a little more thtable," Sollux was saying as he sat back down on the couch with his arm hooked over the back to look up at Bro, still glancing back at the instrument perched in the middle of the room every once in a while, "but altogether it'th pretty thound. It'll look pretty badath with the right lighting and CG. Altho, Dave bringth up a good point. Why are we thtill clothed again?"

Dave was about to explain to Karkat what he meant when his ears went red and he buried his face in his hands. "Dammit, Sollux, if you two get naked in here I'm setting you both on fire." 

Bro simply went "Pff," and pulled his shirt off, "I'd like to see you try." 

"BRO. NO." Dave sunk to bury his head in his arms on the counter. "Why do Tuesdays even exist?" He whined, and looked at Karkat with doleful eyes. "We're the only sane people here, nubby."

Karkat froze, refusing to turn around to witness the growing amount of visible skin in his living room. Sollux had peeled out of his shirt as well, rolling it up and tucking it behind his head to use as a pillow. "Come on Thtrider, it'th not like you haven't theen him or a naked troll before," he sneered, grinning at Karkat when he finally turned back around. "What about you, Nubth? Don't tell me the thtick ith thtill wedged that far up your ath."

"I fucking hate you guys right now I swear on my own fucking grave..."

Dave was still mortified with his face buried in his arms. "I'm not in the mood to be dealing with naked idiots right now." He looked over at Sollux and shook his head, "How the hell did he even talk you into this bullshit?"

"Why the hell does anyone need a reason to be naked?" Bro asked, unbuttoning his pants. That was when Dave swiftly jumped up and tackled Bro off the sofa and yelled "DON'T YOU DARE, I WILL FUCKING STRANGLE YOU, YOU BIG EMBARRASMENT TO CIVILIZATION."

"Oh my fucking god I'm surrounded by children." Karkat thew up his hands and yelled at the ceiling, then held his hands out to Sollux, who was reclining comfortably on the couch now in nothing more than his boxers, having stripped out of his jeans in the time it had taken Dave to tackle his brother to the ground. Karkat rubbed his fingers into his eyes and slouched against the wall then froze at a knock on the door. This was it. The neighbors had finally gotten sick of the noise. They were screwed. "Would you bulgefondling jerkoffs shut the fuck up for two seconds?" He yelled at the floorbound Striders before easing the door open, turning to apologize to whoever was on the landing and coming face-to-chest with-

"Oh no. Why now?"

"I see you're having fun today," Kanaya hummed thoughtfully as she looked over Karkat's head at the squirming knot of freckled limbs on the floor. She glanced up when a grey hand popped up from the sofa, smiling sweetly as Sollux's face appeared right after.

"You guyth are early," he commented.

"Cleaner than I'd surmised," Rose said as she stepped in, smiling sweetly to Karkat. "Hello, Karkat, thank you for letting us in. Oh dear." Rose stopped in the walkway as Dave was struggling to pull his brother's shirt back on over his head. They both froze when the ladies came in, Mom in their wake, offering a fancy bottle of wine to Karkat.

"Yo." Dave said, slowly uncoiling from Bro. Bro waved with one arm coming out of the collar and his head stuck in an armhole, giving them a muffled "Sup." 

Rose looked to Kanaya with a knowing little smile and then turned to Sollux. "I see we're sporting the minimalist look today. How are you, Sollux?"

Karkat clutched the bottle against his chest, his ears turning red at his absolutely mortifying clutch of friends. He retreated back into the kitchen to keep an eye on the food and wishing he'd thought to grab a loaf of french bread to butter and put as a side. Sollux had finally sat up straight, shrugging a shoulder. "It'th Tuethday," was his only explanation. Kanaya nodded as if she understood and stepped away from Rose's side to join Karkat in the kitchen, bending slightly to press her lips to his temple.

"It's good to see that you're doing well," she said quietly, her hand resting against his arm. He wrinkled his nose but nodded some.

"As long as nobody bumps my shit and breaks it, I'll be just fucking peachy."

The Striders had righted themselves and Bro came over to hug Mom, pressing a kiss to her forehead and told her how lovely she looked. "You only say that because I told you to last time we talked," She chided. "Hey guys, I'm out," Bro announced, and Mom called from the door as they left, "Have fun, kids!" 

Rose sighed and sat down on the sofa, shaking her head. "I knew as soon as we walked in here, we'd come into chaos. I'm entirely certain Dave creates a pocket of madness around himself, just so he can convince himself that he's normal."

Kanaya tutted at the madness and shook her head. "Would you like some help with the food? We've already had supper. Well, Rose has, at least. But I'd be happy to pitch in where I can." 

Dave was still busy trying not to die of sheer embarrassment, sitting in the chair and keeping as cool as he possibly could.

When Bro left, Sollux pulled his jeans back on and crossed his arms over his chest. "He getth it from hith brother, I'm a hundred perthent sure," he replied then reached out a hand. "It'th good to see you again. Both of you," he added, looking in at Kanaya as she stirred the sauce in its pan while Karkat busied himself with draining the pasta. He was peering over the counter at Dave, more or less hiding in the kitchen with Kanaya and wordlessly inviting Dave to join him.

Rose nodded somberly, "I'm sure he does. I've heard all about Bro." She looked over at the chair, thinking Dave was still there, but he'd made his way into the kitchen, where the sane people were. 

"I can't imagine things are always this lively here," Kanaya commented after tasting the sauce, raising a brow at the obvious store-bought flavor.

"Oh god if it were always this fucking noisy I would've pulled the most graceful fucking pirouette right off the handle," Karkat groaned as he drained the water off the pasta then poured a few tablespoons of olive oil into the noodles to keep them all from sticking together. He put them back into their pot and put the lid over it, leaning back against the counter beside Kanaya. "So how've you been doing then? We haven't exactly talked at all since Dave's birthday."

"Anyway. Yes," Rose said with a smile, putting her hands in her lap. "We're doing well. Things have been very busy at home, actually. Midterms just ended, as you know, and Kanaya's been working on all the costumes, and we really haven't had very much time just to sit and enjoy life. This is a welcome distraction."

Dave huffed a chuckle. "Sounds familiar. Well, since we're all here, we can get a head start. My laptop is right beside you, Rose. Sollux and I worked on his lines and tweaked them so they're easier for him to pull off convincingly. I need to do the same with Kanaya. Karkat's got his lines done, our Mindfang's... well, she's PROBABLY got that shit memorized, and our Disciple's doing all right. Everything's rockin'."

Rose took his laptop and scrolled through, her nose wrinkling at the clumsy-looking new lines. "Okay, Sollux, please read these for _me_ , and convince me that this sounds natural." Sollux scooted over to Rose's side to go over the lines with her, knowing some of them would obviously be corrected but trying to keep what he could.

Dave smiled as he came to hug Kanaya around the shoulders. "Long time, beautiful. You keepin' her safe?"

Kanaya smiled peacefully as she leaned her head back to look up at Dave, a hand coming up to pat his cheek lightly. "As well as I can," she hummed then reached over and started to fuss at Karkat's hair where it was falling over his face and ears. "You're starting to look like Mituna, you know," she chuckled as he ducked away, shaking his hair back into place and grimacing at her.

"That's a damn lie, I look better than any fucking Captor there ever was, including Stretch out there. And my hair's not _that_ bad anyway, it just hasn't been brushed today."

"If you say so." Taking over the stove, Kanaya shooed them both out of the kitchen, mentioning that Dave should probably be involved in the revision of his script. She glanced out at Sollux, who seemed to be having trouble with the delivery of a couple of his lines as Rose prompted him. He was obviously growing frustrated with it. Dave scooted out of the kitchen with a smile at Kanaya, and then followed Karkat as he settled beside Rose, grinning when she leaned up to pat his head from behind her.

"I'd rather have him comfortable with the way he says the lines, than have the lines seem natural if anybody else says them, Rose. We're sticking with the ones we did earlier. I don't want this to sound like a royal clusterfuck once it gets to actually shooting it." 

"Fine, I suppose you're right. If things don't seem natural to the actor, it'll seem forced on screen. Karkat, have you got any troubles with your own lines?" Rose asked with a sweet smile.

Once the food was plated out for the boys, things grew a little quieter while Dave listened to Kanaya's delivery of her lines, amazed by how fluid she was in the performance. He wasn't sure if it was acting talent, or simply her natural matronly ways shining through. Once the food was done, Dave brought out snacks for the entire group and went over his entire vision with them, explaining that he was going for raw emotion and a somewhat nerve-rending approach to this entire project. He didn't want this to feel like a drama, but rather, the real, true horror that it was. He said that they'd be going over to the film sites in the morning, including the sound stages, and nodded to Karkat, smiling. "If it weren't for his balls-out incredible leaps of inspiration to shove my ass into doing this, I don't think anybody here would be doing anything, so I want to just thank Nubs for getting us all here. But hey, for now, let's just relax. We're all here early, let's just hang out and get pumped for this shit. It's going to rock out the ass 'cause we're the ones doing it."

Karkat made a face and shook his head, crunching noisily on a stick of celery. "Yeah whatever, if that's what you call just blurting out whatever comes to mind," he snorted, then prodded Dave's shoulder to get him to move so that he could sprawl on the couch with Sollux. Sollux had gotten rather bored after listening to Kanaya go through her lines and sat texting back and forth with Bro, who still hadn't returned with Mom on his arm. It could only be assumed that they were out drinking and would be for some time yet. He brought up at one point that the addition of a Darkleer might be necessary for at least the scene in which the Disciple would be exiled, but really, Kanaya reasoned with him, the shot could be made by anyone that could hold a bow and tolerate a camera right up in their business. That could actually be delegated to Bro, given the need for a meatier hand and arm in the shot. The discussion went on until Em crept out of hiding again to curl up on Sollux's lap, kneading on his thigh contently as Rose and Kanaya took turns scratching at her ears.

The evening wore on fairly quickly, the wine coming out when dark started to really fall, poured into mugs in true bachelor style given the lack of stemware. Karkat was still nursing his first mug when everyone else had gotten to their second and third, heading to bed just before Rose and Kanaya finally took their leave. Sollux was camped out on the couch playing one of the myriad FPS games from Dave's collection, more or less completely dominating every online player in his session. By two in the morning, though, he'd retired as well, curling up in the recuperacoon that had been moved back into the spare room. Karkat hadn't used it in weeks, favoring Dave's bed. Nobody would even conceivably be awake come morning.

Dave had stayed up with Sollux until the latter padded off to the spare bedroom, and with a little preliminary, tipsy look to the living room, which had gotten torn a new one over the evening, he said 'fuck it' and walked into the bedroom, turning off the lights as he went. He'd clean up when he woke up and wasn't liable to get a headache just by bending over slightly.

The morning was, as predicted, late for everyone involved. Ten AM rolled over and Dave finally pulled out of bed, rubbing his face as he grumbled at the alarm of his phone and nudged Karkat, pressing a kiss to his temple. "Up," he groggily murmured. "Time to do some filming." He peeled out of the bed and walked to the bathroom to start his morning routine, coming out in about twenty minutes to go get himself breakfast. Bro was there, hungover and eating a bowl of Lucky Charms. "We should postpone," he suggested, pointing at the cloudy sky out the patio window. "Shit's overcast." 

"We only have a week, Bro. And then we won't have any chance to get shit filmed until the end of January. I'm not going to waste time." His tone was final as he poured himself the same cereal, grinning as he was reminded once again that quadrants weren't THAT complex, in comparison to leprechaun romance dynamics.

Karkat dragged himself out of the bedroom and into the bathroom without paying attention. When he wandered into the kitchen he looked marginally more awake and was able to focus on the grave expressions on both of their faces. Foregoing breakfast for a moment, he stood beside Dave with a hand on the other's back.

"What's going on, is something wrong with the shoot? It's not supposed to rain or some shit today is it? We don't have the time..."

Bro shook his head, still standing by the window with the bowl of cereal in his hand. "Nothin'. I guess it's inevitable." He turned to Karkat with an unreadable expression, and walked past to put the bowl in the dishwasher. "I'll meet you chuckleheads at the first shoot site. The overlook, yeah?" He waved over his shoulder as he walked away.

Dave got a confused, slightly affronted look as Bro left. "Th'fuck was that about?" He shook his head. "Rock paper scissors to see who's gonna wake up laserface?" He said, holding out his fist with a smirk.

"Man, fuck you," Karkat groaned, then put out his fist, shaking twice then shooting a win, then two losses that meant that he would have to be the one to retrieve their guest. He stuck his tongue at Dave then crept into the spare room, leaving the door cracked. Thirty seconds later he ran back out with slime on his face, visibly fuming and glaring directly at Dave. "Tomorrow, it's your turn," he muttered, wiping the goop off his face and washing his hands before finally fixing his own breakfast, then doing the same for Sollux.

"You fucking thuck," Sollux muttered as he passed from the spare room to the bathroom to shower with his clothes in hand, only spending maybe ten minutes in it before emerging and drinking down the cereal Karkat had just put down for him. "Tho what'th the deal? It'th pretty grey out there but it giveth the firtht theneth thome pretty good atmothphere without having to rely on filterth."

"I'll grab some lights and we'll get to work," Dave said over a mouthful of cereal, "Bro's gone ahead to set some shit up for us, a changing booth and stuff." He figured that was why the dine and dash, and he texted their Disciple actress to make sure she was on her way to the set, saying she'd be meeting his brother and their Dolorosa there, and they'd be around in about a half an hour. "You guys ready?" He asked, and then got a text from Rose. She was having weird feelings about the day. Great, two people being spooked by a little cloud cover.

"Did you run the Darkleer thing by your brother?" Karkat asked as he went to grab his things, his costume going into a bag with a few bottles of water and a couple of granola bars scrounged up from an open box somewhere in the back of the cupboard on the off-chance they didn't take much of a break for food. They were working on a limited timeframe, after all. "If it starts to rain after all, we can move to the scenes we wanted to shoot inside the mill instead of just canceling everything," he mentioned as he toed his shoes on, wandering around picking up things here and there to try and put their apartment back in some semblance of order before they left it.

Dave shook his head, grabbing a few things as well - his laptop, a few extra battery packs, and the camera, and settled the bags over his shoulder. "I was going to pitch it to him once we got out there. He was in and out of here before I could say fuckall. Dude's in one of his stoic warrior trances or some shit, I dunno." He put his sunglasses on and brushed his hair out of his face with his fingertips. "Captor, go grab your costume. We're doing scenes three and five at the outlook, so it'll be you, nubs, Kanaya and Furlue."

Once they arrived, Kanaya and Furlue were in costume and ready to go, talking to each other and hitting it off pretty well. Bro had set up the set and had already grabbed lights, getting things set up where the ideal camera angles were lit well, as well as having set up the changing area - nothing more than a curtained area off towards where they'd parked - and had a snack table set up with water bottles and snack platters. It looked almost fucking professional when Dave arrived on the scene. Rose stepped up to Dave and spoke to him a moment, and he shook his head, waving off her concerns, and started setting up the camera, asking Bro to take care of the mic.

Rose came up to Karkat as they waited for Sollux to get dressed. "Break a leg out there," she said with a faint, worried smile, fussing with Karkat's hair to get it fixed up right. "If you see anything weird out there while filming, don't hesitate to tell Dave to call cut. I have a feeling he's only going to listen to you today."

"He should try and listen to all of us," Karkat muttered, shaking his hair back down a bit when she'd finished fussing, pulling his hood up and securing it over his horns. There were miniature microphones clipped to the insides of their costumes so that their voices would be easily picked up and he fitted his just out of sight. The shoot was due to start at any time, and he had yet to really make his acquaintance with his Disciple past simple hellos. He traded pleasantries with her until it was time to start rolling on the opening scene. It was relatively quiet, and would eventually be voiced over in a calm narration until things really started to move. The nearly professional setup made many of them feel as if they were really part of a big-name production, which honestly wasn't far from the truth after the lengths that Sollux had gone to when it came to permeating the net with rumor and teasers of the film.

It went relatively smoothly throughout most of the first scene, calling for occasional cuts and redone lines here and there. The breeze that was starting to pick up gave the costumes an interesting, dramatic billowing look that would allow for some good transition shots when they were taken into the special effects, but when it started to sprinkle on their heads, Furlue looked toward the sky. It was still in character, right down to her reactions to the rain. She was a good actress, better than anyone could have hoped. It quickly went south though when she pointed upward, drawing their attentions to what she had spotted to begin with; It looked like someone had poured ink into water suspended overhead in the overcast sky. Karkat gave the cut gesture across his throat, turning back around to Dave behind the camera then up at Bro as he stood with his hand on the sword at his hip.

Dave stopped filming and squinted at the sky, his fingers twitching beside him as he started to realize what it was. Rose murmured, "I knew it," as she stopped knitting in a folding chair outside on the offside of the set and stepped away towards Kanaya, tapping one of her needles against her leg impatiently.

Bro sped to his car and then back, setting the rocketboard down beside him before unsheathing his katana. "Sollux, get Furlue out of here," he demanded, and squinted as the Outer God poured itself down out of the cloud. The closer it got, the more detailed it became, its hundreds of mouths gnashing and making the terrible sound of leaves being crushed and jello being gargled by some large throat. Dave stepped in front of Karkat and put his arms out. "Any chance there's another sword in your car, Bro?" He turned and realized that Bro had jetted off already, swiftly going in for the attack.

Rose stood at the ready, the energy she'd summoned spreading between her needles as she glared up at the sky. "Now would be a great time to get your shit together, Dave," She gently scolded as she leapt to keep a long tendril from reaching their group. Karkat bristled slightly as Dave took a place in front of him, shoving him off and pointing out at the other Strider already on his way to try and drive back the cosmic monstrosity. He swung around and took off at a sprint back toward Bro's car on the off-chance he'd brought more weapons along, which wasn't much of a longshot. He clawed at the passenger door to check whether he had something available for any of them to use, particularly the scythes with which he'd been allowed to train. Sollux was running past with an arm around the confused young woman under his arm, trying to call someone to pick her up but coming up empty as all cellphone reception for the area was completely fucked. He could have helped; he had his psionics, even if they were severely damped after everything that he'd been through.

Kanaya had flipped her lipstick out of her belongings, opening it to apply casually then whipping it down and ripping the cord of the sudden chainsaw. She glanced at Rose with a soft smile before going forth as well, already spotting a point at which she would be able to attack when a writhing limb came down low enough. Dave growled low under his breath, his fingers twitching just before him, wanting things just to slow down, enough where he could catch up with Bro and the others. What he didn't expect were the timetables to shiver into existence below his fingers, which made him jump back faintly, not sure how he'd done that. He tried it again, focusing on that and the monster, not on Karkat.

Bro was doing a fair enough job beating it back on his own, though with the girls there to make sure the dripping tentacles didn't reach Karkat or his brother, he was sure that it wouldn't do much damage. He gave a quick glance to one speeding tentacle that was in a direct line to grab lil' man's boyfriend and took off to intercept.

Rose saw the same tentacle and sped after it as well, shouting at Karkat to take cover, grimacing as she realized that it was far too fast, and it was far too close.

Dave looked up at Rose's shout and he felt his blood practically freeze in his veins as the large, writhing, eyed tentacle upturned his brother's car, reaching for Karkat specifically. He finally got the tables back and slowed down time to a crawl, before rushing after his matesprit in an attempt to knock him away. The effects of the tables wore off just before he got to the parking lot and he had to duck to keep the Camaro from hitting him as it went airborne. His entire thought process went from coherency to shit shit sHIT SHIT SHIT _SHIT_

As Karkat rocketed into the sky and over the trees, he was barely aware that he had left the ground, nor could he scream as his breath had been knocked out of him by the force of the swipe. He tumbled gently in the air until his cloak snagged on an upper branch and ripped away, snapping his arm in the process as he ragdolled away across the treetops, finally tumbling down through them nearly a mile away. Sollux had spotted the direction he'd been flying and immediately crashed off into the underbrush after him, screaming as if on fire as he followed the noise until he could no longer hear it. He stumbled to a halt after several minutes running full-pelt through the tangles of undergrowth, staring around desperately until he spotted splashes of bright red that made his throat clench shut. He started to follow the trail they'd left until they'd given way to a wider path created by a projectile body crashing across the forest floor then coming to a stop.

Except when he got there, there was no body, dead or otherwise. He spun on the spot, yelling breathlessly first for Karkat, then for Dave, Rose, anyone that might hear him even all the way out here.

\--

In the forest between the outlook and the mill, there was a cranky bitch waiting for the group to do what she'd seen they'd do, and wait for a little shrimpy loudmouth to come crashing out of the sky. Vriska sat impatiently on the quest bed, watching the eldritch terror in the sky as it moved towards the party. Good god, this was boring.

She caught a glimpse of Karkat as he was swatted into the sky and hopped into action, swiftly flying to catch Karkat in the forest, sneering a little bit once she got his broken body off the ground. She muttered at his barely-living form, "Probably won't even get a thank-you for this," and sped off back towards the quest bed, flying as fast as her wings could carry her. Dave was on Sollux's heels as they ran through the forest, diverting his path to see if he could find Karkat in a different direction, panicked that he'd never find his matesprit. The shout from Sollux made him spin on his heel and run towards him. He saw the large amount of blood before he even registered Sollux's presence and his heart dropped, bringing him to his knees. He was out of breath and completely unsure of what the FUCK just happened.

Bro was busy getting revenge for the ironiCamaro, and beating the horrorterror back. It let out an unnatural shriek as he went straight for every larger eye it had, then finally swung his katana wide, sending it off to whatever hellish dimension it had decided to come from. "S'right, fucker," he muttered, looking down to the ground to see Rose running towards the trees. He followed along over the forest and landed just as Kanaya and Rose made it into the clearing. 

Dave had completely shut down in that time. He stood back up and held his hands in fists at his sides. He hadn't done anything. He couldn't do what he'd said he'd do. He didn't know where Karkat was, and by the sheer amount of blood, he knew the outcome was grim. He simply stood, staring at the blood on the ground and on the branches of the trees.

Vriska laid Karkat down on the quest slab and crossed her arms as she fluttered down into a sitting position nearby. She thought loudly at him, "Let go, stubborn shithead. Your prince charming'll be here soon." She then shifted her focus to Sollux, speaking to him telepathically. "Bring them here. Follow my lead." She laid out a path for him to take from where they all were to where she was. Sollux winced at the voice in his head, sneering some in a silent retort. He glanced back at Dave and laid a hand on his arm, then moved it to the small of his back to bring him along. If anyone deserved to be there with Karkat as he died, it was Dave. Unfortunately, by the time they'd made it to where he was lying, he was already gone, having bled out over the quest bed. Kanaya and Rose arrived shortly thereafter, staying back out of the way with their hands laced together. Dave didn't move when Sollux touched him, which prompted Bro to do the same, pushing him along while he walked heavily behind the others. Once there, Dave grit his teeth at the sight. There was too much fucking blood, and too much fucking grief. He'd failed.

"Why ithn't he athending," Sollux muttered, staring at the broken body then turning back to Vriska. "Why ithn't he doing the glowy thing and getting hith thtupid god tier thuit?"

"I don't know," Vriska replied. "He should have done the flashy thing." She stood up and walked to Dave, putting her hand on his. "Kiss him. It worked for others, maybe it's what he needs." She looked at Dave, and shook her head. "He's completely lost it in there, his thinkpan is all black and guilt. Come on, asshole." She sighed heavily and started _forcing_ him to walk to the round slab, making him sit down. "Now kiss him," she demanded aloud, forcing Dave to lean down over Karkat's body and leave a kiss on his lips.

Bro stood there, watching the puppet act with a stony expression. Dave pulled himself out of it and glared at Vriska, standing up and pushing her aside to shove Bro. "Do something!" He shouted, "You can do everything else, right? So do something here! Fuckin' save him, Bro!" 

Bro grabbed Dave's wrists and twisted him around in a strong hold against his chest. "I can't do shit, lil' man. He's got to do it himself. It's gonna take some time. Serket, you stay here with him. C'mon kids. S'not like we can stay here in the rain all night."

Rose looked up at Kanaya and then over to Vriska again, and then to Dave, slipping over wrap her arms around his waist as the elder Strider guided him back out of the clearing, leading the way out of the woods. Kanaya followed solemnly behind after a nod to Vriska. 

"Let's just get back to the apartment. She'll let us know when there's a change," Bro assured them.

Vriska sat back down a safe distance from the bed and crossed her arms, glaring at Karkat's body. "You'd better do this, you little fucker," she muttered as she lit a cigarette and hunkered down out of the rain.

Kanaya and Rose opted to stay with Dave that night, never leaving his side as he remained in his shut down mental state. Sollux had shut himself in the spare bedroom, pacing anxiously, just waiting for some word from Vriska or Bro that something had changed. He'd ascended almost immediately when he'd died and gotten to his quest bed, so what was taking Karkat this long? Nobody slept that night, keeping close to Dave and drinking pot after pot of coffee. The rain outside had picked up, and at one point Kanaya mused privately that the blood had almost certainly washed away by now.

Overnight, Vriska had camped out to watch over the quest bed and the body on it, muttering bitterly to herself as she kept a mental eye on the corpse's brain. This was bullshit; why should she have to be the one to make sure everything went right? She didn't want this job. She damn sure didn't _like_ this job. And Karkat? Pff, fuck that guy. He'd never done her a single fucking favor. The only reason she was doing this was so that she and everyone else could keep their endgame prize of this nearly-fictitious reality.

Goddamn she wished it would quit raining.

Dave had basically decided that Rose was his personal comfort object overnight, wrapping his arms around her and barely letting her leave his side. She at least managed to get him to eat something so he wouldn't be lightheaded on top of despondent. They fell asleep on the sofa, with her reading a book and him looking over her shoulder.

Bro stuck around as well, at least until Dave fell asleep and gave Sollux the assurance that he'd be back in the morning. He drove Dave's car back to the outlook, and grabbed everything out of his totaled car, shoving it into the trunk. He then slept in the front seat of his brother's car, dozing lightly to keep close and be there.

Vriska finally dozed off at dawn, her arms curled around her legs and her face against her knees, her glasses tucked safely into her pocket. She had used too much goddamn energy to get the little fucking freeloading corpse to his bed, and now she was wiped. She didn't even understand what the fuck the problem was. This was _his_ bed, he wasn't dead when she put him there, so it should have, at least, in theory, worked. Sollux had ascended just fine. So had Eridan, and he was WAY more dead when she brought his assassinated ass to his bed, after having to lose the tail of his bodyguards. This bullshit was starting to become the bane of her entire fucking existence.

By the time she'd fallen asleep, the rain had finally let up, the air heavy and cold, fog rolling through the undergrowth of the forest. Everything was horribly damp and sticky by the time anything happened. Even then, it happened more or less silently save for a deep, rumbling throb echoing out from the ground beneath the quest bed. Vriska woke up after a few moments of this, rubbing at her eyes as she stood up with a painful groan. "Fucking finally..."

Coming back into the world after spending a night dead was painful, to say the least and when Karkat's body twisted in the air, he sounded like he was choking, the process rather more agonizing than it really should have been. He collapsed back onto his quest bed when the pulsating light around him had faded, the wings sprouting from his back twitching as they unfurled. He shuddered violently and wrapped his arms tight around himself, his head whipping back and forth. He had no idea where he was, he just knew that everything hurt, he was freezing his bulge off, and there was nobody around.

"Hey, I'm right here, you sad sack of shit," Vriska snapped as she strode up to him, startling him badly and causing him to fall back, then snap his hands up on reflex. She stopped in place, limbs frozen mid-step then crumpling as he slammed his hands down with a strangled shout. She laid there in an awkward, painful heap, swearing venomously under her breath as she was pinned there by her own body.

Bro had been awoken by the fact that it was lighter than it was supposed to be. He shot off a quick text to both Kanaya and Sollux, knowing that the human kids were probably still asleep, and got out of the car to go retrieve the others. 

He showed up in the clearing to see Vriska in a heap and Karkat looking pretty fucking bad for having just resurrected. "Yo," came the quiet tone of his voice, and he walked up to the quest bed. "You scared the absolute shit out of all of us." He looked over at Vriska, who was gripping her head and growling out Alternian obscenities. Karkat released his grip finally and turned on the spot, hyperventilating slightly as he stared up at Bro with wide, panicked eyes.

"Where the fuck is everyone? How long have I been out here," he demanded, scrambling off the quest bed and wincing at the squelch of the ground underfoot. At least he'd been dried out by the transformation, but he was still freezing. He dragged the cape of his god tier pajamas around him to act as a blanket, looking up at Bro with a grimace. "Did everyone leave? Did they literally fucking leave me here with _her_?" He jerked his head back at Vriska as she picked herself up off the ground, still muttering mutinously about knowing she wouldn't even be getting a thanks.

"You were dead all night. I was close by, though." he pulled his coat off and wrapped it over Karkat's shoulders. "You get taller or is it just the uneven ground?" He shook his head with a smile. "Let's get you home, huh? C'mon, Vriska, I'll get you a hotel. You did good tonight." He led the way through the woods. 

When they got to Dave's car, Vriska took the back seat, her legs sprawled over the length of the seat, and Bro took the driver's side. "Dave's kinda... Not good. It'll do him heaps of good to see you're back, though." He started the engine and drove carefully home on the still-slick streets. Karkat slumped down in the passenger seat with his heels on the edge of it, his nose pressed against his knees. At the mention of Dave, he only crumpled further; Dave was blaming himself for what happened, he knew it. He reached over and turned up the heat in the car then turned the vents toward himself, still shivering lightly. In the backseat, Vriska sneezed quietly when grumbled about getting sick over his dumb ass, blinking in surprise when a napkin was passed back to her from over the top of his seat. She snatched it and wiped her nose, rolling her eyes.

"When you get there you'd better be real fucking willing to tell them about your freaky powers," she muttered, looking back out of the window.

Bro looked into the rearview mirror at Vriska, "You ever hear the phrase, 'if you can't say anything nice, keep your goddamn mouth shut?" His tone was flat but firm. "Maybe you can work on that while you get dried off." He swung past his rented lodge cabin and dropped her off with the key and the instructions to stay there and take a hot bath and then get some sleep. "You can borrow my clothes. Might be a bit loose, but it's better than wearin' damp shit."

He drove off and looked over at Karkat, shaking his head. "She's acerbic, she's selfish, but she's the one who found you out there and got you to your bed. She's the one who tipped me off to you guys needing me here, s'why I'm here at all. Little dude coulda done this without me, but she saw that shit was gonna go down. I don't care what kinda bullshit went on before this place, but I think it's high time that you let it go. She did you a fuckin' solid." He shut up after that and drove the rest of the way to the apartment.

Karkat grumbled himself at that, crossing his arms and glaring out of the window. He didn't like knowing that he owed Vriska anything. It felt wrong on so many levels. He pulled himself up the stairs to the apartment slowly and entered behind Bro, glancing around at the girls on the couch. By the time they got back, Dave had woken up just long enough to drag himself to bed. Rose was curled up in the corner of the sofa that Dave usually sat, knitting quietly, Kanaya settled in next to her, reading. In Kanaya's lap, Em was purring loudly and being pet and scritched. Karkat gave a soft, shuddery sigh as he approached, grateful that neither of them said anything as he reached over the back of the couch and took a moment to scratch behind the kitten's ear himself. She took a moment to sniff at the new, earthy smell on him from the forest then went back to purring contentedly at Kanaya.

The bedroom door opened then closed silently as he stepped in, leaving the others in the living room to do as they wished. He could see Dave curled up fetal in his blankets and his chest tightened painfully. The warning about not letting him get completely despondent came back to him and he sighed heavily, stripping out of his new outfit and leaving it on the ground as he crawled into bed, easing the blankets out from around Dave and pulling them around himself then wrapping his arms around Dave's shoulders. "Hey. Asshole. Wake up," he murmured then nuzzled into his temple and buried his nose into soft blonde hair. Dave barely registered that the bed had moved, but the familiar warmth against his back and Karkat's voice woke him up, and he turned over, wrapping his arms tight around his matesprit, shivering and shaking his head. He almost couldn't believe it, even though he'd been through the exact same goddamn thing once before. Having seen Karkat like that, though, lifeless, his blood pooled around him, it broke him in a way. He was certain that ascension was beyond his matesprit after so long. He took a shuddered, heavy breath as the tears started to fall.

"Why the hell did you take so fucking long, you fucking lazy ass deadbeat?" He chuckled wearily as he clung tighter. "You're _trying_ to kill me, I swear to fucking god."

"How the fuck should I know? At least I made it back at all," Karkat muttered against the side of his head then buried his face against Dave's shoulder, his grip tightening as he felt the steady drip of tears against his arm. He dragged his thumb over Dave's cheek then tilted his head up to press a firm kiss to his lips then looked back into his face. "Jesus fuck, did you even sleep at all?" He asked, mostly talking to himself as his thumb smoothed over the bruised-looking skin under Dave's eye.

The kiss was responded to in kind, though weakly because of how fucking tired Dave felt. He huffed a half chuckle and shook his head, "Dunno, a couple hours I guess. Mostly I just...tuned out." He looked at Karkat with a smile, putting his hand on his matesprit's cheek. "Jesus H., dude. I am so fucking glad you made it." He put his forehead against Karkat's and breathed a sigh of relief. Then he scowled and gently headbutted his matesprit. "Fucker, when I say I'm gonna protect you, you _don't go running off_ like a fucking dope, got that?" He shook his head and huffed a chuckle. "Not that it matters anymore. You don't need my protection now that you're back. Probably have some weird... fuckin'. I don't know. Crazy superpower that you can turn into blood or some shit. Never figured out your aspect."

"Well, I kind of ruined Vriska's day with it earlier," Karkat shrugged, bumping his head back against Dave's. "And I don't need to be protected like some fucking porcelain doll even without god tier. If you're going to keep anyone alive it should be yourself, you dipshit." He curled up with his legs wedged in between the other's, tangling them together and dragging the blankets up over their heads. "Ok, I'm still cold as fuck after being left out in the goddamn rain. We can figure out what the hell to do from here after we both get a little sleep, alright?"

"Apparently you _do_ need it, fucker," Dave said sternly, "You fucking died. I don't care how much you fucking aren't dead right now, you _were_ and if you ever are again, I will fucking find some resurrection juju just so I can raise you up and then kill you myself for the heartbreak." He buried his head in Karkat's neck, and sighed tiredly. "But you're right. Sleep's good." He was still crying, though he really didn't have much choice in the matter. It'd stop eventually.

Meanwhile, out in the living room, Bro had pulled up some work for his own sites and was working on that. Rose smiled as she slipped away from Kanaya, who finally dozed off - The rainbow drinker was the one who'd slept the least, despite Sollux drinking about seven pots of coffee on his own. Rose settled down beside Bro and looked over his other shoulder. "What are you up to?" She asked in a hushed tone. Bro chuckled quietly and shook his head. "Busy work 'til those guys wake up. You should sleep, too. It was a long night for us all." Rose nodded and slipped away again, and tucked herself against Kanaya, and in a few minutes, she dozed off as well. Bro pulled a blanket up over them, and then checked on the boys, first Karkat and Dave, and then Sollux in the cocoon. Content that the kids were all asleep, he left and went to check on Vriska and maybe get sleep a little, his own self.

In spite of a heavy layer of exhaustion weighing on him both mind and body, Karkat stayed awake, listening to Dave breathing and taking the time to feel the gentle thudding of his heart. He laid one hand against Dave's shoulder and concentrated on his pulse, bringing his hand away from the pale skin slowly then blinking at the large, vivid handprint left in its wake. He relaxed his hold on the blood he'd tried as gently as possible to collect in the blood vessels closest to the surface of Dave's skin and watched the print fade off as quickly as it had arisen. The power was eerie, to say the least. He pushed it out of his mind and rested his chin against the top of Dave's head, starting to sing under his breath in the hopes that it would stop the steady flow of tears soaking the pillow beneath them.

Later in the afternoon Sollux sat up in the recuperacoon, rubbing his hands over his face and groaning at the throbbing ache crawling over his skull. He slumped against the side, then pulled himself out and crept to the bathroom to shower off and figure out exactly what he was going to do with the day. Everyone else was still asleep and he hadn't seen Bro since early that morning. And Karkat... Scrambling out of the shower and grabbing a towel from the bar, Sollux bolted from the bathroom and nearly collided with Dave's bedroom door before easing it open, peeking in at the large lump mostly hidden by blankets. He continued to stare until it shifted and a rather flat grey foot poked out from under the covers. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and ran his hand over his face, leaning against the door frame and scratching some at his hair. "Way to give everyone a fucking heart attack," he muttered then turned to go back to the spare room.

Dave woke up with the sound of the door opening, though he was too bleary to move or say anything. He wrapped his arms around Karkat and then smiled. Good. It wasn't some really dickish dream that he'd come home. He slipped away just enough to look at Karkat, smiling fully as he brushed his fingers through his matesprit's hair. "Hey, cockbite," he murmured. "We should get up."

"That is a truly imbecilic notion and you should be shot for suggesting it," Karkat muttered and pulled the blankets down around him, his head shoving under the pillows to block the light coming from the doorway. He felt better after remaining comatose for nearly nine hours, but it didn't stop him from wanting nothing more than to stay in bed, away from people and noise and life in general.

"Yeah, you're absolutely right. Stay in here and be the lead actor through astral projection. That's a great plan. Best movie gimmick ever." Dave said with a smile, leaning up to press a kiss to Karkat's forehead before slipping away and stretching, rubbing his stubbly face. "M'gonna go get a shower." He stood and grabbed a clean set of clothes and towel, before leaving the bedroom. 

He came out of the bathroom, still stubbly, but looking more or less like his regular self. He smiled at the girls, who had already borrowed his shower and fed themselves. "You two ready for another fun-filled afternoon of excitement and potential death?"

"How could I ever say no to such a charming notion?" Rose remarked, smiling up at him. "How's Karkat?"

"Alive and grouchy as ever. He'll probably be out soon, maybe you can ask him yourself." He smiled as he dropped down beside her. "Thanks for putting up with that bullshit la- "

"Seriously. Don't mention it. Ever."

"I'm impressed at your dedication to this endeavor." Kanaya smiled as she stood, making her way to the kitchen to take out the leftover Thai she had made while the majority of them were still asleep. It was opened and poured onto a pair of plates and put into the microwave, the second one nearly done by the time Karkat dragged himself from the bedroom to the bathroom, then from there to the kitchen, about to find something to eat until Kanaya slid the plate over to him. He arched an eyebrow at her, then bent to kiss her cheek in thanks.

Then his brain processed the fact that he'd just had to bend to to it and he looked down at himself, back at Kanaya as she gave him an amused look, then groaned. The only reason his pants weren't highwater on him now was that he'd forgotten to roll them up at the ankles as he did nearly every pair of pants he had. He wrinkled his nose, then pressed his shoulder against Kanaya's, standing up beside her straight and staring some as he came just about eye level with her hairline.

"Should I start working on extending some of your pants?" she asked sweetly, reaching up to pat the top of his head lightly.

Dave hadn't seen Karkat standing until he came out of the bathroom, and as such, he was just staring with a mouthful of food at his matesprit. He hadn't just gotten taller. He'd gotten more lean in the process, as well. Dave's smile went lopsided as he went back to his food, shaking his head. He wasn't about to say anything that he was thinking in front of Kanaya and Rose. He would have, years ago, but he figured he'd put them through enough hell for one week.

Rose simply smiled at the reaction and shook her head. "I do believe your matesprit approves, Karkat." She went back to the sweater that she was knitting for him, rather glad that she had yet to start on the arms.

"Wow, I just fucking love how _he's_ the only one besides me that's surprised about this," Karkat snorted, taking a seat at the counter in front of his plate and starting to shovel it down. It was good not to have to stand and cook when his muscles still felt as if he'd just participated in a ten-mile hike. He finished the meal in short order then stood and stretched with a quiet groan, rinsing his plate and putting it away then moving to the living room and sitting down beside Dave with his head leaning against the other's shoulder. "So, attempting to shoot again or should we work on sound instead? We still have fuck-all for a soundtrack. And Furlue will most likely never speak to us again."

"She sent Dave a text last night," Rose replied to that, "She asked him if we were some sort of superheroes or something. I, of course, responded to her in the affirmative, saying that we're the Junior League of Legends, with our senior ranking officer, Broderick Strider teaching us all we know. She called me a smartass and asked when filming will pick up. I told her that you'd get back to her on that when it was convenient" 

Dave snorted at that and shook his head, wrapping his arm around Karkat's waist. "I think working on the soundtrack's a good idea. You brought your violin like I asked, right?" He looked to Rose who nodded. "Unfortunately, I think your brother's guitar was broken in the fray, as it was in his car at the time."

Dave sighed and shook his head. "I guess he'll have to borrow or buy one." He turned to Karkat and smiled. "You wanna ask Ferrus if we can borrow one of the practice rooms to record for a day?"

"I think he'd actually be up for sitting in to help," Karkat nodded, removing himself from Dave's arms long enough to retrieve his phone, which had been sitting in his back with yesterday's clothes. He winced some as he realized that he had no idea where the rest of his costume was, nor what state it was likely to be in if it were found. "Sorry about the costume," he said as he passed Kanaya, texting Ferrus as he settled back against Dave again.

"Nonsense. It was for reasons such as this that I made and brought along extras," she replied, smiling faintly as she settled against Rose, taking up the last empty space on the couch.

Rolling his eyes, Karkat snorted, "Yeah, because every day we need to expect to be clobbered by cosmic monstrosities." He shook his head and glanced around, frowning some when he realized that he hadn't seen Sollux since coming out of the bedroom. "Is that asshole still asleep?"

"He woke up briefly," Rose said as she set down her knitting to press a kiss to Kanaya's cheek, "peeked in on you, and then on us, and went back to sleep. He's likely just as mentally exhausted as the rest of us because of our little scare over you. That, and, well, Vriska." She motioned to her own head, making a scrambly motion, before leaning against her matesprit and returning to her knitting.

Dave huffed a chuckle, "It takes a lot out of a guy when she pulls the puppet strings, I'm not gonna even try to hide that." He looked over at Karkat, brow furrowed. "If you're taller than me, I'm gonna get Mom to make a fuckin' shrink ray, you little shit."

"If she tries to pull that shit on anyone else, I'm going to fuck her over ten ways to next perigee," Karkat muttered, putting his head back on Dave's shoulder and arching an eyebrow at him. "Dude, are you seriously getting _jealous_ on me now?"

"No," Dave quickly retorted, his ears burning. 

"That isn't jealousy," sing-songed Rose, not looking up from her project. 

"Wow, I'm extremely happy that you pointed that out, Rose. Elated." He gave Karkat's waist a light squeeze before standing up. "I'm going to go wake up Sollux and get shit together for the day. Somebody needs to text Bro and tell him to wake up and get a guitar." He walked into the guest room and knocked on the side of the cocoon. "Hey, we're up now."

"It'th not like I can actually hear you athholeth out there," Sollux grumbled and sat up in the middle of the slime, tall enough for his head to poke out of the opening without getting up. "What time ith it anyway?"

"Quarter past get out of the slime bowl." Dave said, checking his phone for the time. "5:43. Karkat's tall. Just gonna... eave you with that little tidbit of information." He walked back out and then narrowed his eyes at Karkat. "Stop it." He walked into the kitchen then, and grabbed a soda for himself. He wasn't really expecting his already attractive matesprit to hit a growth spurt this late in the game and suddenly fucking turn into some sort of Adonis. It was going to be distracting as hell. 

Bro knocked on the door before walking in, Vriska following closely behind him. "Hey. What's the schedule today?"

Karkat flailed some and flopped back against the back of the couch, then turned back to Dave with the obvious 'stop what?' all over his face. He floundered even more when Kanaya spoke up again, "We'll have to re-shoot yesterday's scene because of this new development." Karkat yelled some at the ceiling then stood up and wandered back to the kitchen, wrinkling his nose as he leaned right up against Dave's side with a sour face. Vriska made a nearly identical one when she heard that, then frowned and looked back at Dave.

"Great. That's just fantastic. Nubfuck went and screwed over a day of production. When are you even getting into the sound studio for the voiceover bits?"

Sollux's groan was audible before he even got out of the spare room. "Oh don't tell me... Why are you here, Vrithka?"

"My car's still on-location, shit-for-pan."

"Goddammit."

Bro gave Vriska a steady, stern look at the way she talked to the others, before walking in and sitting down beside Rose and Kanaya on the arm of the sofa. "How's it goin'?" 

"Spectacular as ever, Bro. Can't you just feel the love in the air?" Rose said, folding her knitting and putting it in her bag.

Dave wrapped his arm around Karkat and looked at Vriska. "Can you at least tone the bitchitude down to a four or five while you're here, Vriska?" He took a long drink of his soda. "We're heading to the music department to get some soundtrack recorded. If I can get a second room, I'll set you up with your script and you can do your thing. ...You're wearing Bro's pants."

"Mine got soaked while waiting for chumpzilla over there to ascend. Your human lusus has been kind enough to lend me clothes until I can get back to my car and get another pair of my own." Her words were toned down, but the venom in them doubled. "And for the record, _Dave_ , Bro has been the _only_ one in this room who has shown me even a tiny amount of kindness in this entire ordeal."

Sollux had just emerged from the bedroom in a pair of jeans and nothing else, having opted to just wipe off the sopor slime rather than taking another shower. He rolled his eyes at Vriska, to which she stuck out her tongue but kept her mouth shut to circumvent more of Bro's wrath. Sollux raised an eyebrow at the two of them, then turned to Dave and Karkat, the latter of whom still seemed to be sulking as he slouched under Dave's arm. It kept his height more or less concealed, at least for the time being.

"Tho what, am I jutht going to thtay here, or do you actually need me for anything? I can work a looper, but tho can either of you guyth," he shrugged as he looked between either Strider.

Bro shrugged, "I guess if that's the plan, I can take Vriska to get her car, and see if I can't get someone to tow mine, then we'll meet you guys over there. You only wanted me for a few guitar pieces anyhow." 

Dave shrugged at that, "Thanks, Bro. Sollux, you and I can work on the web end of all this bullshit while they're recording. I really don't need to be there except to press record. I can edit it all to my needs when I get it. Kanaya, do you need a ride to your hotel to get your sewing supplies?" 

Vriska raised her eyebrow to all of this. It was like stepping into the fucking twilight zone, where Dave managed to actually not only pull his own weight, but lead a project.

"And this means I'm going to have to go and get the big-ass case," Karkat sighed and removed himself from under Dave's arm again, going to retrieve the cello and dreading coming back out with it to Vriska's amusement and scorn; he was still of the 'I'm too fucking short for this' mindset. Sollux likewise went to retrieve his laptop, unplugging it from the wall and bringing it over to Dave. He pulled up a few things for Dave to see, including a web page with a few teaser images and information on some of the people involved with production.

"I'll keep updating thith ath we get more done," he explained and opened a couple of things for the others to look over. "I'm hoping if we get thomething really good recorded today I can put up a thoundclip to autoplay whenever someone hitth the page. Kind of like what they did for the Haunting in Connecticut movie page."

Dave grinned as he patted Sollux on the back. "Look at this fucking killer page, holy hell. That's pro as fuck, man." he navigated to look at the list of people on there, and then took a look at the setup in general. "Looks great man, adding a nice ambient track to it will definitely grab some serious attention." 

Vriska and Rose took a look as well, and then Vriska looked up at them all. "This is going to wind up being really disappointing or really groundbreaking. I hope you all know what you're doing." 

With a subtle smile, Dave mentally cheered. FINALLY, he got her to focus on something other than doom and gloom for half a minute. "Yeah, I hope we do, too. C'mon guys, let's get going." He picked up his bag and stepped up to Karkat, looking him in the eye. He paused at that, and then smirked. "Yeah, I'm not going to get used to that for a while." He snuck a kiss before heading out the door. With Vriska and Bro taking a cab instead of Dave's car, and Rose and Kanaya taking their rental, they split up into three groups, the first going off to recover vehicles, and the other two to the music building.

The recording session for music started smoothly, Rose taking up the lead and really giving a great edge to the entire production. Dave didn't even have to do much once they were in the studio, except give his opinion from time to time. He was busy with explaining how he wanted to proceed from here on with the internet saturation, though he had full trust of Sollux's end decisions and knew that it was in good hands.

Vriska and Bro showed up about an hour later. Bro's car would need serious repair, having dumped on its engine and top, and if he wanted to go anywhere in it - like home - it'd take three weeks. Vriska, in the meanwhile, took up delightfully secluded residence in another recording booth, reading her lines while Dave sat in to ask her to change her inflection or mood on certain parts, just to make sure he'd get just the right impact. She did splendidly, even if she put up temporary hissyfits and threaten to disembowel him and feed him to her lusus.

When Dave went off to occupy himself watching Vriska's voice acting, Karkat spent a lot of his time mostly chatting with the others, letting Ferrus know a little more about the production and how it was supposed to go from here. He shrugged off the comment about his obvious outward change, just writing it off as a late growth spurt. Ferrus didn't question it, but it was obvious that he didn't quite believe it. He turned to pick up conversation with Rose after that, letting Karkat do as he pleased for the time being. He took that time to hit up Bro for some potential ideas for more additions to the soundtracks or changes to what they already had.

Kanaya seemed completely content where she sat in the practice room, listening to the others as she continued her ongoing project of making sure that Karkat's clothes still fit him, having taken a few pairs of pants and tucked them away into her sylladex for easy retrieval. Once Vriska complained that talking this much made her want to destroy all of civilization, Dave called it quits for the day. "You can come back tomorrow and we'll work on the rest. Vriska? Thanks. You're an unparalleled Mindfang."

"Well, I _have_ been practicing since I was just a grub," she said, flipping her bangs out of her face haughtily. "Don't let anybody else die, Strider, or you'll be sorry!" She waved goodbye and he shook his head, grabbing the flash drive on which the recording had been saved. He returned into the practice room just in time to see Rose and Bro talking to Ferrus about potential reworks that they could get done later. He stepped up to Karkat and grinned. "It's all coming together. My nefarious plot to do something with myself before 25 and drag my friends along for the ride is actually working." 

Bro cut off from the group, guitar slung over his shoulder, and walked over to Sollux. "Hey, let's go grab a drink." They all had plenty of time to work together for the project, but it had gotten fairly late, and he figured Sollux wouldn't mind time to just get out of the pandemonium and chill for a while. Sollux agreed wholeheartedly, feeling like a drink or five would be the perfect way to cap off a very stressful last twenty-four hours. He packed up his laptop and flash drives, flipping a quick salute to the others then following Bro out. Karkat watched them leave then glanced over at Kanaya as she started to pack up her work as well, standing and stretching with a soft yawn then going to Rose's side. They would stay for a little while longer and discuss the potential commandeering of more instruments and musicians for production of the soundtrack, but then they intended to take a cab back to their suite to give Karkat and Dave their apartment back.

"Look at you, actually being some kind of professional. If I didn't know any better I'd say I was actually dating a real director," Karkat muttered, leaning around the neck of the cello to reach up and scratch lightly at the back of Dave's neck. Dave grinned faintly and smiled at the scratch, leaning over to press a kiss to Karkat's cheek.

"I can be called that, since I'm really directing something. Shit man, even Spielberg didn't have a degree until recently, and he made all those damn awesome movies." He looked over to Karkat and nodded to the door. "Let's head on out, too. All that blatant screechy hostility made me ready to just get home and vegetate for a while." He waited patiently for Karkat to case up the cello, before walking with him to the car. He was actually pleased that he could walk at nearly his normal stride with Karkat for a change, though it was still something he'd have to get used to. Once back in the car, he turned to Karkat before starting the engine. 

"So... there's absolutely nothing you want to say about your newly found half-foot of height."

Karkat groaned and leaned his head back against the back of the seat, rolling it to the side to look back at Dave. "I don't even have to, given the fact that every other fucking person in on this little project already has, either to themselves or to everyone." He grimaced at Dave, then leaned across the space between their seats to press a firm kiss to his lips. "Can we just go now while we know we actually have our apartment back?"

With a smirk, Dave started the car and drove them back home, where he promptly sprawled across the sofa once his jacket and shoes were off. "Oh my god I'm never leaving this spot," he groaned, still overtaxed and somewhat sore from the day prior's turmoil. He looked around the room and grumbled, "It's worse now than usual. How the hell did that happen?" There were cups set everywhere, as well as soda cans and neglected bags of chips. The entire place looked nearly as bad as when he had no energy to clean back before Karkat came. Karkat was already milling around the room though, picking things up to throw away, as he had apparently decided was his duty from the moment he'd walked in the door at the beginning of the semester. When the cups were finally stashed in the dishwasher and the trash thrown away he crawled onto the couch without waiting for Dave to move, resting on top of him with his head on the other's chest, his feet hanging over the arm of the sofa. "Jeez, is this how you always feel?" He muttered, wiggling his toes some in the air then just letting it go.

Dave chuckled and wrapped his arm around Karkat, fully intending on not letting go until they both decided it was time to go to bed. "What, like the world was made too small? Yeah. Always." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's jaw and shook his head. "Can't say you'll get used to it, but you'll get over it eventually."

"If I knew how the fuck Kankri actually managed to pronounce hashtags when he talked I'd have something to say about tall privilege," Karkat snorted then turned his face up to press his nose against the underside of Dave's chin.

"Heh." Dave ran his fingers up Karkat's spine and shook his head. "You grew into that extra weight pretty fucking wonderfully, too. Like Jesus fuck, dude, calm down your goddamn attractiveness." He closed his eyes and smiled. "You already were a huge distraction, now I'm stuck with never ever being able to concentrate. Pssh." He rubbed Karkat's back idly, gently going after the tense and sore muscles of his shoulders.

Karkat closed his eyes, rolling his shoulders some into the touch. "You're so full of shit, Strider..." Nonetheless, he couldn't deny that it felt good (in a shallow kind of way) that Dave was going out of his way to compliment him, especially after the depression had hit and he'd barely reacted to anything aesthetic. He reached for one of Dave's hands and brought it around to his lips, lacing their fingers together then holding them there under his chin. Dave wasn't going to bring up how he still felt like sleeping for a month and never moving for the rest of eternity, and how he was still on a loop of guilt over not acting fast enough to save his matesprit. He managed to put on a calm facade and distract himself enough that day that it really didn't show. He smiled faintly and leaned down to press a kiss to Karkat's neck.

"Completely serious," he whispered.

Karkat nudged his nose against Dave's then pecked at his lips, reaching his free hand up to tilt Dave's head back down to face him. This close, he was able to get a good look at the other's eyes and the stress and sadness in them, his smile fading off a bit. "Dave, I'm right here," he said softly. "You didn't do anything wrong..."

Dave's facade fell and his expression crumbled into a subtle frown. "You weren't the one who had to see the one you love go flying through the air due to your own sheer incompetence. You weren't the one to see all that blood and wait nearly an entire day. Don't start trying to placate me, Karkat, just know that I'm sorry I couldn't get myself together fast enough to keep you from getting hit. And that it won't happen again. I know you're able to take care of yourself, but I fucking _promised_ you I'd be there to keep you safe." He grit his teeth and buried his head against Karkat's neck. "No dude, I fucked up. I know I fucked up, and even if it doesn't matter in the long run, that doesn't mean my fuckup is any less of one." He pushed down the emotions again and pressed a kiss to Karkat's jaw. "I thought first and reacted second and I shouldn't do that. I should be keeping my weapons on me. This can't happen again." It was really less about letting Karkat down and more about letting down himself; he'd broken a promise, gotten slow in his inactivity, and was completely caught offguard, none of which would have happened if he had been paying more attention to the warning signs. 

He leaned back to look in Karkat's eyes and chuckled faintly with a shake of his head. "It'll be a cold day in hell if I let myself get caught off my guard again. And now I don't have to worry about your dumb ass dying."

"If you start actively trying to be a hero over this I'm taking away all your weapons," Karkat muttered, squeezing down on Dave's hand tightly. "I don't want you to have to rush to my aid like I'm some goddamn damsel in distress just because you don't want me to get hurt again. I don't want to have to deal with the eventuality that you'd end up in my position, but _permanently_ because you had to do it to save me..." Mirroring Dave's frown, he reached up and cupped his hand against the back of the other's head, sitting up some to look him straight in the face. "Don't talk like you're the only one affected by this shit, Dave."

"Kinda hard since I'm my only frame of reference," Dave retorted, shaking his head. "I'm not treating you like a damsel in distress, I'm treating you like somebody I fucking care about. The difference is that you're a competent fighter and you can hold your own. You are your own goddamn person, and I know you can deal with your own fucking self. And kind of running concurrent to all _that_ , I _still_ want to make sure you're not fucked up again." He shook his head, "I'll be fucking fine, dude, there's no way I'm going to let myself get damaged for your benefit. I'm not _that_ selfless." His smile went lopsided. "Nah man, you completely misread my intentions."

Karkat calmed slightly and returned the smile with a soft one of his own. "Then don't stand in front of me. Don't hide behind me either. Stand right there at my fucking side like you're supposed to." He bent and pressed his lips to the center of Dave's forehead then took his lips, drawing him into a slow, deep kiss with his fingers curling into the hair at the nape of Dave's neck.

"Instinct," was all Dave could say as excuse before he leaned into the kiss, his arm wrapping more firmly around Karkat's waist, lightly tugging his matesprit's shirt up so he could trace his fingers against the hem of Karkat's beltline. He didn't pull away from the kiss for a good long moment. "Somehow I doubt it'd be very good if we got too into this right here," he murmured. "Never know when Sollux and Bro'll get back. We don't want to give them a show without at least a door charge."

"They'd walk right the fuck back out if they knew what was good for them," Karkat muttered, glancing back at the door then conceding and standing, pulling Dave up after him. He grabbed the hem of his matesprit's shirt and pulled it up over his head, balling it up in one hand and wrapping his arms around Dave's waist, savoring for a moment that he no longer had to tiptoe just to be able to kiss him. Without waiting for the potential interruption he headed back for the bedroom with his fingers hooked through one of Dave's belt loops, dragging him along.

Dave smirked and followed along without a word of protest. "Yeah, this is still cute as hell when you do it." Once in the bedroom he shut and locked the door behind them, and smirked a little before he grabbed Karkat's wrist and pulled him into a rough kiss, letting go only to push Karkat's shirt up his body, his hands moving over his matesprit's body, relearning every inch.

Peeling his shirt off over his head and throwing it on the ground near the foot of the bed, Karkat leaned back up into the kiss with a quiet groan. He pulled at the waist of Dave's jeans then pried open the button, his nails scratching over Dave's stomach. "Shut up and strip, Strider," he muttered, stepping back out of the way then peeling out of his own pants and settling onto the edge of the bed.

Dave was already pulling off his pants before Karkat could even say anything, but he didn't stop just to spite Karkat, though the thought briefly flitted through his mind. He smirked as he straddled Karkat, putting an arm around his matesprit's shoulder, the other moving down to drag his nails down Karkat's chest. He leaned down to kiss him again, deep and rough as he slid his hand all the way down to brush against his bulge, cupping his hand against the sheath while his long fingers dipped down to tease against his matesprit's nook. Karkat's hand clamped down over the top of Dave's, pushing his fingers up further, his breath shuddering against Dave's lips at the complete lack of hesitation. He bit hard on Dave's lower lip then pulled away to mouth at his throat, sucking several marks into the pale skin and biting into the base of his neck. His legs lifted to hook around Dave's and pull him closer, his bulge sneaking out against the other's palm and wrapping around his wrist. With a low groan, he rocked his hips against Karkat's while his fingers slipped into his matesprit's nook, grinning at the tight grip around his wrist. He tilted his head back and let out another moan from the bite, while the free hand that had been around Karkat's shoulder dug firmly into his back. He rolled his hips forward again, pressing his erection firmly against the base of Karkat's bulge, murmuring several extremely dirty thoughts he'd had over the course of the day.

Karkat chuckled quietly and tipped his head up to brush his lips over Dave's ear, mentioning a couple of ideas he'd had himself with all of the attention he was getting. He eased Dave's hand away and let his bulge wrap tightly around the other's cock. His hands dug into Dave's back and scratched down it until he'd reached the base of his spine, gripping down on his ass and pulling him flush up against him. Dave's ears went red with the way Karkat talked back, and his voice quavered faintly as he let out another groan, rocking his hips and pressing his lips firmly against Karkat's neck. He opened his mouth and sucked a light mark there, moving his hand back down between them to squeeze around his erection and Karkat's bulge with a low, loud groan. He brought his lips up to Karkat's ear and whispered, "then maybe I should fuck you straight into the mattress, since we've both obviously been wanting to get at each other all day."

"That, or else hold onto something and let me ride you like a mechanical hoofbeast. I don't care which," Karkat smirked then shoved back on Dave's shoulders, crawling back until his back hit the wall then pulling Dave after him and wrapping around him once more as he consumed his mouth. He licked at lightly bruised lips and grinned against them. "It's up to you."

Dave deliberated between the two as he brushed his tongue across Karkat's lips, rocking his hips back against his matesprit with a murmur. It only took a moment before he wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist and rolled himself onto his back, and looked up at Karkat with a smirk. He wanted to watch Karkat move, wanted to let him do all he wanted at that point. Karkat grinned and sat up straddled across Dave's hips, licking his lips and leaning his weight against his hands as he pushed Dave back to lie flat on his back.

"So would you rather have your hands free?" He chuckled and reached down for Dave's hands, taking them and pinning them on either side of his head. "I personally have no objection to whatever you have in mind."

There wasn't even an option in Dave's mind, and he shook his head. "I want to be able to touch you." He wasn't sure how that was even a question. With the newness of Karkat's more lithe, slightly built frame, and the way he had been so worried that he'd never even see him again, Dave wasn't in the mood to be deprived of that particular desire. He leaned up to give Karkat a light kiss, before dropping his head down onto the pillow and looking into his matesprit's eyes. "Quit stalling."

"Stalling. That's what you think this is." Karkat shook his head and sat up, trailing his hands over Dave's chest. He ran his thumbs over each nipple, intending to take full advantage of them now that the piercings had healed. He supported himself on his knees over Dave's hips, readjusting a bit when he realized that he was just slightly off-kilter, then reaching down between them to hold Dave in place as he fell back onto him. He let out a soft groan as his muscles clenched down around his matesprit as soon as he'd seated himself to the hilt still leaning forward with his hands on Dave's chest. Once Karkat's thumbs found his nipples again, he arched up with a breathy groan. He'd intended to change out the jewelry with rings and capture balls, though life had yet to give him an opportunity to go to a shop and buy them. He watched with rapt attention as Karkat slipped down onto him, his eyes fluttering as he took a deep breath. He looked Karkat in the eyes and smirked a little, murmuring, "Christ, you're hotter now." He meant temperature-wise, but the other definition would work just as well.

He heard the door open and Sollux talking as he and Bro walked in, and then shot Karkat a look. Oh, this was going to be good. They had locked the door, so there was no possibility of being easily walked in on, but then there was the challenge of keeping things quiet so they didn't wind up getting a standing ovation when they left the room. Karkat's lower lip sucked into his mouth as he heard Sollux's slightly slurred voice wondering where he and Dave were. He looked around at the door and the light flicking on underneath, glancing toward the lock to be sure that it was active then starting to roll his hips gingerly. He kept his motions slow, groaning softly as he sat up straight with his hands resting against his thighs. His head tipped up, his tongue passing over his lips. Dave let a soft gasp out as he held himself back from making much louder sounds than that, rocking his hips into each slow motion. Simply watching Karkat move was enough to give him the best kind of chills, and his hands moved up to join his matesprit's, sliding up over his thighs before twining his fingers with Karkat's. He heard Bro's low voice carry clearly with, "they're probably in bed already." The innuendo in the tone obvious.

He tuned Bro out and looked into Karkat's eyes again, arching up slightly and briefly to tease with a flick of the tip of his tongue over his own lower lip. There was a surefire way to keep them both somewhat quiet. With a soft smirk Karkat squeezed his fingers around Dave's, shifting his weight and leaning back down to press into a soft kiss. He smiled against his matesprit's lips as he continued to move some in the slow pace they'd started. He kept one ear on the outside in case one of them approached for whatever reason. He could hear Sollux wandering around the kitchen, shuffling around the refrigerator, then starting to mess with the tv. As long as they kept one-another entertained, that was the main thing. Dave knew that Bro wouldn't come in and interrupt, even though he fully knew that his brother was capable of picking locks and letting himself in anywhere. As generally assy as Bro was, he respected a guy's privacy.

Dave squeezed Karkat's hand with a little gasp against his lips, rocking deeper upward with each slow thrust down. He disengaged one of his hands to move it down Karkat's side, and around to his ass, which he gave a gentle squeeze. He murmured into the kiss, "Still ace," and at that, he bucked his hips just fast enough to be a tease.

Karkat's breath caught some at the sudden thrust, his teeth catching Dave's lip as he chuckled quietly and squeezed back down around him before he could withdraw very far. He deepened the kiss after a little longer, fitting his lips firmly against Dave's as he started to pick up the pace little by little, keeping just slow enough so that they couldn't be heard outside. He pulled one hand free eventually and started to run his fingers over his bulge until it had crept out again, guiding it down to wrap around the base of Dave's cock as he continued to move. The tight squeeze made Dave let out a quiet grunt of pleasure, and he slid his hand back up to the small of Karkat's back as he followed suit to speed the rhythm. The scent that filled the room made him reel slightly and only further made him wish that they could really go all out. He let out a huff of a moan through his nose, slipping his tongue out to tease against Karkat's lips. Karkat bit some on his lip then pressed deeper into the kiss as he spread his knees further to start moving a little faster, harder until he could hear just the faintest creaking of the bed beneath them. He let up at that and instead clenched down as he slowed the pace just enough to keep things quiet, letting out a quiet, breathless sound against Dave's mouth. It would take more to get either of them off, but for now it was good simply to be able to do it at all after the stress and panic of the last couple of days.

Dave gasped at the flexing muscles around him and he twitched his erection inside Karkat's nook in response, smiling as he broke the kiss to brush his lips against Karkat's cheek. After a few more minutes of the gentle, languid pace they'd set, he wrapped both arms around Karkat and rolled atop and slipped his hand down to coax Karkat's bulge away from the base of his cock, and around his hand, where he rubbed and pumped it, finding the sensitive points and working them over with a rolling brush of his thumb. As his bulge twisted around Dave's fingers Karkat's back arched some, his legs lifting and wrapping around the other's thighs. His hands ran up along Dave's sides to wrap around his back and stroke over the ridges of his shoulderblades. He tucked his head into the side of his matesprit's neck and let a quiet, shuddering moan against his collarbone. By now he'd completely tuned out the sounds of the fighting game in the living room and the others' drunken yelling in favor of listening to the quickening thud of Dave's heart.

Dave had turned all his focus on Karkat's every gasp and moan, and the way he moved under him, and with half-closed eyes, he looked down between them as he rocked his hips deeper and faster - not near fast enough to get the bed to protest under his ministrations - while he sped the movement of his hand. He then leaned back down enough to leave a rough kiss against Karkat's neck, before opening his mouth and catching his throat in between his teeth. The other guys had gotten distracted and that was impetus enough for him to pick things up and get them both off, so he sped up once more, letting out a quiet groan against the corner of Karkat's jaw. Karkat tipped his head back to expose more of his throat and allow Dave more room, his nails hooking into the other's back and dragging some with each thrust until there was a slightly haphazard pattern of scratches down each side of his back. He panted into Dave's ear, breathing hard and wordlessly encouraging him to try harder, just a little faster, his bulge dripping steadily the longer it went. He was creeping closer to his finish, lasting longer than he really felt he should have after this long. He attributed it to the biological changes associated with the sudden growth spurt just like the slight change in his metabolism. When Dave started to strike down on a sweet spot inside him every couple of thrusts it was all he could do not to moan out loud, digging his teeth into Dave's shoulder to stop it. In turn Dave bowed his head enough so he could muffle his own loud moan into a pillow above Karkat's shoulder, his own peak spurred into action by his matesprit's teeth leaving sharp little points of pain in his flesh. His breath caught in his throat as he was temporarily overcome, though his hand didn't stop its near frantic ministrations. He brought his head back up and murmured dirty encouragement, his breath heavy against his matesprit's neck as he used his free hand to bring the pail up from the side of the bed.

Karkat's breath huffed hard against his shoulder as Dave's fingers skimmed over his bulge and rubbed into the patch at the base that made white spots flash in front of his eyes. He pressed his lips together tightly to attempt to quiet the moans that wanted to come. He groped for the bucket with one hand while the other guided Dave's away from him, turning as much as he could manage and finally hitting his release, the room filling with its saccharine scent. When it was done he lowered the pail back to the ground and turned back onto his back, looking up at Dave blearily with a soft, slightly lopsided smile. Dave had tipped off and to Karkat's side, keeping one hand on his matesprit's hip. He smiled faintly once Karkat finally looked over to him, and then ducked his head with a laugh when Bro cheered at winning a round against Sollux. "Oh my god we're host to toddlers," he chuckled and slipped closer to Karkat, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek. "How much you wanna bet they're both playing as Voldo, though?"

"Loaded bet," Karkat yawned quietly and nudged his nose against Dave's cheek, rolling back over to face him rather than getting up just yet to tell the others to quit disturbing the peace. "I'd also guess Yoshimitsu for Sollux depending on how drunk he actually is."

"Mm. Bro's probably drunk enough for Sophita at this point." He brushed his thumb lightly across Karkat's cheek and then sat up, patting his matesprit's shoulder. "Remind me to invest in a fan for this room before it gets too warm out. It's already getting ridiculous amounts of stuffy." He stretched his arms over his head and rolled his neck, lithe muscles flexing and twisting under his skin. He then stood and retrieved a pair of pajama pants and shirt, pulling them on. Karkat watched for a moment, then rolled out of bed to do the same, foregoing the shirt for the time being and settling on a pair of Dave's pajama pants, raising an eyebrow at how they actually fit rather than pooling around his ankles. He wrapped his arms around Dave's waist before he could move very far and pressing his lips to the back of his neck.

"Maybe crack the window or something at least until it turns spring."

"Wow genius, thanks for that groundbreaking suggestion," teased Dave as he wrapped both arms around Karkat's waist, glad that he could without having to bend down to reach. "Fuck's sake, Vantas, you wound up in the deep end of the hottie pool after all. Upstagin' me and getting all fuckin' modelesque." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's nose before slipping away to open the window about two inches wide, standing in the breeze momentarily to take in the chill and revel in it.

"Christ, you're still overreacting about this," Karkat snorted, shaking his head and crossing his arms to ward off the chill. He wasn't quite as sensitive to it as he was before, but it was still something he would rather avoid when he could. He stepped up behind Dave and snapped the elastic of his pajama pants against his skin before heading for the bedroom door with the hopes of cracking it long enough to get some airflow to remove some of the cloying smell from the air.

"Hey," he huffed and scowled faintly at the snap to his pajama pants and then smirked, walking up to him to yank Karkat's pants down to mid-hip and then slipped out of the room. "GQ motherfucker right there," he chuckled.

Bro looked up from the game and quirked a brow. "Cherry slurpee?" He shook his head and went back to the game, grinning wickedly as he pulled off a fairly impressive combo. Wrinkling his nose, Karkat pulled his pants back up and followed Dave out into the living room as Sollux threw the controller in his hands over his head onto the couch after he'd been killed, punching Bro in the shoulder then looking back up at Dave when he heard him emerge from his room.

"You guyth are the oppothite of thneaky, y'know," he said casually, leaning back against the front of the couch. He looked at them with a small smirk, which only grew when he spotted the red still settled across Karkat's face. "Oh pleathe, ath if we hadn't realithed what you planned to do anyway ath thoon ath everyone left."

Dave slumped over the back of the couch and grabbed Sollux's controller from the sofa, waiting for Bro to get back to the game. "Yeah, this is me seriously embarrassed about having sex. Look at me so flustered. So fucking flustered right here." He looked over at Bro with a browarch, glasses still off. "You gonna play some more or what, douchenugget?" 

Bro chuckled a little at Karkat's reaction and leaned back, starting another round. "Sollux is right, man, it's not like you two weren't eying each other like prime fuckin' steak at the music department. Half surprised you guys even made it into the apartment."

"Would you guys shut the fuck up? Oh my god." Karkat threw up his hands and went to the kitchen to retrieve something to snack on from the fridge, taking out a bowl of leftover Thai that somehow hadn't been snagged by Sollux yet. He leaned against the counter until the food was warmed up in the microwave then stepped over the arm of the couch to settle down behind Sollux.

"Jeeth KK, how can you thtill be thith much of a tightath... At leatht _you're_ getting laid, right?" Sollux leaned back and looked up at Karkat looming over him, copying his scowl then sticking his tongue out until it was threatened with removal.

Dave smirked as he continued draping across the back of the sofa, managing to KO Bro. "I'm pretty sure tightass isn't so much a personality trait in Vantas as it is the very fiber of his existence." He looked over at Karkat with a quirked brow, just waiting for a comeback.

Bro handed his controller down to Sollux and put one leg up over the other. "No shame in gettin' some," he stated, taking off his hat and spinning it on his forefinger idly. "So what's the schedule for tomorrow?"

Dave shrugged. "We've got enough time to dick around town tomorrow while we wait for the recording booth to open up again. If it's nice out, that is. If it's overcast again, I'm figuring more shooting. I just think that we all deserve a fuckin' day off from all this madness, go out as a mob of unruly fucks, let loose on this drowsy little burg."

"Any good karaoke barth around here?" Sollux asked, ducking when Karkat glared at him and grinning. "What? Everyone'th free to make themthelveth look stupid after a few beerth."

Dave nodded, "Yeah, there's actually a great place that has karaoke up on the hill." He finally slid down into a half sitting position on the sofa, between Karkat and Bro. "I used to go there all the time."

"Shit, so that _was_ you on youtube?" Bro said, both brows raised high. "Tearin' shit up with End of Me?"

"Yeah, like, a year ago? I haven't sung that in ages." Dave shrugged and nudged Sollux. "Did you know that Nubs here can actually sing? Fuckin' blew me away."

"Shut up, Strider," Karkat groaned, trying pointedly to ignore the grin creeping across Sollux's face.

"Oh yeah, I know. He thung to me when we were little, before all the game bullshit." He turned some in place and propped his chin up on his arms, looking from Karkat to Dave. "You actually got him to thing in public?"

"Oh my god I hate you guys so much."

"Yeah, just a couple times that one night, but I promised him I wouldn't nag him into doing it again." Dave grinned, setting the controller down and looked over at Bro. "That's what we're doing tomorrow night, then. Pointedly not asking Karkat to sing while we all go there en masse." He patted Karkat's leg and smiled up at him from his upside down position on the sofa, his legs dangling over the back of the couch.

Bro shrugged at that. "Sounds like fun. Gonna invite everybody?" The question was pointed, and Dave furrowed his brow.

"Enh, if she can control herself and not make everyone around her want to commit spidercide, sure. I've got no objections. I'm sure these two here will, though. Bad blood and all that shit."

"As long as she stays the fuck away from me, I don't care," Karkat muttered, turning in place and laying his legs over the top of Dave's chest. He leaned back against the arm of the couch, looking back at the tv and the character select screen on it.

Sollux took back his controller from Dave and switched the screen so that at least the image wouldn't start burning into it. "Yeah, thame thentiment here. The latht thing we need ith an actual bar brawl while we're all here. If it'th overcatht tomorrow then at leatht we can get thingth done and then go out and get fucked up."

Both Striders had the same, unsure look on their faces and Dave piped up. "I'm not gonna go into how I honestly think she's at least attempting to do some good," he shook his head and then looked up at Karkat with a smirk, "But I'll tell you somethin', nubs, if you do manage to get the spine to go up there and sing, I'll... I dunno. Sing whatever dumbass fuckin' song you want me to, regardless of how fuckin' dorky it is."

Bro smirked at that, "That's a loaded gun. He could pick some Destiny's Child or some shit."

Karkat put on an affronted look and shoved on Dave's legs. "Oh come on. I'm not like you guys. I wouldn't go out of my way to purposefully humiliate you."

"I would."

"Shut up, Sollux."

Dave snickered and shook his head. "You're too nice sometimes, nubs. For all the shit you talk, you're a real softie." He looked over at Sollux then, brow arched with a lopsided smile. "Same with you though, if you get up there and lisp your way through any song, you can pick any for me. I'm not gonna even fuckin' argue it, with the exception of music I literally don't know." He then got a big, toothy grin. "But I think we're really missing the best target for our tortures." He slowly turned the devious grin to Bro.

"Hells no."

"If any of us sing, you're morally obligated to do the same." Karkat grinned, leaning over Dave to look his brother in the face. "If I can do this shit then I know for damn sure you can."

"Maybe he'th got thtagefright," Sollux suggested, smiling smugly at the idea. He knew Bro could sing. He also knew that he could play. It was just a matter of having him do it in front of the rest of them. "I thound like a cat being run over repeatedly by a bicycle though tho you're not getting me up there for anything."

"No. Hells no," Bro continued to firmly protest. "Ain't gettin' up there, I don't want a flock of fangirls all up on my junk." 

Dave deadpanned at that. "Yeah, that's what'll happen." He smirked over at Sollux again. "I'm friends with the DJ and he's let me slip over CDs of stuff that isn't in the book, and I know for a fact this big meaty fuckball can sing like an angel. You know what I'm thinkin'?" He moved Karkat's legs out of the way before flipping off of the front of the couch, landing lightly before standing and walking to his bag to grab his laptop. "J-pop."

Karkat's expression grew somewhat nonplussed as Sollux started to cackle, hopping up from his seat and steadying himself on the wall as he followed Dave, wanting to see just what he had to offer. "You've gotta be shitting me..."

Bro shook his head and sighed. "Great, just great." He looked over at Karkat and pointed at them. "They're gonna pay for this shit."

Dave's devious smile only grew as he searched for karaoke versions of several songs he knew were on Bro's infinite playlist of irony and kawaii bullshit. He looked over his shoulder at Sollux and explained, "You didn't know this meatwall spent like five years in Japan? Yeah, he's the ultimate weeb."

"Yeah, he told me about that but he didn't thay anything about thith," Sollux grinned, glancing back at Bro sitting on the couch then looming over Dave's shoulder as he flipped through the music. "Thith hath the potential to be the motht hilariouth thing to ever happen."

Karkat sprawled out across the couch with a small, amused smile. "All I said was if I was singing, then you were too. I claim no responsibility for _what_ you have to sing."

Bro looked over at them with a slight glare, then he shrugged. "Over it. I'm just fuckin' surprised he went that direction and not country. It's not like anyone here would be impressed with me singin' Japanese or anything. It's not like a lot of songs are that well known around here."

Dave raised an eyebrow as he pointed to the first, most obvious choice on the screen, before downloading it. "Maybe not, dude, but there's also a mad lack of huge dudes bustin' out cutesy shit. You probably even know the fuckin' dance to this fucker." He shook his head with a grin.

"Fine, you little shits," Bro said with a mellow grin, "You'll get your five minutes of attempting to make me feel like a fool, which won't work. But then I'm gonna show all y'all up and you'll be disappointed. That and for all this fuckin' hype, you're lettin' me crash here tonight." He looked over at Karkat and shrugged. "Don't trust myself drivin' this late, and I'm pretty sure Vriska's still camped out at the lodge."

Karkat ran a hand back through his hair, letting his bangs flop back down over his forehead after a moment. "Look, I know you're trying to see some real good in her but trust me, as soon as she gets on something for her own benefit she'll use you until you resemble a worn-out dishrag and make absolutely no apologies for it. I'm grateful that she's helping with all of this, but I'm not going to pretend that it's out of concern for any of us. Keep that in mind, alright?" He gave Bro a small frown then stood to grab the spare controller, nodding back to the game. "Still feel like playing or was that an announcement that you wanted to go to bed? I'm pretty sure Sollux would let you cozy up with him in the recuperacoon," he added with a mean little smirk, soundly ignoring the double-handed flip-off he was getting from across the room.

Bro grabbed the other controller and shrugged. "I know she's toxic, and I ain't gonna lie when I say I keep my fuckin' eye on her at all times to make sure she doesn't try some shit to make y'all get caught up in some far-reachin' game. I just think she's capable of bein' more than a self-aggrandizing, selfish sleaze like y'all seem to assume. Anyhow, I don't show anyone anythin' but the kindest fuckin' regards unless and until they cross me. She's yet to get that far, and I'll see it comin' before even she does." He started with Voldo.

Dave shook his head. "Sometimes even you make idiot fucker moves, Bro. But I'm gonna partially side with you on this one. She's shown nothing but a genuine interest in keeping shit from getting unraveled, and she was there for us when we needed her. That's way more than I could say about a lot of fuckin' so-called friends I've made." He wrinkled his nose. "But I wouldn't trust her near as much as you. You're too fuckin' caring, dude. It'll get you burned." He shook his head and pointed to where his stack of CD-Rs were, "Hand me one'a those, wouldja Sollux?"

As Sollux stepped away to do as he was asked, he looked back at Karkat taking up most of the sofa and shook his head. He already knew who Karkat would pick, barely sparing a glance at the tv as he rejoined Dave with the disc held out. "I can thee where you guyth are coming from, I really can. But for uth, it'th mothtly the fact that Vrithka doethn't really thet much of a prethedent ath far ath truthtworthineth goeth. We knew her long before the game thtarted and honethtly, there wathn't much of a change from then to now. Call it what you will, but I thtill honethtly wouldn't trutht her ath far ath I could throw her."

Dave nodded to that. "I have my own reservations _because_ of what happened before the game. And because of what happened during it. But Bro doesn't have that point of reference for her, and he's got too big a damn heart to be put anywhere near someone as callous as her. Actually dude? I'm a little worried." He took the CD and popped it into his laptop to begin burning songs to it.

"Perpetual state of bein' for you, dude," Bro retorted casually, shaking his head. "But let me counterpoint. She was fuckin' 13 back then. She's what, twenty now? Seven years changes someone a lot, especially under the circumstances y'all were in." He played smoothly and managed combos that were difficult for sober people fairly damn well for a guy so drunk.

"See, that's just the thing. She really hasn't changed that much. At least so far as personality goes. She's still doing the same shit, saying the same shit. And that's why you've got _three_ of us fuckin' calling you out on this dumb horseshit," Dave said, brow furrowed.

"Just wait for it, you'll walk away from whatever this bullshit relationship is with a serious complex because of her," Karkat sighed, pulling off a fast combo with Mitsurugi that he hadn't actually even been trying as his thumb accidentally slipped between two buttons. He and Bro seemed to be fairly evenly matched, at least at this game. When he lost, it was by a slim margin. "We're not even trying to call you an idiot for this, Strider. Just...listen to the ones with some actual fucking experience with her, ok?"

Bro shrugged. "I'm listening." He was, really. Hearing their sides of it put a little balance into the situation that he needed. He'd already been keeping a fair distance with her; however, she'd been showing a strangely vulnerable side of herself to him. If it could be called that. He shrugged. "I dunno. She's a piece of work."

Dave sighed at that and set the laptop down to finish burning the CD. "I'm making you two eat something before you sleep so you don't wake up hungover." He was on his way to the kitchen to grab a drink, anyway. "And can we drop it with her? We're giving way too much energy to a situation and a person that doesn't need it."

"Who here thinkth that the entire converthation hath probably been monitored via thpiderbitch mindtrickth?" Sollux muttered, snorting quietly when Karkat raised his hand. "I jutht know none of uth wantth it to go thidewayth any more than it already hath." With that he turned to the cupboard to fish for a bag of chips to share with Bro, going back to the couch and settling down beside him, waiting for Karkat to finish his final match before taking the controller back and switching characters again. Karkat took his place beside Dave, his chin hooked over his matesprit's shoulder as he watched the other two with a dull expression. When he was thirteen, he would have been right at home with gossiping about the two of them, particularly with Eridan, but now he just wanted to make sure that they would be ok no matter what happened to the rest of them. Dave raised his hand as well to that and then wrapped it around Karkat's waist, taking a sip of his soda.

"Let's get to bed, nubs. Leave these two drunk fucks to their dorky beatdowns."

"Manly drunken beatdowns are a Strider way of life." Bro pointed out. "Whether digital or otherwise."

"Hi, I'm your little brother and I know that intimately, thanks." Dave said with a lopsided smile, before nudging his matesprit up and leading the way. "Don't asphyxiate on your vomit overnight, pervomatic."

"Go choke on a bulge, brohemian rhapsody," came the distracted response.

"Such a loving relationship," Karkat muttered and shooed Dave on his way, following close behind him. He sighed quietly at the smell still permeating the room and grabbed for the pail to rinse out in the bathroom. It was done quickly and pointedly, ignoring the sounds of the game from the living room.

When Karkat had finally scuttled back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him, Sollux focused back on the game and tapped out a rapid combo that threw Bro off the edge of the map and won him the match. He wrinkled his nose and moved his glasses up to the top of his head. He rubbed the ends of his fingers into the bridge of his nose and squinted back at the screen, then up at the clock. He could have sworn it wasn't even midnight when they'd made it back, but here it was three am after most of them had barely gotten any sleep the night before. He leaned his shoulder against Bro's, his hands rubbing over his face then back behind his head, lacing behind his neck. He was stiff and sore and more than anything he needed a few places in his back and neck popped before he could do much else. "How the fuck did it get thith late?"

Bro had long since tossed his hat aside and was ready to shed his glasses by that time. He set the controller down and wordlessly motioned for Sollux to turn so he could rub the guy's tense shoulders, knowing the toll the day took on him. "You got me, dude, I dunno. I'munna blame the fact that we're in the house of a guy whose primary ability is to fuck with the steady march of time itself." He worked out a knot in Sollux's neck, before leaning back into the sofa. "Better?" He asked, setting his glasses down on the side table beside his hat.

Sollux groaned and rubbed his hands over the back of his neck, rolling his shoulders and nodding some. "Better. Do you jutht _know_ how to do that or thomething?" He muttered, sitting back again and tipping his head back against the back of the couch. He glanced over at Bro as soon as the shades came off, taking his own off his head and putting them on the side table as well. "The thooner Dave getth a handle on hith powerth again, the better off everyone will be."

"I know pressure points, and how to manipulate them." Bro murmured as he sprawled his legs out in front of him. "Whether for combat or just to get a kink out of someone's neck. It's just a thing." He shrugged and yawned, closing his eyes. "He'll figure it out once he stops kickin' his own ass about shit. Lil' dude's harder on himself than anybody ever could think to be to him." He started to drift off then, murmuring quietly "All'a them got self image shit. Iunno."

"Karkat doethn't theem to genuinely hate himthelf nearly ath much ath he uthed to," Sollux observed thoughtfully, slouching down in his seat and letting his head loll over to rest against Bro's shoulder, his eyes falling closed as he crossed his arms comfortably over his chest. "It'th actually pretty nithe. Dave'th done a lot of good for him."

"Mmhm. Done a lotta good for each other, I think," Bro murmured, casually putting his arm over Sollux's chest as well. "Get some sleep, Captor." He drifted off altogether then, deciding just then that it was about time he and Sollux had some words about shit not pertaining to work and projects.

That morning, Dave woke up more or less around the same time as he usually did, and went to start the day. It was only after shower and shaving that he came out to see Bro and Sollux sprawled out along the couch. Bro had moved only slightly over the course of the night, pulling the coffee table over so he could put his feet up. Dave shook his head in amusement at the sight and started a pot of coffee before going out for a cigarette with his cup of coffee, mostly to check the weather and get some air.

It was a sunny morning, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. He decided to text the girls - including Furlue and Vriska - to tell them that it'd be a free day to go and just fuck around until that evening when the recording booth was open. He sat down and sipped his coffee, looking down over the intersection, barely awake but grateful that the day was going to be a much-needed diversion from the hectic schedule.

When Karkat wandered out maybe half an hour later, he took a second to stare at the pair sprawled together on the couch then shook his head at Sollux snoring quietly with his head tipped back and his mouth half open. He took a seat at the table outside on the balcony with his chin resting in his hand, yawning widely then looking upward at the near cloudless sky. "So we're just going to dick around until the sound studio opens back up tonight?"

Dave looked up at Karkat and smiled. "Mm, probably. Let everyone decompress a little." He peeked inside and huffed a half-chuckle. "Yeah, and Sollux said they weren't moirails, look at those fuckers." He took a drag of his cigarette and looked back up at Karkat. "I'm not gettin' a casual friend vibe off them at all."

"I'd even put money on Sollux harboring some red feelings," Karkat agreed, looking back over his shoulder at the two. "Might end up sucking pretty bad when he goes back to California. Dude's already got some separation shit after what happened with Aradia and Feferi."

Dave sipped his coffee and looked inside again. "Can't ever tell what the fuck the big guy's thinkin', at least about shit like this. He's not exactly mister romance, but he doesn't really get _that_ close to folks." He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Good thing Bro's out there at least five times a year, or else shit'll get hinky as hell." He leaned over to pull Karkat closer. "They've got webcams, they'll muddle through. What do _you_ want to do today? Got anything you wanted to get done?"

Leaning against Dave's side, Karkat shrugged and reached up to grab his mug, taking a swallow of his coffee then passing it back. "Honestly, I kind of just want to spend the morning doing nothing. Maybe do lunch out later with the girls and the couch-dwelling cockbites before we go in for the sound stuff. You have anything in particular you want?"

"I want to lay in bed and read all day, honestly. As fun as it is having them here, it's a lot of effort keeping up with all of them." He smiled faintly and ground the cigarette out. "Maybe we can go to that panini place. It's tasty and fast."

"Then you can hole up in the room and read until Things One and Two wake up demanding food." Karkat stood, leaning his head up to press his lips to the side of Dave's head (and relishing the fact that he could do so easily now) then opened the patio door to shoo him back inside. While Dave did that, he decided he would at least try to get the apartment back in order if only for something to do.

Sollux was the first to wake up, complaining quietly about a kink in his neck and being cold and other things, but Karkat could see he was reluctant to move just yet. He offered a cup of reheated coffee, then went over the plans for the afternoon with him as they waited. A text had been sent off to Kanaya and Rose that they would be recording and then going out after having lunch, letting them know what bar and directions to it. The same set of directions was sent to everyone on the crew they could remember, including Vriska, if only to keep Bro from harassing them for the rest of the night. As soon as he stirred, Dave was called back out of the room as well. It was nearly one in the afternoon by then, and far past time for respectable Striders to be up and about.

Lunch was, predictably, noisy and frustrating for the people working at the sandwich place. It took more time to get everyone their meals than it took them to get seated outside to eat them. At least the tips were substantial between all of them.

At the studio, Vriska was standing outside smoking and mostly ignoring Ferrus as they waited for the rest of them to arrive. At least one of them looked happy for the crowd's arrival. Dave, Karkat, and Furlue were the first on the scene; they'd shared a car to the music department, and as such, were the first ones to greet Vriska and Ferrus. They got to work right away, with Sollux and Bro following behind, and then the girls in their respective rentals. The recording session was fairly laid back: the musicians and their instruments were back in one room, while Vriska was in a booth across the hall. Dave deferred to Rose and Bro in knowing music better than he did, knowing they'd come up with themes and a cohesive soundtrack better than he ever could. He then settled back with Vriska into recording, and things were FAR smoother in the long run.

The session wound up lasting until around eight that night, and once Vriska was completely finished with her lines, she still hung around, watching the group that was playing music. Dave walked in and kept quiet as they played, rubbing his jaw with the back of his hand in thought. Yeah, that kind of thing worked perfectly. "We ready to wrap up?" He asked once the song drew to a close.

"I believe so," Rose said with a smile, walking up with a smile. "Now what was this I heard about a karaoke night?" 

Dave grinned and waved Vriska and Furlue in from the hallway, and said, "Now here's the plan. You guys can fuck off now if you want, but all us cool motherfucks are headed to the Walrus for karaoke night. Drinks are on...Bro." There was a wide array of grins, some of which were directed back at Bro before he could object.

"This sounds like a lovely change of pace. I don't suppose we'll be dressing for the affair," Kanaya mused, laying her hand in the small of Rose's back. She rolled her eyes at the look on Karkat's face at the suggestion. "It was a joke. Go, we'll catch up shortly."

When the instruments were packed away and the studio closed up behind them, the various vehicles dispersed only to congregate in the parking lot of the bar, the first ones to arrive waiting for the rest before heading inside. It was crowded enough to make navigation slightly ridiculous, but once everyone was settled around a pair of tables, they only had to wait for their drink orders to be taken.

Karkat huddled down against Dave's side with a pained grimace, his fingers clamped on the edge of the table. "This was a bad idea there are so many fucking people oh my god..."

"Chill your shit, kid," Bro said to Karkat's griping, and the waitress came by, setting a scad of papers and golf pencils on each table, as well as two large compendiums of songs that were on the list. Dave handed over the CD to her as he ordered himself a beer, and Bro ordered the same.

"Oh my god, Strider, are you seriously going to sing?" Vriska said with a wrinkled up nose. "If it's anything like your rapping, we're all fucked." 

Dave chuckled slightly and raised an eyebrow to Karkat, then looked over at Vriska. "Fine. If you think I'm so bad, why don't _you_ go on, first?" 

"I _will_." She crossed her arms over her chest and put her foot up on the edge of the table, scowling as she tipped in her chair.

Bro in the meanwhile, looked over at the stage. It was pretty big, and it'd suit just fine for his plan. He nudged Sollux with an elbow. "You ready for this mayhem?" He asked, more amused than anything.

"Nope. But I'm thertain it'th going to be entertaining anyway." Smirking some, Sollux leaned his elbows against the table in front of him and raised an eyebrow at Bro, already wondering just what was about to happen. It would be embarrassing, that was all he could really think. At the other table he could see Kanaya finishing a slip of her own then looking up as a waitress brought a tray laden with drinks for everyone.

By then, even Karkat had filled out a slip, though he kept his close to him for the likely eventuality that he would skip out on singing altogether. He looked up for his glass, taking it with a quiet thanks then sipping at the rum and coke as he watched the next performance of the night, a bad cover of Bad Romance that made him roll his eyes.

With the judgmental stares of the two tables of actors, musicians, singers and seamstresses alike - no less than half of them with their arms crossed - the other people on stage felt like they were under a microscope. When Bro's name was called, he stood and grabbed Dave by the collar of his shirt and dragged him along, only letting go once Dave was on stage behind him. Dave sighed and tilted his head back with a clear eyeroll despite his shades, and then got into position. Before the music even started, Rose held back a giggle with both hands clapped over her mouth. "Ohmygod please tell me they're not actually --"

When the music started up, Bro sang fluently and beautifully, and the bar erupted in laughter and applause as Dave danced along in the back. Rose clapped and then ran down to join them, taking up the other spot behind Bro to even it out. 

"What the _actual fuck_ is happening here?" Vriska muttered at the sight, her head tilted as she was caught between complete bafflement and wanting to laugh her ass off. Those still in their seats were caught somewhere between horror and rancorous laughter as they watched the performance. All three of them on stage were performing perfectly in-sync, and the longer the performance went, the lower Karkat sunk in his seat until only his eyes were visible over the edge of the table. The secondhand embarrassment was overwhelming. Sollux was stuck in about the same place Vriska was, his head on his hand as he goggled at Bro doing his absolute best at being completely serious at one of the cutesiest fucking dances he'd ever seen.

"I'd be lying if I thaid I knew what the hell wath happening," he muttered, sitting back then glancing at Karkat nearly glowing in his perceived humiliation. Kanaya seemed to be enjoying herself at the very least, bobbing some in her seat to the song. A glance toward the bar made it very clear what Ferrus thought of the spectacle, as his drink had been slid away as he put his head on the bar to keep himself from falling over laughing. Furlue was humming and clapping along with a perplexed but delighted look on her face at the deadpan trio on the stage. Once the song was over, the three took their bows (And curtsey in the case of Rose) and returned to their seats to the uproarious applause of the crowd. Dave settled down in his seat and crossed his arms again, right next to Karkat, his ears bright red. Bro, on the other hand, smirked and rumpled Rose's hair as she bounced back to Kanaya and sipped her pina colada with a little blush spread over her own cheeks.

Bro returned to sit down, looking victorious for his performance. "Now you're all fucked," he said as he picked up several sheets of paper and a pencil, looking through the book for the right songs for each and every one of them, with the exception of Sollux.

"You're the motht embarrathing perthon in the hithtory of the multiverth," Sollux said conversationally as he sat back with his beer in hand, raising it to Bro then taking a long swallow as he glanced at the others.

"It takes years of practice," Bro said, just as casual as anything. Karkat was shaking Dave by the shoulder quietly berating him for letting it happen. It meant that he was going to have to actually go up and sing and follow up that act and everyone was going to be expecting more ridiculousness. Kanaya was fussing a bit over Rose and rearranging her hair, kissing her cheek with an amused little smile before returning to her drink.

The waitress came up to them and he handed her the slips of paper. "And another round of everything, thanks." He leaned back and Vriska gave him the stink-eye.

"Oh my fucking god, will you two turbonerds stop thinking so loud?" she scolded Sollux and Bro, before curling even closer in on her self.

Dave pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "You go ahead and argue with Bro, see how far it gets you. At least we made it through without dying of sheer embarrassment." He wrapped his arm around his matesprit and left another, less chaste kiss to the corner of his jaw.

"Says you. I think I might have actually died again because of that bullshit and you just didn't see it before I got back," Karkat grumbled but bumped his head against Dave's, knocking back the last of his drink then settling in to wait for another glass. Sollux was nearly finished with his first beer by the time the second one came around, starting to feel pleasantly buzzed by now and leaning his elbow against Bro's shoulder as he focused on Vriska, broadcasting as loud as he could with the most smug smile he could muster.

"Augh!" She huffed, making Sollux slap himself. "Go get a fucking room. At least it'll spare us from another bizarre performance from Lord Puppetfucker and his gang of towheaded miscreants." She scowled and stared at the stage, drinking her whiskey with a glower. Bro quirked a brow and turned to the stage as well, with a stony expression on his face. Well, there went the plans of _that_ going smoothly.

"Pleathe, Therket. You're not that fucking upthet or you would have left by now," Sollux sneered, leaning back against Bro's shoulder, rubbing his hand against his face and shaking his head. "Touchy."

Dave raised an eyebrow to the others over his shoulder then turned to Karkat. "It's a great night for embarrassment, apparently. Just relax. After that sideshow, you'll do just fine." He put his hand over Karkat's and squeezed it gently.

Karkat laced his fingers loosely between Dave's as he watched the next act, his toe tapping gently on the ground as the singer did a passable impersonation of John Mayer. He sipped on his second glass of rum and coke with a soft smile as the embarrassment finally faded off. "Are you actually going to sing this time around or did you get that out of your system acting like a tool?" He muttered, looking a little more content the more drunk he got.

"You act like I can't fuckin' sing or something," Dave said with a scowl. "I've got a slip in. Two, actually, since Bro just handed her one last time around," he leaned closer and took another long swig of his beer, before sneaking a kiss.

Bro eased his arm around Sollux's shoulders and huffed a chuckle. "She just wants to tell us to suck it after her song's through, I think."

"No, I'm just sick of the two of you going on and on. If you're so goddamn flushed, just fuckin' leave and get busy somewhere far, far away from my ability to pick up on you." 

Next up was Furlue, who hopped down the stairs and took a seat on the stool of the stage, smiling as she waved a little, shy of the people watching. She had a slightly rough start, singing a fairly decent cover of the only Leonard Cohen song basically everyone knew, though she picked up fairly well with the emotion and strength along the way. Dave knew she could sing - she'd been up on stage before, last year - but he smiled at the power behind her voice. Ferrus was slumped against the bar with his cheek pressed against his arm, a lopsided smile all over his face as he listened. The others had fallen silent, favoring listening to a pretty voice over antagonizing Vriska. Karkat's attention was mostly focused on Dave as he leaned against him, returning the kiss then tucking his forehead against the other's neck. He rolled his eyes some at Vriska as he pulled himself off of Dave after a moment, turning to her and leaning against the back of his chair to see her around Kanaya and Rose's backs.

"You do realize you could tune it out, right? You don't _have_ to listen in on whatever fucked up mental conversation is apparently going on. At least I'd think after this long, making up some kind of mental firewall would be easy for you."

Sollux, meanwhile, was mentally muttering about Vriska poking in his head in the first place like it was completely her fault that she could hear it. He was nearly done with his second bottle by the time a third came along and the song had ended, an enthusiastic round of applause rising from the crowd. Furlue thanked the crowd and gave a little bow before slipping off the stage. She moved back to her seat with a shy smile to Ferrus, tucking her hair back behind her ear. She spun the swizzle stick in her drink as her cheeks turned green. 

Vriska scowled at that, "I _would_ tune them out, usually, but they're intentionally doing it right now. Not so much Sollux, but this fucker here." 

"Or you're snooping where you shouldn't." And with that, Bro's mind went into radio static and she hissed at him with a scowl. It didn't last long, as her name was called and she stood and strutted down to the stage, grabbing the microphone and wrapping its cord around her hand a couple times as the intro started, and then started in with a gritty, hard song, perfectly suited for her bitter voice.

Dave tuned her out and looked over at Karkat. "Pray to the Outer Gods she leaves after this."

"Just remember that it's not my fault that she's even here to begin with," Karkat muttered, listening to the song with a grudging approval. It was good. It was very her. Not his taste in music by any means but she knew how to work with it. When it was over he gave her a slow clap, returning the gesture when she flipped him off with both hands. She snatched the last of her drink from the table and downed it before making her way to the bar a few seats down from where Ferrus was starting to actively flirt with Furlue, ordering another hard drink for herself and trying to tune them out as well. One of Dave's songs was up next, meaning that Karkat wouldn't have anyone to lean on as he waited for his own turn.

Dave stepped down to immediate applause and he pulled the microphone back out, raising an eyebrow over the rim of his shades, nodding with a "Hey, how's it goin'. Give it up for my friends, guys, they're mad talented." The song cued up and started and he smirked, realizing it was Bro's selection, first. It wasn't his usual fare for this sort of thing, but he knew the song well enough where he nailed it straight to the goddamn wall.

Bro had, in that time, gone through five beers. He'd kept his arm around Sollux's shoulders for the most part, but he moved it to lean back in the booth seat to watch his brother as he worked the crowd easily.

Furlue had begun to flirt back after the initial fluster. She nodded towards a quieter part of the bar so they could talk and get to know each other a bit better without distracting the rest of the group. After glancing back at the others and determining that they weren't really paying attention to them anymore, Ferrus nodded and followed her to a back corner with a couple of unoccupied booths, settling in across from her so that they could talk without having to shout to be heard.

Karkat spent some time until the end of the song looking back and forth between Vriska ordering shots, Sollux and Bro seemingly velcroed together and Dave onstage, looking and feeling a bit out of place even with the alcohol soaking into his thinkpan. He ordered a glass of water the next time the waitress came around and sat sipping it until it was time for the DJ to take a break, putting on a cd to play in the meantime. They would resume the karaoke in twenty minutes, which would give him some time to sober up before he had to get up on stage. Dave returned to his seat and wrapped his arm around his matesprit, smiling faintly with his heart racing from the adrenaline of performance.

"Why the sour look, nubs?" He smiled, pressing a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "Want to dash before you get up there? I can drive us home." He squeezed Karkat's hand with his own, looking concerned, if not happy.

"I'm not nearly drunk enough to think this is a good idea," Karkat sighed and pressed his nose against Dave's cheek. He fully intended to sing now that almost everyone else had, but he wasn't going to be all smiley about it. Everyone else was just as drunk as he was as far as he could tell so it was a little less nerve-wracking to consider at least. "After I do my thing we're going home. Not like anyone's paying any attention to us anyway."

Dave noticed the increasing closeness between his guardian and Sollux but didn't want to say anything. "Man, the one time you want attention, and they're all preoccupied. Where'd Furlue and Ferrus go?" He looked around and then spotted the long horns of Karkat's friend on the other side of the bar. "Ah. Well okay then." He went back to slipping closer to Karkat, pressing a firm kiss to his lips. 

Bro finally looked around at the rest of them and nudged Sollux. "C'mon, let's get a cab. We'll get the rental tomorrow." He stood and offered a strong hand up. He nodded to Rose and Kanaya, then to Karkat and Dave. "Take care, kids."

"Good for them," Karkat shrugged when he spotted them as well, smiling faintly against Dave's lips and pressing back into them, his hand coming up to rest against the side of his neck. He barely heard Sollux getting up to leave behind him, lifting the other hand to wave the pair of them off. Now that he was well and truly preoccupied, the rest of them could do as they wanted with the rest of their nights.

Outside the bar, Sollux was leaning against the wall with his head back, taking a few deep breaths to keep his stomach from churning. At least the air here smelled better than it did at home. He opened one eye, turning it toward Bro with a small smirk. "Pretty good at fucking with Vrithka," he muttered.

"Hm? You mean the static shit? Enh, I only picked that up recently." Bro called a cab as he lit a cigarette and looked over at Sollux. "The other stuff was just her dicking around where she doesn't belong. Hate it when people get all spooky mindfucking." He settled against the wall beside Sollux as he waited for the cab to come get them. "You too, though. She seriously started gettin' pissed as hell."

"She shouldn't have been poking around in the firtht place. By now she should have known better. By then I wath jutht trying to get her to back the fuck off." Sollux shrugged a shoulder as he closed his eye again, stretching his arms up over his head with a quiet groan. "Fuck...that rub didn't exactly latht very long," he muttered as he rolled his shoulders some then dropped his head forward, jerking it a bit to pop his neck.

"So fulla shit," Bro muttered as he put his hand up to work at the tense muscles in Sollux's neck. "Why you gotta play like we weren't thinkin' the same shit, dude? It's probably what set her off to begin with." He smiled a little at the thought. "Callin' us out like that, fuckin' rude ass."

"Nobody elthe hath any buthineth where that'th contherned but thothe of uth actually involved," Sollux muttered, looking back over his shoulder at Bro and straightening up with his hands pressed into the small of his back, bending back some until it popped as well. "Bethideth, I don't really think it wath exactly on the mark."

"I keep tellin' you to unfuck your posture," chided Bro quietly, withdrawing his hand and going back to crossing his arms, cigarette between his lips. "Maybe not exact, no. Not gonna deny she caught me in a flushed thought or two, though." He gazed sidelong at Sollux, not moving his head.

"I can thtand however I pleathe." Rolling his eyes some, Sollux straightened up some nonetheless with his hands shoved into his pockets. He seemed to take the not-quite-confession in stride, his head tilting some as he thought it over. "Well, yeah. It'th not like either of uth are made of thtone or anything."

"I mean shit, we've got eyes," Bro chuckled as he pushed off the wall as the taxi drove up and parked in front of the bar. "What's attractive's gonna lend itself to all sorts of thoughts." He opened the door to the cab and slid in, glad that there was room in the back for him to stretch out slightly. Sollux folded himself into the seat on the other side, his knees coming up rather uncomfortably until he let them fall open, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned his head back again. The less he let himself move, the less his head swam and the sooner he could actually figure out what he wanted to happen. Then it was a matter of seeing just how close they really were to thinking along the same lines. He let his leg lean against Bro's naturally, his eyes half-focused on the passing traffic.

Bro, while inebriated past his usual cut-off point, was still without queasiness, and in fact seemed about 90% his usual sober self. He gave Sollux a moment to realize that he'd put his leg where he had, before he figured it was intentional. He got a tiny smile at that as he leaned forward and told the driver where they were headed - a different hotel than the first he'd chosen, which he'd moved out of over the course of the day to give Vriska the rest of the week at the lodge. This one had a cocoon in its room when he hadn't really been looking to get that, but whatever. It was as good as any place to crash for the night.

When he sat back, he trailed his hand from Sollux's knee and up his leg before he settled back, raising a brow to the other. Sollux's eye rolled back around some to look at Bro without moving his head, his arms coming un-crossed to rest one long hand over the other's wrist, the smallest smile tugging up at the corners of his lips. His grip tightened slightly as the cab turned a little faster than he'd expected it to and he sucked in a slow breath to quell his stomach once more. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but a glass of water when they got where they were going wouldn't go amiss. Bro narrowed his eyes at the shitty driving, but put it out of his mind as he moved closer to Sollux, twisting around just enough to make sure Sollux didn't have to move much as he leaned in to press his lips against Sollux's, the kiss immediately deep and passionate. The hand around Bro's wrist moved up his arm to rest at his shoulder, Sollux's thin lips pressing back hard as the tips of his tongue ran across the other's then slipped into his mouth. He pulled back for a breath after a long moment with his lips still in the same inch of space and let a shivering sigh as his cheeks and the bridge of his nose started to color a deeper yellow.

Bro smirked in response and settled beside Sollux, a little more comfortably than the odd position he'd put himself in to go in for the kiss. He hadn't really considered actually _kissing_ Sollux until they'd gotten to the bar, though there had been pondering and fantasies involving his bifurcated tongue for weeks. He leaned in to leave another teasing kiss against the corner of Sollux's lips and murmured, "Good. We're on the same page." At least, he was pretty sure they were.

Sollux gave him a lopsided smile and dragged his tongue across his lips, sitting back slightly and pushing his glasses up some on his nose. "Thought you'd go for thomeone a little thicker around, but I'm not complaining."

Bro shrugged casually to that. "It's not like I have a type." He saw that they were rolling up to the hotel and he slipped away to grab his wallet from his back pocket, handing the fare to the cab driver before he climbed out, keeping an eye on Sollux.

Once up to the room, he tossed his hat aside and set his glasses on the nearest surface, nodding over to the sink and tiny plastic cups. "Get a glass of water; you were looking like you were damn near ready to puke." He slicked his hair back out of his face and considered the situation. If handled casually - which they were able to do - this wouldn't cause any ripples in their day-to-day. But he checked himself. He knew he was drunk, and his judgments were iffy. He finally decided that it was up to Sollux, since he himself clearly wasn't going to be bothered by any change, no matter how drastic. Glancing around, Sollux nodded when he spotted the cups and pulled one off the stack, downing three before throwing it away in the trash can under the sink. He came back with his hands shoved into the back pockets of his jeans, his slouch returned as he looked first at Bro, then around at the cocoon with a raised eyebrow. Humans didn't really go for sopor slime in his experience unless they wanted to use it as a kink or else felt like getting high. Somehow neither really seemed right for Bro. He looked back around at him then nodded toward the loveseat against the wall then settling into it.

"Trutht me, if I'm gonna puke, I'll let you know."

"It was this room or a single bed and no recliner," Bro said at the pointed look to the cocoon. He pointed at the recliner in the other corner of the room. "I can't fit in a single, so." He followed along, settling beside his friend, putting his hand on Sollux's leg once more. He paused a moment, thinking if he had anything even remotely constructive to say, but he didn't, so he simply leaned forward to continue what they'd been doing in the cab, claiming Sollux's lips with his own, his tongue parting both pairs and slipping teasingly between his friend's teeth.

Sollux snorted at the mental image that that presented then pressed back into the kiss easily, his hands coming up to rest against the back of Bro's neck and pull him forward, leaning back against the arm of the couch. At least here they had some room to move and stretch their legs out rather than tangling and getting cramped up together. It was obvious by the way he responded that Sollux approved of what was happening, his teeth catching Bro's lip when he pulled back for a breath before diving right back in again. The kiss was deepened and with a steady, deliberate hand, Bro ran his fingers over his chest, down to the hem of his shirt where he tugged it upward to get to skin. Bro ran his hand over his friend's side as he shifted to bring one leg between Sollux's thighs, the other wedged between the back and seat of the loveseat, keeping his weight off Sollux and gave himself room to explore the other's skinny frame. At the cool air on his skin, Sollux pulled in his stomach some, making his hipbones and ribs that much more prominent. He took a moment to drag his shirt off over his head and drop it back over the arm of the loveseat then pressed back into the kiss again, his arms up to give Bro the room to move and touch as he pleased with one foot planted against the opposite arm of the seat as a brace.

Bro was out of his shirt faster than one could blink, and he slipped down to kiss Sollux once more, though his mouth parted ways with Sollux's after another few moments to brush down his friend's jaw and across his neck. His hand, in the meanwhile, busied itself with his own fly, unzipping his pants to make things just a little less tight. Sollux's chin tipped up to stretch out his neck as he sucked in a deep breath, one of his hands coming down to grip down on the back of Bro's head. He reached the other one between them and followed the progress of the other's hand to shove it back out of the way and hook his fingers around the elastic of Bro's underwear to let some air onto his skin.

Shuddering a quiet groan at the chilled air touching his skin, Bro slipped his hand away only to work on Sollux's zipper instead. He sat up as he worked his own pants and boxers off and away from his hips, before rolling his eyes and flash-stepping out of them and back to where he was. "Hate clothes, anyhow," he muttered. Not that Sollux didn't know that, he just figured it was particularly appropriate to reiterate.

"You're gonna have to teach me how to do that one of thethe dayth," Sollux muttered, lifting his hips up and peeling out of his jeans, leaving him there in his boxers and socks. He stood and put a hand on Bro's chest to push him back down onto the loveseat then took a second to collect his clothes and toss them onto the counter out of the way, coming back in nothing but his skin. It wasn't much that Bro hadn't seen before, at least. It was new in person though, and definitely new from the hips down, and he grinned, slipping his hands over Sollux's thin hips.

"Maybe I will, but don't get your hopes up." He leaned upward to pull Sollux back down by the shoulders and catch him in another firm kiss. He brushed his knuckles across Sollux's inner thigh before moving his hand upward across the sheath of his bulges, brow arching as he counted two. "Heh, figures," he muttered against Sollux's lips.

"Ath if it would be anything elthe," Sollux chuckled then pressed back into a firm kiss, crawling back onto the loveseat straddled over Bro's thighs with his hands planted on the back of the seat on either side of his head. "How d'you wanna do it then?"

"Oh good, give me options," Bro drawled, slipping his hands down across Sollux's hips again. "Shit, I dunno, you had to fuckin' ask." He huffed a chuckle before he leaned back to look up at his friend. "You're a little too far up there for what I've been thinkin', but..." He licked his lower lip as he slipped a hand down to roll a fingertip across his ladder. "I'll get you if you get me."

"I'm not exactly what you could call picky," Sollux shrugged then stretched one leg back to touch down with his foot, moving languidly to the ground on one knee as his hands ran up the insides of Bro's thighs, pushing them just far enough apart to fit between with his arms laying over top of them. One hand laid with the web of his thumb and forefinger flush against the base of the other's cock, tilting it up to be able to get a good look at the piercings. " Now why am I not thurprithed..." He smirked and dragged his lower lip over the slightly raised skin then ran his tongue across the head without much more warning.

Bro tilted his head back with a shuddered breath as he squeezed Sollux's forearm at the sensation of his tongue, unable to reply for a moment. "Really it's just a great night for consummation of our own fantasies, now ain't it." He moved his other hand up to brush his fingers up against one pair of Sollux's horns, before sinking his hand in his friend's hair, just to make sure that his friend didn't wind up choking, or he didn't wind up bleeding.

"Theemth that way," Sollux breathed then sank down over him in one quick motion, gulping the back of his tongue against the head of Bro's cock, holding his breath for the time he was down there then pulling back up as soon as he needed air. The process repeated a few times until his lips brushed against the knuckles of the hand still laying flat against the other's hip. Bro let out a long, low groan, his hand on Sollux's head slipping away. He wasn't expecting nearly the amount of sheer skill that Sollux had, but was grateful as hell that he had it. Once he had a moment, he spread his legs wider and slipped closer to the edge of the loveseat, smiling languidly.

For every sweep down the entirety of Bro's cock, Sollux spent an equal amount of time getting his breath back as he focused on finding places around the head and each of the piercings that brought down his control little by little. At the extra room, he was able to slip a hand up along the inside of Bro's thigh then wrap it in a firm, comfortable grip around his balls, rolling them in his palm. The other hand came away long enough to take his glasses off before they could slip off the end of his nose and put them to one side.

With each pass over his erection, Bro took sharp breaths, letting them out with the occasional groan when Sollux's tongue found particularly sensitive areas that others had yet to find, due to its particularly unique construction. His orgasm was creeping up gradually, and he had to steady himself from tipping over that edge by digging his nails into his palm. Flattening his tongue against the underside of the other's shaft, Sollux opened one slightly watering eye to look up at Bro's face then over at his hand. He reached over to pry his fingers away from his palm and laced his own between them to give him something to squeeze down on. He pulled off when he needed a moment to breathe and instead ran his mouth along the other's erection, down to his balls to pull one in between his lips, keeping his teeth away from tender skin.

Bro shuddered a heavy breath and squeezed Sollux's hand briefly before finding enough breath and mental wherewithal to murmur, "M'not gonna come dude, we got a hell of a lot more shit to do." That was, if either of them wanted to get home with tons of mental spank bank material to last them until the next time. He slipped away and then moved to the floor beside Sollux, nodding up to the sofa. "Sit," he said, the tone more a suggestion than anything. With a browarch and a mental shrug Sollux climbed back up onto the seat, wiping the side of his hand over his lips.

"Tho you do have planth. Care to let me in on it or am I jutht flying by the theat of my jeanth here?"

"Pssh, plans," Bro said with a lopsided smile, "Dude look at me, I'm about to go down on two fuckin' bulges at once, completely unprepared. And you're talking about plans for shit." He slipped between Sollux's legs, spreading them with a smug smirk. Of fucking course he had plans. He planted a firm kiss and nip against Sollux's inner thigh, and with a long lick up towards his hip, he finally shot a look up to his friend. "Was hopin' to see how hard you could fuck me with those but whatever." He brushed his fingers up across the sheath, coaxing them out before dragging his tongue across one, then the other.

Sollux let a quiet, amused hum as he tipped his head back with a soft smirk, lifting one leg to prop his heel against the edge of the loveseat. He sighed as one hand came to rest against the top of Bro's head. "Thoundth like a good idea to me ath long ath you actually have thome protection laying around thomewhere. Not thaying you have anything, but if I'm gonna fuck you I don't feel like walking away with thomething I have to explain to a medical profethional."

"In the bag over there, but I'm clean," Bro said, pointing vaguely to the side of the recliner. He didn't take offense to it, it was just common courtesy. He didn't take long to envelop one bulge in his mouth, his hand coming up to slip over the other, taking it in a firm grip in his palm while letting it twist around a finger. Sollux let a soft, low sound in his throat as he relaxed and slipped down a little further in the loveseat, his head falling to one side as he watched one bulge consumed, the other one twisting slowly between Bro's fingers. The sight alone was beyond arousing, but the sensation of the barbell rolling over the sensitive organ made him suck in his stomach, his jaw clenching. He wondered for a moment if Bro had experience with troll anatomy or if he was just making it up as he went along. If asked, Bro probably wouldn't give a straight answer, anyway. He moved his mouth further down the bulge, breathing through his nose as he relaxed his jaw and throat, coaxing it further with his tongue, giving ample attention to every particularly sensitive spot he could find. He brushed his thumb along Sollux's other bulge in time with his mouth to find each sweet spot he could, before his other hand slipped down to tease against the nooks. He knew from experience not everyone liked that, but he figured it was worth one try. They were tighter than the average nook, a little smaller given his particular anatomical arrangement. He moved the leg propped up on the couch to rest over Bro's shoulder comfortably as he watched the other figuring him out and giving quiet, encouraging murmurs when he was close to the right spots. He was quiet, any sounds he would make merely hitched breaths and quiet sighs.

Once he figured out exactly how Sollux reacted to certain movements of his tongue and hands, he started in with confidence, completely synchronizing his movements. It was after a few minutes of that that he switched positions, his mouth going over to the other bulge while the hand that had been working against the nooks went up to the now free bulge, and the slick hand went to Sollux's nooks. He had masterful control of his hands; every movement was calculated and subtle.

Before much longer Sollux had to wind his hand into Bro's hair, muttering at him to slow down, scanning around the room to see if there might be a pail somewhere out of the way. He wasn't going to come yet, but he knew when he needed to that someone potentially finding a huge yellow stain on the upholstery wouldn't exactly be the most flattering thing to get a bill for. He grit his teeth and gave a soft hiss as a quick combination of Bro's moves sent a spike of pleasure up through his lower body, his toes curling.

Bro slipped away to wipe his chin and catch his breath, looking around as well for a pail, knowing what Sollux was after, since the thought occurred to him about the third time he had to swallow down sweet fluid to keep going. "Probably one behind the cocoon," he said with a upward nod towards it. "S'where they usually stash 'em." He stood easily, though once up, he remembered just how inebriated he was and had to correct his balance as he walked, grabbing the pail out from behind the cocoon like he figured. "Kinda small," he added with a nosewrinkle as he walked back with it, but shrugged it off and set it aside.

Standing slowly, Sollux put one hand against the wall, one hand going to his bulges to give them something to tangle around rather than letting them retract or potentially drip on the carpet. "Next time, get a room with a bed unleth you want to fuck in the thopor," he muttered, glancing back at the loveseat. As well as they'd been doing so far, there was only so much they could really do on the thing unless one of them was going to be bent over it and even then there was a danger of rugburned knees.

"Yeah, all right," Bro said with a shrug, crouching down to get the condoms out of the bag. "But like I fuckin' said, dude, it was this or curling up on what amounts to a fuckin' pillow for me." He walked back over and leaned up against the cocoon, holding the protection lightly between his lips as he lifted himself up to the rim. Sollux wrinkled his nose, smirking as he bent to pick up the pail then reached out and took the wrapper out of Bro's mouth, pressing right up against him and dipping his head to peck at his lips, licking his own at the flavor on them.

"Different hotel then," he suggested then tore the package with his teeth and offered the little sheath. Clearly he wanted to see Bro try to put it on him. Just to make it a little easier he twisted his bulges some around his fingers until they were braided around each other into one thicker, slightly less mobile member.

"Next time," Bro said with a shrug, and took the sheath, easing it around Sollux's bulges with a slow, teasing movement, and another quick kiss. He arched his brow once he'd gotten it securely around Sollux, and then slipped his own on with a practiced grace and speed, careful of the jewelry. While he wasn't the one doing the penetrating in the near future, Bro wasn't about to get come in slime that was most likely going to have Sollux sleeping in it. While Bro was occupied with that, Sollux slipped around him to climb into the cocoon himself, taking a seat in the wide bowl with his back against one sloping side as he waited. He stroked one hand over the sheath while the other toyed with the entrances of his nooks just to keep himself aroused until Bro could get in to do it.

Bro was in before Sollux could really start in on himself, slipping carefully into the slime before moving up to the other and slipping one hand over Sollux's, brushing his fingertips just above his nooks. "Startin' without me, fuckin' rude-ass," he quietly teased, catching Sollux's lower lip between his teeth gently, before giving him a proper kiss.

"You were taking your thweet-ath time," Sollux muttered against his lips, pressing back into the kiss then leaning back again. "Tho you'll motht likely thnap me in half if you try riding me," he mentioned with a small smirk. He ran one hand down the length of Bro's body to his hip, then back to grip down on the solid meat of his ass.

"Wasn't plannin' on it," Bro murmured as he slipped his hand away to put at the edge of the cocoon, just above Sollux's head, flexing his glutes to tease again. "Guess that leaves you with a pretty limited amount of options."

Rolling his eyes, Sollux leaned back up to press his lips against the other's before slipping out from under him and moving around behind him to take a good, long look. He'd seen Bro's ass before at one point when he'd stood to go off-camera for something or other, but up close and personal was a whole other ball game. He leaned down and grinned then bit down lightly on the muscle, nowhere near enough to break the skin but leaving a ring of pinpricks. Running his thumb over the marks, he took a moment to appreciate the other from the back and licked his lips before dragging his fingertips down the cleft of his ass. "Jutht going to athume you'll need a little prep..."

While Sollux admired, Bro moved one hand back down to pump himself with a shuddered breath. The bite wasn't unwelcome, and he gasped lightly, arching his back, before nodding. "Good assumption," with a twitch of a smile at the size of both bulges spun around each other. He would _definitely_ need a little prep. Leaning over Bro's back, Sollux smiled faintly and pressed his lips against the other's shoulder as the tips of his fingers teased lightly over the pucker of Bro's ass before just barely breaching, lubricated by some clinging slime. He took the time to worship his not-quite-lover's shoulder with his lips and tongue as he slowly, carefully worked him open, first with one finger, then two, probing gently until he'd pushed in just deep enough to run the pad of his finger around Bro's prostate.

"If it hurtth you have leave to hurt me back," he murmured, letting a soft breath against the back of his neck.

Letting out a soft, discomforted huff at the initial penetration, Bro tightened his hand around the edge of the cocoon, his eyes slipping closed for a moment. "As thick as you are combined, wouldn't ru- Hnn- wouldn't rule out that possibility." Not that he was particularly worried about it, or about responding in kind. He moved his arm back to grip Sollux's thigh, gripping tight. Sollux pressed a third finger in as soon as the squeeze around the first two started to subside, his nose against the back of Bro's neck. He kept his fingers in place a moment before starting to move them again and angling them to put an even pressure on the little gland, his free hand resting against the other's arm. "Jutht keep talking and tell me when it'th alright to go ahead."

With another sharp breath, Bro's head tilted back and he smiled faintly, rocking back against Sollux's fingers. "You can stop worrying so damn much, I'm not gonna break," he said with a huffing chuckle, though the prep was appreciated. He took a long, calming breath and then relaxed around Sollux's fingers once more. "I wasn't fuckin' around when I said I wanted this hard."

"I wonder how many otherth in the world have ever been thith clothe to the choithe ath of one Broderick Thtrider," Sollux mused as he grinned against the back of Bro's neck, removing his fingers finally and replacing them with the ends of his twin bulges, squeezing down on a muscle that pushed them forward into the still tight cavity. He let out a huff as he seated himself in the other's body then laid against his back as he adjusted to the sensation. "Thtill fucking tight, what the hell..."

"Not many," Bro said with a smirk, though once Sollux slipped closer and moved his bulges in, he gripped the lip of the cocoon tight once more, groaning wordlessly before huffing in amusement. "Like I said, not many. Definitely not anybody with more than one bulge," he strained with a knit brow, his breath short. "Holy _damn._ " He licked his lips and took another deep, calming breath. Sollux nosed against the nape of Bro's neck with a small smile, his hips pressed firmly against the other's ass as he waited to adjust, moving just a little at first to work the muscle open as gently as possible before starting to actively thrust. The bulges squirmed semi-independently of one-another, adding another layer of movement to the action.

"Maybe invetht in thome toyth if you don't have them already," he suggested quietly, half-joking.

Bro's breath caught in the back of his throat and released once he started rolling his own hips back into the movement, shuddering another, less restrained groan. "You just haven't seen them 'cause they're not anywhere where I've got cams," he smirked over his shoulder at Sollux. "I'll be sure to put one up when I get home," he turned back around and spread his legs just a little, and arched his back, rolling his hips back against his friend's thrusts.

Returning the smirk, Sollux pushed forward harder, licking his lips then murmuring in Bro's ear, "Remind me to find a new bolt of cashmere." He ran one hand along Bro's side, fingers running over the dips and grooves of scar and muscle then gripping down on his hip and pulling him back with every thrust. The words alone made Bro bow his head with a low groan, his ears and neck gone red, his cheeks following up in that, almost losing grip on the rim of the cocoon. He moved his hand back down to pump himself in turn with Sollux's movements.

"I was half wonderin' if you'd been watchin'..." He didn't hide his kinks, at least insomuch that he didn't deny having them, or go out of his way to treat them as taboo.

"I've bathically got unlimited actheth to every one of your vidth. You really expect me not to take a peek?" Sollux chuckled quietly as he slipped his hand down between Bro's thighs and grab onto his testicles, pulling gently and squeezing. He braced the other hand against the edge of the cocoon himself and rocked forward hard, giving a soft moan into the increasingly disheveled fluff of blonde hair.

"Actually, I did," he groaned, the knot in the pit of his stomach growing as he felt himself getting close once again. Bro's breath sharply hitched at the angle that one of Sollux's bulges had taken, brushing against his prostate in such a way to send an electric shiver up his spine. His jaw went slack at that, and he bucked his hips down against Sollux and then back up into his own hand. The hand between Bro's legs slipped up to wrap around the last exposed part of his shaft, stroking and squeezing in time with quickening thrusts. By then it seemed that he was done talking, which was just as well as he started creeping up on his own orgasm once more. He bit down on the back of Bro's neck with a soft growl as his hips slapped audibly against the other's ass with every push forward, all of his admittedly insubstantial weight leaned into the effort.

As Sollux pounded into him and kept his hand moving just as fast, with a fairly substantial grip at that, Bro's head bowed forward, taking little gasps and huffs of breath, having gotten to a point where even groaning had lost its footing in his vernacular. With the bite, he gasped sharply and a quick smile came to his face. He only came after a few more moments, his jaw tightened as his muscles below tensed, and his knuckles went white with the strength of the grip he had on the rim of the recuperacoon. Sollux released his hold on the back of Bro's neck as soon as he felt the spasm of muscles around him, standing up on his knees and continuing the rapidly faltering pace until he finally had to withdraw and lean over the edge of the cocoon to fetch the pail. He rolled the condom off with one hand, making sure it fell into the bucket, gripping the rim of the cocoon as he finally allowed himself to come, the immediate air taking on a sweet, mellow scent akin to honeysuckle. "Gh...fuck, Thtrider..."

Bro was catching his breath when Sollux pulled off and he turned around, watching Sollux as he came, and eased his own condom off with one hand, before tying it off and tossing it into the pail. He leaned back again and took a deep breath, getting his heart rate back to its usual stability. He mused to himself that if Sollux ever took that tone with his name again, he'd want to hear it. He reached over and brushed his knuckles against Sollux's arm, smiling tiredly. He looked up at that, returning the smile with a small, lopsided one of his own. Once the bucket was placed back out on the carpet Sollux crawled forward to press his lips against Bro's leaning heavily against him as his head swam slightly. He wrapped an arm around Sollux's shoulders, and the other around his waist, responding to the kiss with a gentle one of his own. His body felt heavy and he had absolutely no desire to climb out of the cocoon and deal with wiping the slime off before sprawling out on what looked to be only a half-comfortable recliner. He turned to bow his head and lean it against Sollux's shoulder, yawning loud.

"Jesus fuck you wore me out."

"Don't thuppothe there'th a prithe for that," Sollux mumbled as his nose pressed against Bro's temple. He was already growing sleepy and keeping himself from yawning was becoming harder and harder, especially when Bro did it himself. "I think thleep time now. Figure out shit later."

"Good plan," muttered Bro as he tangled his legs with Sollux's, glad that the slime was working on alleviating the after-sex pain, so he wouldn't have anything to complain about in the morning except a hangover.

The morning arrived with the sound of his phone going off with a text from Dave, and he blearily opened his eyes to find himself very hungover, very sober, and very in a recuperacoon. With Sollux. He played back the events of the night as he sat up and rubbed his face, quietly grumbling at his drunken self for leaving the phone so far away from where he slept. Well shit, that was, by his account, a pretty fuckin' good night. Sollux turned over when he moved, his arms shoved up under his head. It was obvious that he didn't want to wake up, not just yet. By his internal clock, it was way too early for that nonsense. He cracked an eye open to glance up at the blurry mountain of a figure next to him and at first, he couldn't seem to process who it was, or indeed why it was there in the first place. Sitting up and rubbing a hand over his face, smearing more slime over his cheek in the process, Sollux squinted at Bro until he came into focus then fell back against the side of the cocoon with a quiet groan.

"Pleathe tell me I didn't act like a fucking tool at leatht..."

"Not that I know," Bro grumbled, his voice hoarse as he sat up a little to rub his face again. "Pretty sure we were both on our best damn behavior." He slicked the slime off himself as best he could before climbing out, grumbling about it being fucking dumbass o'clock, even though it was well past 10. He grabbed his phone first, and then shuffled over to his duffel bag to grab some clean clothes and the bottle of aspirin.

Sollux sat up and draped himself over the side of the cocoon, dragging a hand back through his hair as he watched Bro move. From the fragments that he could remember, he hadn't exactly been gentle with him after the beginning. He smirked faintly and dragged a hand back over his head, holding his bangs up out of his face as he pressed his cheek against the other arm. "I have to wonder who that 'betht behavior' thing referth to. I don't exactly recall being a good boy," he smirked, only grinning wider at the circle of tooth marks on the back of Bro's neck.

"I'm countin' that as real good behavior," Bro said, shaking out a few pills and swallowing them dry. He walked past to hand the painkillers to Sollux on his way to the bathroom. "M'fuckin' starvin'," he muttered as he walked in and closed the door to start a shower and get the slime off. He was running on fumes, and still trying to piece together everything. He looked into the mirror and checked to see if there were any marks left on him, and, not seeing the one on the back of his neck, he shrugged and stepped into the shower.

Tossing back a couple of the pills dry himself, Sollux waited until Bro had shut himself in the bathroom before climbing out of the recuperacoon and perching on the edge of it with his elbows on his knees. He wasn't sure he actually wanted to know what was happening anymore. A goddamn flushed crush that had gotten a little out of control wasn't even close to it anymore. This didn't change anything. They were still work partners, still bros. He nodded at that and stood up to stretch out then wait for his turn in the shower. Bro came out of the bathroom after about fifteen minutes, fully dressed but still fuzzy-faced. He was glad for the sink outside of the bathroom; he needed to shave and didn't want to hold Sollux up while he trimmed his shit. He nodded to Sollux as they passed each other, a lopsided smile coming to his face.

Once he took up residence in front of the mirror to shave, he too decided that the night prior changed nothing. The only hesitation that he had in all of this was that he was disturbed by the act that he wasn't disturbed at all by it.

As he finished up shaving, he texted Dave to let him know that they'd meet up with him after a quick breakfast. They were meeting on the overlook set this time around to finally film the scene that had gotten fucked by a horrorterror, as it was overcast but there was no threat of rain until later that late afternoon. He was grateful that his little bro didn't pry and simply stayed on task.

Sollux showered down quickly, coming back with a towel wrapped around his hips and picking yesterday's clothes off the ground. He'd have to go back to Dave and Karkat's place to be able to change as all his clothes and his costume were there, but it wasn't much of an inconvenience. He ran his fingers through his hair after ruffling it dry then shook it out and glanced around for his glasses, picking them off the edge of the loveseat and settling them back onto his nose. As far as any outside observer would be able to tell, nothing had happened, and that was the way it should be.

Outside, while they waited for their cab Sollux lifted a cigarette to his lips as well as a lighter picked out of Bro's belongings, casually lighting it then taking a slow drag. "Gonna be a good day to get thingth done," he mused as he looked up at the overcast sky, smiling faintly at a breeze as it picked up.

Bro nodded to that, his own cigarette dangling from his lips. "Definitely gonna need the second week of shooting and final shit later this month, though," he added, "I'd say he's overreaching, but the kid knows his limits. I got faith he's gonna get this shit together. And from all I've seen, he's got the skills to keep us all from hindering his progress, so there's that." He hopped up onto a high wall to sit down and wait for the cab.

"It'th jutht a matter of keeping everyone elthe focuthed and not paranoid over thudden attackth of flying tentacleth." Sollux shrugged, leaning against the wall beneath Bro with his ankles crossed. He could see the cab approaching, but it was far down the street in the middle of a slight traffic jam. "I kind of feel bad for Kanaya though. Karkat'th cothtumeth are all going to have to be altered for the thtupid growth thpurt."

Bro shook his head with a chuckle, "I'm still gonna call him shortstack, don't care if he gets seven feet tall." He looked down to Sollux and leaned his elbows on his knees. "Listen dude, before we both get fuckin' distracted by all this film shit, I just want to bring up that last night doesn't effect shit, and shouldn't be a one time thing."

Sollux's brow arched up as he looked back up, the cigarette clamped between his teeth. "Yeah, I know. We've kinda got an issue where trying again'th contherned though. Y'know, given the fact that after my part here'th done, I'm going home and back to work."

Bro shook his head. "You've got a pretty narrow view of how I operate, bro. I'm in California fuckin'... shit, no less than five times a year, and even then I can make it there more often. And last I checked, we've got webcams and those seem to work pretty damn well." He scratched his jaw and finished his smoke, grinding out the butt on the top of the wall before hopping down and tossing it into the nearby garbage. "I'm gonna be movin' up here soon, just to keep shit afloat, since Pyrope's gonna be transferring schools soon." He shrugged. "It's not much closer, but it knocks about an hour off the flight to Burbank."

"Great, tho I have the potential to get laid at leatht five timeth a year. Good to know." Smirking some, Sollux finished the cigarette and ground it out on the wall behind him, flicking the butt into the street as the cab finally started picking up speed toward them. He stepped up to the curb as soon as it stopped again, waiting for Bro before crawling in and crossing his legs uncomfortably in the tight space. He gave the address for Dave's apartment then yawned widely and tried to ignore the vague throbbing in the back of his skull from the residual hangover.

"Five more times than your average, from what you've been sayin'. And anyway dude, I've got some ridiculous amount of free miles left over. Even if I didn't, it's not like I'm fuckin' broke or nothin'." He shrugged. "Work and guardianship aside, it's not like I've got fuckall goin' on." He cracked his neck as he tried to ignore how little legroom there was in this cab.

"Tho what, you'd actually want to thpend more time on a plane than at home," Sollux snorted, crossing his arms and reclining back as the cab took off. The ride would be short, but with the traffic as it was that day, he could at least get in half a doze from there to the apartment, and then from the apartment to the outlook.

Bro sighed heavily and shook his head, grumbling under his breath, "Better'n bein' alone all the time." He leaned his arm on the armrest of the door and buried his fist under his chin, scowling. He was silent the rest of the way to the apartment, and by the time they got there, Dave was packing up to get to the set. 

"Hey," Dave said, immediately noticing the scowl on Bro's face and stepped aside to let his brother through to the kitchen. "Jesus damn, who shit in your cheerios?"

"Can it, runt." Bro grumbled, immediately going for a bowl and some corn pops. Sollux ducked into the spare bedroom as soon as Dave knew he was there, pulling on the costume then a loose shirt over the top of it, figuring he could just bring a pair of pants with him to change into after the shoot was done. The mood swing was a bit unexpected, but Sollux reminded himself who he was dealing with and came back out with his bag over his shoulder, his computer in tow. Karkat was still in the bedroom dicking around from what he could hear, which meant he had a little time to kill. His laptop was set up on the counter and plugged into the socket near the floor to charge a moment, then opened and almost immediately he opened a youtube page. He just had to see...

"Oh hell yeth. Dudeth, you're youtube famouth," Sollux laughed and turned the computer around and enlarged a slightly shaky video that had been taken of the karaoke performance from the night before.

Bro stood in the kitchen and ate his cereal, only looking over the counter once Sollux started the video. Dave laughed as he came over and watched. "Oh holy shit, that's _way_ too many hits for one night." His grin went lopsided, and pointed out, "Rose knows the moves better than either of us. There goes _her_ image. Vantas! Check this out!" 

Bro finally walked up and his brows arched. "Wow, that many views overnight? Damn." He checked the angle from which the video was shot, and placed it just left of their tables.

"The fuck are you guys so loud this morning?" Karkat grumbled as he finally emerged in half his costume, the Righteous Leggings pulled up to his armpits. Apparently at least one of the multiple copies of his costume were done. He leaned over the laptop to look at the video then slumped against the counter. "Oh my fucking Christ... There goes my hope for getting through a single goddamn day without some humiliation."

"Too late for that, Nubth," muttered Sollux as soon as he noticed what Karkat was wearing and earned himself a punch in the shoulder.

Dave grinned at that, "Hey nubby, check it. I'm a hot chick." He had taken to reading the comments on his own laptop, perched on the arm of the sofa. "Aren't you lucky." He then looked at the costume, nodding. "Good, you can't see the alterations at all. Gonna have to trade Kanaya my firstborn for that work, but it's worth it." He looked back up at Bro, who still was looking fairly owly, but at least he'd lightened up in that short period.

"I fear the shit that you're thinking right now, dude," Dave said to Bro, "I know that look. That's the look you get before I come home to a mountain of smuppet ass."

Karkat groaned at the ceiling then went back to the bedroom to grab a shirt to pull on over the leggings so that at least he didn't look like a complete ass. The rest of the costume was tucked into his bag with his husktop and other small belongings, slung over his shoulder when he came back out to put them with the rest of the stuff. He leaned over Dave's shoulder to read through some of the comments himself and arched an eyebrow when he came to a name he thought he recognized asking if Karkat was aware that people wanted to bang his "girlfriend". That was when the comments and replies underneath got rather blatantly sexist and he had to walk away, instead occupying himself grabbing a pack of poptarts out of the cupboard.

Sollux turned his computer back around and started doing another search, glancing up at Bro every so often then sighing and rubbing his hand across his forehead. He jerked his head toward the patio then bent to grab his cigarettes out of his bag and headed outside. Somewhere along the line, he'd said something wrong. He wouldn't care, normally, but it was fucking with what he felt was his best friend. That shit wouldn't fly.

Bro followed out quietly, setting the bowl down on the closest table as he went to grab his own smokes. He leaned against the railing, facing Sollux as he lit his cigarette, brow arched.

Dave shrugged off the dumbass comments - they were just fucking youtube comments, the lowest common denominator of all comments left on the internet - and finished getting ready for a day of shooting. He looked over his shoulder at the two on the patio and left it alone; whatever happened between this morning when Bro replied to his text and now set him off, and it wasn't something that Dave could help with. He slipped closer to Karkat once he got things set aside and packed away. "Dunno how you put up with the constant embarrassment, but I'm kinda glad you do."

Karkat smiled faintly and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe it's because I've deluded myself into thinking that everything else that comes with it is worth it."

Grinning a little, Dave leaned in to place a kiss on Karkat's cheek. "Delusional looks good on you, at least." He slipped away to grab some snacks to put in his bag, before he turned to see something that he'd missed over the course of a couple days. "Holy shit," he grinned as he walked into the living room and picked up the yellow card. "Dude, it's my sylladex, where the fuck did this come from?"

Sucking down smoke in silence for a moment, Sollux looked out at the little city stretching around them then back to Bro. "Jutht tho you know, I never turned down the idea," he said quietly, his arm coming up across his chest and tucking his hand under the other arm. "So pull whatever crawled up your ath back out and let'th get thomething done today alright?"

Bro shook his head, and pursed his lips, considering his words carefully. "If you want somethin' to work," he said quietly, "you don't destroy the component pieces before tryin' to put it together. It ain't feasible at this point for me to consider movin' out there, and if you moved out here, there'll be a larger chance of Outer Gods attackin' this place. Now, I can handle that, and a whole lot of other shit besides, but ultimately, the decision is up to you. You got shitloads of options, and I'm willin' to facilitate whatever your final decision is, but in the long run, dude, I'm not gonna put up with you even _actin'_ like shit ain't gonna work." He took a drag of his cigarette and crossed his legs at the ankles, before shooting off a few texts.

"You're acting like you don't fucking know me by now. I'm the fucking Mage of Doom, remember? Prophetic dreamth and bad feelingth and more pethimithm than anyone elthe could conthieve of." Sollux finished his smoke then crossed the balcony, standing in front of Bro with his arms crossed. "But even with all that I'm thtill thtanding right here willing to make thith work, whatever thith ith." Inside he could hear the murmur of Karkat and Dave's conversation knowing they were most likely waiting and either being horribly sappy at one-another or else casually berating pretty much everything until the day started progressing again.

"Shit dude, it's whatever it needs to be at the time. I'm not gonna try and shove whatever we've got into a compartmentalized frame of mind. That'd be a fuckin' tragedy," he said, rubbing his forehead. "Thing is, I'm pretty sure I'm mindfuckin' the situation, and it's a lot less complex than I'm makin' it seem." Bro looked back up and smirked. "But I mean it, I'll do what I can to make shit work out to both our advantages."

"Pretty thure thith doethn't exactly fall into a quadrant anyway and forthing it to do tho would be a fucking meth." Shrugging a shoulder, Sollux took a step closer then leaned to press a firm kiss to Bro's lips. "You were a Heart player onthe but that only meant that you tore yourthelf apart trying to protect everyone elthe'th. I think it'th time you actually dethide to be thelfish for a minute."

Bro kissed back and looked a little amused. "Hate it that the other me wore that on his sleeve," he had a lot of gripes about Dirk and how he was so goddamn transparent about things that he himself had kept hidden, or at least tried to. He huffed a chuckle though, and shook his head. "Ain't in me to be selfish, sorry to say." He pulled Sollux closer once more, by the front of his shirt and held him in another, longer kiss. Once he broke it off, he looked inside to see Dave standing there pointing at him, shouting "HA I FUCKING KNEW IT."

"Yeah, and then there's _that_ asshole." He nudged Sollux with a smirk, "C'mon, let's get this shit taken care of. I got lots of other shit to deal with before I can even think of takin' a break today."

"Thuch a cockbite," Sollux muttered then headed inside, giving Dave the rudest gesture he could think of for the moment then arching an eyebrow at Karkat, just waiting for him to say something. He simply lifted his hands defensively and picked Sollux's bag up to throw to him then grabbed Dave by the back of his shirt before he could incite his brother's wrath.

"Come on Lord High Douchefuck, let's get this show on the road while we still have daylight to work with."

Dave let himself be dragged, but not without grinning and flipping Sollux off with both hands, laughing menacingly. Bro simply shook his head and smiled, walking out the door in their wake. "Sometimes I wonder why I didn't drown him as a pup."

\--

The shoot at the overlook finally went off with minimal difficulties. Dave's efforts in attempting to get everyone to work together, even with the bumpy start of the morning, paid off beautifully. They then moved to the second set to film the torture scene, and Rose carefully applied gray body paint to Bro's arms and painted his nails to look as authentic as possible, before kindly handing him the bow. The takes for the shot were tricky, but Dave was satisfied with what he'd gotten done. He didn't film sequentially, and the last take of that set was for the Final Sermon, just to give Karkat time to mentally prepare.

Just before he started filming, he pulled Karkat aside, careful not to mess with the fake blood. "Okay man, this is the biggest scene of the film, and you know how fuckin' good you are at this. I need you to act your fuckin' face off. Sell that shit, make everybody in a ten mile radius cry their eyes out." He smiled excitedly; this was the one thing that he knew would fly this project straight into success, if everything else managed to fail it.

"So no pressure," Karkat snorted and grabbed the front of Dave's shirt, pulling him forward for a quick, hard kiss the let him go and walked back to the impromptu little crew from the theater department that was preparing his shackles. He turned and stood back in place as his hands were locked up over his head and the covert little button on the inside of them pressed to give them the red hot glow achieved by textured plastic and dim red bulbs, looking up at them and the makeup that had been applied around his wrists to make them look burned and bloody. He pulled down on them, putting more and more of his weight on the restraints until he was straining on them then nodding and letting himself go limp as if in exhaustion.

When the scene rolled, he took a moment to let the silence build uncomfortably while the extras stood back to make up the crowd of onlookers, then started to speak, quietly at first, then building up and looking the occasional troll in the eye as he did. The more into it he got, the more pained he seemed to be, until he finally got to the Expletive, screaming at them all then finally going limp and recollecting himself, continuing on until at the very end, his head fell and a thin tear traced down the bridge of his nose to drip off the end and fall into the dust at his feet. He hung there by his hands until the scene was cut, then straightened up and twisted his hands some in the cuffs as he wiped his face on the only part of his arm he could manage without smearing more of the blood.

While Karkat recited the lines with pitch-perfection - and he knew this would only need one cut - Dave had sent both his brother and Rose out with extra cameras to record for cutaways, and Bro caught Kanaya, who had, at the beginning, been acting, but nearing the end, her tears were real; the heartbreak in her expression wasn't put-on. It'd go into the final cut of the film. Once Dave yelled cut, the mill was eerily silent for a moment, before one of the extras started to applaud, and then another. Kanaya stood from her place on the ground and carefully wiped a tear from her cheek and clapped as well. 

Dave stepped away from the camera and came over with a smile, applauding as well. "Think you sold it?" He asked as he carefully dabbed the red-tinged tear away from Karkat's face. "That's all for you, dude. Look at them, they love you."

Karkat wrinkled his nose, shrugging a shoulder as he avoided looking at the rest of them, his ears starting to turn red with embarrassment. "Sorry it took a second to get back into character there at the start," he muttered then looked over Dave's shoulder back at Kanaya, who was beaming at him. He gave her a soft smile of his own then glanced around wondering what they were supposed to be doing next.

"Don't apologize, you did great." Dave grinned as he turned to the rest of them, "That's a day, people. Don't die between now and tomorrow, I need a bunch of you back for some filler shit!" He turned to undo the cuffs and turn the light in them off, before one of the prop folks came to retrieve them. They would have to take a large amount of photos of Sollux, Kanaya and Furlue for the ending exposition, and there were still scenes in the middle that needed to be redone or edited in between but for now it seemed that the day was more or less done. It was just as well, now that the cloud cover was breaking and letting down deep orange shafts of light between the clouds as the sun started to set.

"So what now?" Karkat asked.

"Fuckin' food is what now. I'm just about starved. Tomorrow I've got to film the Helmsman scene with Sollux, and we've got to do the intro scene with Kanaya." He turned to see his friends and helpers all start breaking down the set around them. "Holy shit, I'm directing something," he said aloud. It wasn't the first time the realization crossed his mind, and it always came with a bit of surprise that something he was doing was actually working out amazingly. "Okay, go wash off before they steal the basin and towels, I'll meet you at the car."

Rose was at the table with the makeup and water to wash up, ready to help remove the blood. "I should ask for your autograph," she teased.

Karkat rolled his eyes at her as he turned a little to let her get some of the tacky blood from his neck. "Oh come on, not you too. I'm not going to be famous over this shit, that's Dave's schtick."

"Maybe so, but a director is only as good as the story that's told and the ones telling the story." She reached up as she patted Karkat on the head then hopped down off the table to help clean up. Karkat looked down at the half-ruined costume and the hole that had been made in his side for the CGI shot later for the still in which he was supposed to have been shot by the Expatriate's arrow, lamenting Kanaya's hard work being damaged but reminding himself that she had come into it knowing what was going to happen. He went back to the improvised changing area when Rose finished scrubbing the red streaks off his skin and peeled out of the leggings, changing into a comfortable pair of slightly distressed skinny jeans and a fitted long-sleeved shirt, pulling an overshirt on top of that then peeking out to see who else was around. He saw Ferrus helping to load one of the heavier props into the back of one of the theater department's little trailers to haul things back to the school then smiled faintly when he turned back to Furlue, grinning at her and complimenting her performance as the Disciple. He wandered back to the set to see Sollux discussing something with one of the people in charge of the green screen and Helmsman rigging, smiling faintly and returning to Dave's side at the car.

"I'd say everyone's gonna sleep pretty fucking well tonight," he commented, watching cars and trucks pull out one by one.

Dave had finished packing up the cameras and lights, putting them all in his car, and looked around the mill, smiling contentedly for what felt like the first time in forever. "Yeah, I think so. You up for Antonio's?" The Italian restaurant was one of Dave's personal favorites. "Or does your delicate palate wish to be graced with something less tomato-y?"

"I'm pretty sure not everything is comprised totally of tomato. Sometimes it's made up of massive amounts of cheese," Karkat snorted and shoved on Dave's shoulder gently. "Whatever you want, I don't feel like being the world's wettest blanket for a change."

"Wow, that's exciting," Dave said with a grin as he slipped away to get into the car. "Let's just get some food to go from there, and find someplace that isn't the apartment to eat it." He dropped into the driver's seat to find a sticky note attached to the wheel. "Heh, fucker," he muttered, sticking the note to his dashboard instead. It read, in Bro's handwriting, **Check yo swag**

Karkat shook his head at the note and looked around to see where Bro might have gone, knowing Sollux would be close in his general vicinity. Bro had apparently just finished loading the rest of the black drapes into a car that pulled away and was making his way back to his rental that he grabbed from the bar's parking lot during the break between sets.

"Did you have somewhere in mind then? Since we're not eating at home I assume you have some stupid romantic idea. Maybe I should text Sollux so he at least goes back to the apartment tonight so he can get up and do the Helmsman thing."

"Yeah, tell him Bro's got the key and he's free to eat whatever." Dave shrugged. "Not romantic, actually, just... Y'know, it's a nice night out and I think we should enjoy it before some freak snowstorm decides to come in and shit all over us. And there's a place up the mountain that you can see the entire city and it kind of makes me feel," Dave paused as he tried to find the words for it. "Man, it just makes me _feel_." He started the car and rolled his shoulders before leaning back and driving.

Nodding some, Karkat sent off a message letting Sollux know the apartment was all theirs for the evening then put his phone into his bag and laid back in his seat with his hands laced together behind his neck. It had been a long day, but it was all a blur of activity and he was starting to really feel the exhaustion much like he would after a good work day. "This will be good. I don't think we've actually done a dinner thing that was just us in...shit, a couple months at least."

Dave grinned at that, and turned up the music as he drove in the direction of the restaurant. It was only about a twenty minute wait for their food, and as they waited for it to be brought out in containers and a bag, Dave spent the time reading emails. "Holy shit, apparently that video went mad viral. I've been getting emails all day about it. I can't even imagine the amount of shit Bro's gotten because of it, though." He had been sipping on a drink that he ordered to tide him over while they waited, until he nearly choked on it. "Wow dude." He said, handing over the phone for Karkat to read the extremely long, extremely obscene email from a guy who had mistaken him for a girl in the video.

Karkat thumbed the phone to scroll it through the message, his eyebrow creeping higher every second until he took it upon himself to send a message back in reply, a very succinct, mean little message about how _nice_ it was to know that someone wanted to do things to his _boyfriend_. His lip curled up into a little smirk as he handed it back and picked up his own drink to sip on, casually eying every passing server in the hopes that they were coming with food. When they finally appeared he breathed a sigh of relief and took the bag with quiet thanks then nudged Dave back in the direction of the car.

"Jeez, if I'm getting shit like that, who only knows what kind of messed up shit Rose is getting," Dave said as he pocketed his phone and walked out, holding the door for Karkat before walking out again.

"Yeah but then you know she'll send them back even longer emails completely breaking down and psychoanalyzing them until their brains implode. And then probably get Sollux to trace their IPs and make their computers blow up."

The drive up the mountain was a pleasant one, and once they got to the turn-off for the scenic viewpoint, Dave pointed the car to face the city below, and killed the engine, then turned the radio back on with another turn of his key, smiling a little as he got out with the bag of food. He sat down on the hood of the car and pulled out his order of lasagna and breadsticks, and then fished around for a fork. He was just lucky to be able to do this with someone now, he thought to himself, looking over his shoulder at Karkat. Karkat climbed out then settled onto the hood of the car himself with his legs crossed, pulling his order of baked ravioli into his lap and spearing one on the end of a fork to dip into the sauce in its own little container. He looked back at Dave when he realized he was being watched, smiling faintly in return.

"Thanks for coming up here with me," Dave said with a soft, tired smile, "It's one of my favorite places to get away from everybody." He took a big bite of food, looking at the lights of the city sprawling out before them. "I get lost in that zoo of a city, get lost in its drama and its bullshit. Coming up here just pulls me out of that for a while. Gets me back to myself and reminds me that it's all small time, y'know?"

Karkat nodded thoughtfully as he bit one of his ravioli in half, looking out over the sprawl of the city below them as the lights started to wink on the darker it got. It was brighter here than it was at his own outlook, the view being over the city rather than over the forest. He ate slowly, mostly listening to the quiet susurrus of the world around them muted by distance. "Being able to hear yourself think for a little while is a priceless thing these days," he said quietly, leaning back against the windshield gingerly. He continued to work slowly though the rest of his meal, looking up instead when he was done at the sky overhead. It felt like a paranoid thought, but he wondered if maybe those weren't stars, but monsters staring back at them. He tore his gaze away, looking back at Dave instead.

Dave tucked in quietly and nodded in agreement to Karkat's statement. He had spent way too long ignoring that, and ignoring himself. He leaned back as well once his lasagna was half done and smiled a little over at Karkat. "Wonder how they're doing up there, tonight," he said, looking up with a faint smile. "Wonder if Jade's happy, if she hasn't lost her positive outlook." He had recently ignored the glimmering dark for the same reason Karkat had pulled his gaze away from it - it was more likely horrorterrors than stars - but the more persistent thought was that of hoping Jade and Aradia were okay up there. "I wonder how long it'll take them. If once they're done, if they can join us."

"I think when everything's as it should be, they'll come back," Karkat replied, spinning his fork idly between his fingers. "I just wish they weren't alone up there." The idea that it was just the two of them, outside of the bubble, by themselves with only one-another for company, or worse, unable to communicate at all, was both sobering and saddening. "If anyone deserves to be able to come back and have a life, it's Jade."

"Yeah. And I got this sick sinking feeling that it should've been me up there and not Aradia. Every time I think of it, I get a knot in my stomach, like I was slated to be up there with Jade, and then something happened." He shook his head. "Still haven't put those pieces together, and I dunno if I want to."

"By that logic, it should have been Kanaya up there as well as our session's Space player," Karkat pointed out, but by then, Dave shook himself out of that frame of mind and grinned.

"You're going to kill me if I call for a couple more takes of the Sermon, aren't you. I think I got what I needed, but I want to make absolutely sure."

Karkat wrinkled his nose. "If I did that again it wouldn't have the same impact. I don't think I really have another serious one of those in me to be honest."

"All right," Dave said with a smile, "You're off the hook for now, fucker, but if I see even one flaw, I'm going to completely shit myself over it." He laid his head back down, eyes closed. "We've still got tons to get done. I was hoping I'd get everything done this week so I wouldn't have to rip the girls and Sollux out of their lives for two weeks. It's looking like I've got no choice. And Rose has promised me a theme song, if Ferrus can pull together a few more musicians, and that'll be going up on the site as soon as it's recorded and polished." He had seen the sheet music she was working on writing during shooting, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. He knew she and Bro would pull that shit together by the end of the week, though, and he'd be allowed to fuck with it as soon as he could.

"He's got lots of friends in the music department and I know there are a few that would love to get in on a project like this if only for the material for their resumes," Karkat shrugged, then went back to munching at bits of his dinner. "I think if we really bust our asses for the next few days, we should be fine and you won't have to worry about the grade for the project for another few months."

"Shit, I've got to put together a trailer. Tomorrow's going to be mayhem." Dave sighed out a breath to calm himself. "I'll need you to head up there with Rose and Bro tomorrow to get that taken care of while I grind away at tossing together a trailer." He had already pieced something together mentally; he just needed to do the work to get it tangible. "Have you heard Vriska's voice acting? Damn, dude, I had to keep myself from thinking it too loud, but holy actual shit." His smile went lopsided and he shook his head. "When did all you fucking weirdos get all goddamn talented? I didn't sign off on this shit."

Karkat grinned and sat up, reaching his fork over and stealing a bite of Dave's lasagna. "Maybe it just happened to give you something to shit yourself over," he chuckled then finished off the last of his food and put the container up on the roof of the car.

"That or I'm biased as hell and I'm convincing myself that you're all about fifty times more talented than you are because I really like you." He poked Karkat in the side and put his own food up as well. The portions were enough to feed him four times over. "Ugh, I don't wanna go back down there. There are people there. Doing dick-all. Being not as cool as me."

"So stay up here and be cool with me. I can live with sitting around here for a little while longer." Karkat rolled onto his side as comfortably as he could manage and snagged Dave's shades, folding them and putting them on top of the containers then looking him in the face. "How can you even see through those at night?"

Dave chuckled and turned to look at Karkat, looking straight into his eyes. "I've been wearing shades pretty much constantly since I was a baby. My eyesight is so fucking good that I can see just fine with them on at night." He squinted one eye with a nosewrinkle. "I want to know how people go without them during the day, though. I get headaches just thinking about a brightly lit room."

"And again you reinforce that you are fucking weird." Shaking his head, Karkat reached a hand out to drag his fingers back through Dave's hair, lifting his bangs away from his forehead to get a good look at his face with nothing in the way. "Remind your brother about that haircut would you? You're starting to resemble a mop."

"Coming from you, that's depressing," Dave shot back gently as he reached over to rumple Karkat's longer hair. "Once we've got a half an hour to spare, I'll get him to trim my hair. Knowing him, he's got his scissors with him." He looked up at the lack of hair over his eyebrows and crinkled his brows together. "What is your preoccupation with my forehead?"

"Maybe the fact that I don't think I've ever actually seen it?" Karkat wrinkled his nose then leaned up and pressed his lips to the space between Dave's brows. He sat back up after a few seconds and let Dave's hair down then turned back to the sprawling lights with his chin coming to rest against his knees.

"It's a forehead, dude, everyone has one," Dave said with an amused shake of his head. He rolled off the hood to grab something from inside the car, and came back out with his sylladex to see what was in there. He looked over at Karkat with a smile. "I figure if we're going to wind up dealing with more monsters, I should at least carry these things." He was glad he'd switched out from hash map, in retrospect; the thing was clunky and dumb. He checked out if there were any potentially deadly things other than his blades in there and looked over at Karkat. "What happened to yours?" He asked, before pressing the eject button, sending all the items flying out past the car. The shuriken lodged into a nearby tree, while several swords flew and clattered onto the dirt, followed by a dozen suits, a box of fireworks, and a couple dozen LPs.

Looking around at the assorted shitty bladed weapons and random belongings, Karkat slid off the car himself and grabbed the food to put in on the console. "I did have an Encryption modus but it worked better for Sollux so I'm pretty sure he still has it. I actually don't have a sylladex myself anymore."

"Huh. I had lost mine until this morning," murmured Dave as he shook his head at all the broken-ass swords, leaving them for the moment to look at all the dumbass suits, before captchaloging them back in to get rid of at the thrift store next time he went. "I don't even know where it came from. Bro didn't have it, I know that much." He had scoured the apartment from top to bottom at one point, specifically looking for it. "You could always ask Mom to alchemize a better sylla... _Mom_ had it!" He rolled his eyes with a shake of his head, chuckling. "Fuckin' Lalondes. This fetch modus is fuckin' user-friendly like holy shit. I used to work with hash map, and even _that_ was better than most others. Hex is sick, though." He yanked the shuriken out of the tree and hefted them in his hand, surprised how light they were now. He distinctly recalled them having more heft when he first used them. He looked at the box of fireworks, and then noticed it was moving, only to be overturned by a crocodile who ran out, nak-ing loudly as it absconded into the woods.

"...There was a Nakodile hiding in your sylladex for four years?" Karkat watched it go with a vaguely concerned expression then looked back at Dave. "Again: Weird. But I guess the mysterious-ass ways of Lalondes are not to be questioned, just like those of Striders." Shaking his head, Karkat leaned back against the side of the car with his hands tucked up under his arms. "If I end up needing a new fetch modus at least I know who to ask."

"I think I captchalogued it to see if I could captchalog living animals like some fucked up pokemon. And it was way longer than four years, I think it was one of the first damn things I did in the Medium." He finally captchalogued all the rest of the junk, sorted and ready to get rid of about 80% of it. "I'm gonna have to ask Bro if he's got a way to fix some of these. I mean, shit. Stuff's pretty cool, if it wasn't broke-ass." He winced a little when he noticed one particular sword, which reminded him of the one sword he'd left alone, and then tried to push it out of his mind. Bro was alive again. Even if he _wasn't_ alive in a very technical sense, even if he'd died before, he'd soon be alive again. He was as close to living as any single dead dude could be.

Once everything was cleaned up, Dave tossed the sylladex back in the car and wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist. "You're gonna need a sylladex if you want to carry your sickles around at all times without people looking at you like you're fucking insane."

"People already look at me like I'm fucking insane. The only thing carrying a weapon would do would make me actually look dangerous," Karkat snorted then turned to put his arms around Dave's middle to pull him close and peck at his lips. "We'll be ok. Bro'll be ok. Even if it means we get up to our dicks in outer gods, we'll make it through this."

"Yeah," said Dave with a heavy sigh. He didn't sound so sure of that. He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and leaned his head on his matesprit's shoulder, sighing. "Fuckin' hate my brain sometimes, can't stay focused unless it's on something fucking stupid." He finally managed to bury the memories and negative ideas down enough where he stepped back and looked back up at the sky. "Well, no matter what, I'm pretty fuckin' sure if they can hear us, they know we're grateful as hell." He nodded to the car then. "C'mon, nubs, let's get home."

Taking a moment to press another, longer kiss to his matesprit's lips, Karkat bumped the bridge of his nose against Dave's then went back around to the other side of the car, settling in for the drive home with the containers of food on his knees.

The drive was spent in silence, one of Karkat's hands loosely wrapped around Dave's as he drove except for when he had to shift. When they reached the apartment building it took a second for Karkat to want to step back out into the cool air. Going inside meant potentially bothering talking with people when just that moment, all he really wanted to do was curl up in bed beside Dave and work on his coursework until he fell asleep. Dave sighed once he killed the engine, squeezing Karkat's hand as he bowed his head.

"Okay, time to go be majestic social creatures," he said after a few moments, and opened the door. It was obvious that he and Karkat were on the same page, as far as getting the fuck out of society for a while was concerned. 

They got to the door and Dave opened it, brow immediately arching. "Who the hell sprayed air freshener in here?" He wrinkled his nose, and was greeted with his brother sitting back up on the sofa and pulling his hat back on swiftly, looking very much like nothing was going on, nope. Sollux was lounging on the other half of the couch, just pulling his shirt back on and stretching back out to watch whatever was on the tv at the moment, his glasses sitting on the side table. When Karkat stepped in and immediately froze, his lips curled into a little smirk and he winked, causing Karkat to groan at the ceiling.

"Oh my fucking god Sollux could you guys at least do that somewhere that's _not our fucking living room_ , christ..."

"Seriously, dudes, the bathroom's right there," Dave said, pointing down the hallway before he tossed the leftover food in the fridge. "There's a vent and everything. Go hog wild. Fuck to your hearts content. IN THERE." He grabbed a soda and readjusted the strap of his bag on his shoulder. "See, this is why I didn't have roommates before you. Fuckin' savages." He grumbled to Karkat.

Bro huffed a smug half-chuckle as he kept his hand on Sollux's leg, not moving at all.

"You're the reason I don't like honeysuckle bushes, I hope you realize that," Karkat muttered as he pointed to Sollux, who only smirked more widely as he laid his legs over the top of Bro's comfortably.

"Overdramatic ath alwayth, Nubth. Jutht go to bed or whatever you were gonna do. You have to be up early to do your muthic thtuff before clath, remember?" The smirk in his voice was still completely obvious despite his outward distraction in the form of the elder Strider.

Dave walked to the bedroom and shook his head, muttering under his breath about how ungodly embarrassing his brother was, before he set down his bag and grabbed the laptop and flash drives out of it, so he could get to work on going through the day's takes.

Bro nudged Sollux and shook his head. That was enough being a tool for just then; they were guests, after all. That and he didn't want to have to break up a strife between the two of them. Sollux sat up and leaned his shoulder against Bro's, shrugging some. He was simply used to antagonizing Karkat and did it more or less on reflex.

Changing into a pair of loose pajama pants, Karkat crawled into bed and sitting up with his husktop in his lap to finish off one assignment, start another, draft a paper and then possibly find something to watch when that was done. Sollux and Bro could keep the couch. He had Netflix. Dave had on his sound-dampening headphones as he worked, and slipped closer to Karkat after a while, leaning against him as he watched the takes, brought them into an editing program, and started toying with the color saturation and minor details. He then brought them into another program to patch the scenes together and equalize the sound levels, rubbing his thumb against the side of his middle finger as he worked. 

Bro, in the meanwhile, had gotten used to watching whatever was on the television at the time, but he pointed out casually, "I'm pretty sure he wasn't bein' facetious."

"I'm well aware," Sollux shrugged then leaned back against the arm of the couch again with a quiet yawn. "But I altho realize that if the dithcuthion wath purthued theriouthly that he'd only get wound up and angry and that'th pretty much the latht thing he needth."

"Nah, I meant Dave," Bro said with a lopsided smile. "Runnin' on Strider house rules." He shrugged then and leaned back into the sofa, putting one ankle up on the other knee. "But since we got interrupted and at least one of 'em would pitch a fit if we took Dave up on the bathroom offer, I should probably jet for the night. Got some T-Shirts I gotta design, since that video caught wind."

Sollux's brow arched some at that, but he decided it would be easier just to see rather than ask. "Alright, gueth that meanth I'll thee you tomorrow if you make it to the Helmthman shoot." He sat back up to let Bro off the couch, reaching for the remote to flip for something more interesting now that his entertainment for the evening was leaving. Before Bro left, he leaned over and got another quick kiss before murmuring, "G'night," and slipping away, walking out the door, locking it behind him so he knew the guys were safe.

Leaning his head back against the wall, Karkat took a break from writing to glance over at Dave's computer, arching an eyebrow as he watched a playback of a couple of scenes that had just been spliced together. It was just before the Final Sermon, when he was being tortured just off camera so that all people would really be able to see of it happening was silhouettes and shadows.

Dave smiled and looked over his shoulder at Karkat, before removing his headphones, putting them on Karkat instead, and pressed play. He'd been layering the ambient music in over it, and had just adjusted the levels so it was incidental instead of overwhelming, and once the torture scene came in, the music swelled and the tones of the scene took a heavy red hue, making the whole thing disturbing, visceral, and heart-wrenchingly sad, though the cinematography itself was as pitch-perfect as its actors. Once the scene ended, he pulled the closest headphone up and asked, "What do you think?"

"I'm fairly certain that the scene didn't look anywhere near that awesome in person," Karkat replied with faint awe in his voice, handing the headphones back. "I like the touch with the camera angles and viewpoint switch. Makes the scene a lot more jarring before it goes quiet." 

Dave's posture improved slightly as his mood brightened at the compliment. "I hoped it worked. It's a pretty cop-out standard, but I figured if I worked it in there briefly, didn't stall on it, it'd have more impact. You know how they do in other films, spend like, a good ten seconds on the wall. Too fuckin' much, we get the point, y'know?" He put the headphones back on and started working the parts where there'd be narration next, keeping placemarks where there were still scenes left to be filmed. Once he got bored with slapping those together, he decided to start working on the trailer instead, tongue poked out of the corner of his lips, completely involved in the project.

Karkat smiled faintly as he watched for a little while, somewhat amused and wholly enamored by just how much Dave seemed to get into what he was doing. He fell quiet and plugged in his own headphones so that he could focus on his assignments and let Dave work uninterrupted. He started to doze off after another hour, his head tipping sideways against the wall as his fingers stopped ticking over the keyboard. Dave finally looked over about ten minutes after Karkat drifted off, and took off his headphones, smiling faintly as he saved his progress and set the laptop aside. He leaned up to kiss Karkat's cheek and brushed his matesprit's hair aside, easing the headphones away from one ear.

"Get some sleep, dickmunch," he murmured quietly. He sat up after that and pulled out of his clothes, before slipping under the covers, his eyes already losing the battle of heaviness. Karkat waved a hand at him without opening his eyes, turning toward the wall with a soft grunt then sitting back up a moment later to save his own work then put his computer down at the foot of the bed to pick back up later on. He curled up under the blankets with Dave and wrapped his arms around his matesprit as soon as he was settled, his nose tucked into the crook of the other's neck. He wondered for a moment if Dave had to be conscious for his time manipulation to work, and if not, if he could make it to where they would be able to have a decent amount of sleep. On that thought he finally drifted back off, too tired to dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where we admit that we had no ships planned outside of Dave and Karkat. Brollux was not a thing that was supposed to happen. It simply did. There are a lot of things that have happened up to now that weren't supposed to happen, but they did. There is more that's coming that weren't supposed to happen, but they did. It's actually pretty pleasing to have such things simply spring up over the course of a story. Makes it an interesting read, we feel.
> 
> Oh my jesus fuck is Meebs frustrated with Sollux' lisp. LITHP. BEETH. >:|


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sudden Egberts!
> 
> #suicidal thoughts

Dave woke up with a grunt of disapproval at a pair of crows squabbling with each other outside the open window, turning over to wrap his arms around Karkat instead of dealing with the noise. He smiled to himself at the feeling of Karkat's skin under his hands, still grateful of even having that moment with Karkat, knowing very well that he very well could have not. He took a few moments to simply be still and warm under the covers with his matesprit before murmuring, "The stupid sun is up again. Let's impeach it."

"There is no such thing as sun this early," Karkat muttered and dragged the blanket back up over both of their heads, pushing his face against Dave's chest to further block it out. "If you don't believe in it it'll eventually go away."

Dave smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of Karkat's head. "I don't think that's actually a thing that's true," he murmured, and was in the process of wrapping his arms around Karkat more comfortably when an unfamiliar knock came at the front door. "Oh my fucking god who is it," he groaned, and dropped his head back, flopping onto his back with a heaved sigh, slipping his legs out of bed before grabbing a pair of pajama pants to pull on, as well as his shades. Whoever it was, they were going to get hit on in very uncomfortable ways until they left.

He walked to the door and opened it, rubbing his face as he looked before him. 

"Hey! Whoa, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up! Hi Dave!" The voice was likely extremely familiar to all those in the apartment - Slightly nasal, easygoing, and cheerful. Dave nearly fell on his ass at the surprise.

"Holy fuck, dude, I thought you said you were on a road trip. Well, don't stand there like a fucking dork, get in here, have a seat." He managed deadpan even though he was just about jumping out of his skin mentally. He had seen recent pics of the guy, but they didn't nearly do him justice.

"Yeah, and I was in the state and figured, hey, there's someone here I wouldn't mind seeing! I hope you don't mind!" John said as he went to the chair to sit down.

Karkat had lingered in bed in the hopes that whoever it was would go away soon. He was nearly asleep again when he heard John's voice in the living room and nearly credited it as some weird mental construct, until he heard Dave talking back. He sat up with a deep frown and crawled out of bed, pulling his pants up some on his hips as he came down the hall then stopping at the entrance to the living room.

"Egbert," he muttered, brow furrowed at the boy in front of him. Except boy wasn't really the right word anymore. John wasn't as soft as he had been, and his teeth had been more or less fixed save for his overbite. Karkat immediately crossed his arms over his chest when he realized that John was staring back at him, the grin slowly creeping across his face making his ears start to turn red.

"Hi Karkat!"

Dave shrugged, "Surprise Egberts for the morning, I guess. I was just telling him about what we've been up to this week, and he's up for coming and helping," he stood up, and rumpled Karkat's hair as he walked past to go make coffee for them all. 

"Yeah, wow, a film project? I'm sure that's really great! I didn't know you could act, Karkat." John grinned and looked up over the counter from his seat on the chair. "And if you guys don't mind, I'd like to make up for waking you up. Breakfast on me, how about it?" 

Dave looked at the filter he had between his fingers and then set it down. "Well, Karkat's got to rally the troops over on the music end of the project at like, ten, but shit, I guess I can't pass up an apologetic meal."

He was really glad his hair was long enough to cover up the fact that his ears were bright red, as well.

Shaking his hair back into place, Karkat walked around the counter to take a seat as well, hoping to get a mug of coffee before they went out to breakfast. He eyeballed John, then shook his head. "No, Egbert, I don't act. The only reason I'm in on this was because I know the Sermon." He wrinkled his nose and grabbed for the coffee, sipping at it as he kept his eye trained on John if for no other reason than John Fucking Ebert was sitting at his kitchen counter like it was the most normal goddamn thing.

"What about the music thing Dave just said? You never told me you could do anything musical!" John was watching him with bright interest, ocean blue eyes almost literally sparkling at him. He cringed a little and shrugged a shoulder.

"As a hobby," he muttered then occupied himself with his coffee. "Anyway, what the hell are you doing here? You apparently want to help with the production? How do you intend to that?"

Dave shrugged at those questions, handing off the over-sugary near-sludge that he knew John liked to pretend was still coffee, getting a delighted 'thanks!' in return. 

"Oh, I didn't know it was this week, or I would've come around on the way back through here. I dunno, I can hold the boom or something, or clean stuff up, or maybe help a little bit with the soundtrack. You know. Little stuff!" He smiled over at Dave as Karkat walked to the bedroom with his coffee, on the way to get dressed. "But yeah, Dad and I are on our way to California, and decided rather than taking a plane, we'd see the country, instead! It's a pretty exciting trip so far, except for Nebraska. That was boring."

Dave poked his head out of the bedroom again and raised both eyebrows high, "You're on this road trip with your DAD? Oh my god Egbert, what a fucking free-wheelin' badass _you_ are." He shook his head and went back in.

"And where exactly is your dad? I've never had the good fortune to meet the beloved Dad Egbert." While his voice was dripping with sarcasm, Karkat was genuinely interested in meeting the man that had shaped the silly, overly-cheerful person in front of him that he didn't want to ever admit he'd had a flushed crush on.

"He said something about going and visiting a friend while I was here," John shrugged, sipping some at his own coffee contently. He looked around when another door opened, blinking then smiling widely and waving at Sollux as he peered out with his eyes squinted, obviously not happy about being woken up by loud voices.

"The fuck...Thuddenly Egbert," he muttered, then ducked back into the bedroom to grab his clothes and slip into the shower.

"Got a pretty full house, huh?" John pointed out. Dave came back out, his hair preened meticulously into its usual style, albeit a little shaggy along the edges, and dressed in one of the shirts that he'd been given compliments on quite a few times, as well as his best jeans. "It's just Sollux and us, the girls are staying at a hotel and I'm pretty sure our narrator of the story skipped town last night after I told her that we were done recording. Bro's here, but he's usually in a hotel." He shrugged, casually noticing that it wasn't just his own ears that were red, but Karkat's as well. 

"Hey sorry about this, can I borrow Vantas a minute? Feel free to start up a game on the TV over there or whatever, mi casa, bluh bluh..." He nodded Karkat towards the bedroom, clearing his throat a little. He was about five seconds from freaking right the hell out. Karkat gladly slid off his seat, pointing out the games cabinet for John's convenience, then put down his coffee mug and headed back for the bedroom. He would have to get dressed anyway and he figured it would be easier to do that if he flipped his shit in the same general vicinity of his belongings. As soon as the door closed behind Dave, Karkat turned to him with his hands coming up to his hair, then gesturing violently in the direction of the living room.

"John Egbert is in our living room. WHY THE FUCK IS JOHN EGBERT IN OUR LIVING ROOM, STRIDER," he hissed, more of his face turning red as he very soundly began to lose it.

Dave slumped against the door and rubbed his face with both hands, groaning miserably, though for no other reason than he'd been spending the entire time trying to keep his composure and not feel like a complete and utter asshole for walking to the door half dressed and unprepared. "Dude, I don't know what's going on, he said he was on a road trip and that's the last I heard of it. He probably got my address from Dad, who got it from Bro." He dropped to the floor, wanting to scream.

"What the hell dude, what the hell are we doing, I'm about to lose my fucking mind," he thought aloud, then looked up at Karkat, pointing in the vague direction of the living room from where he was, "And he's fucking hot?" He hissed in a loud whisper. "Screw this, we all are dead and this is assuredly Hell."

Karkat flopped down onto the bed with his hands over his face, his fingers pressing into his eyes. "That windy asshole has no right to be that goddamn attractive, what the everlasting _fuck_ ," he groaned then let his arms flop on either side of him as he looked up at the ceiling. "So now what, we take him up on his breakfast offer? And then what? He wants to be involved with the movie..."

"Hnngh, I don't _know_ ," Dave groaned, hands still over his face. "Can we just assume that he's only spending the day? Or like, make it pretty clear we can only have him over for the day? Because I don't think I'm prepared to handle Egbert on top of everything else right now." He noticed that the way they were talking about him was like they hated him, which was clearly not the case, at least on his side of things. Karkat, he knew, had feelings that had settled themselves firmly in the flushed, and that was okay with both of them until just that moment, when he was RIGHT THE HELL THERE.

Dave stood up again, gritting his teeth before taking a few deep breaths to make himself stop blushing. "Okay. Okay here's the plan. We go to breakfast and not act like complete fucking jackasses in front of him. And then he can follow my ass around to the stupid fucking green screen set while you get the music shit taken care of, and once we're on set for the extra parts, I'll... I dunno, I'll figure something out."

"But what if he gets bored of watching Sollux all strung up in pink shit and decides he'd rather come and watch me play?" Having Dave watch him play had been one thing, but John being there and goggling at him was something else entirely. He rolled back upright and started to dig through his clothes, unconsciously picking an outfit that he'd already heard from a few people looked damn good on him, pulling the skinny jeans up and running his hands back through his hair to let it flop back down naturally. His hair was justlong enough to cover his ears, the bright red orbital almost completely obscured. He tilted his head some, pulling his lower lip into his mouth then glancing back at Dave. "I'm pretty sure when all of this is over I want to get the other ear done. I feel fucking lopsided."

"Fuckin' told you," Dave said. He'd taken out his eyebrow piercing about three weeks ago and never bothered putting it back in, for just the same reason. "Okay look, if that actually happens, I'll text you and let you know, or I'll, I dunno, get Kanaya to take him around town and not be here where we are, distracting us and oh my fucking _god_ he's here Jesus Christ." He took one more deep breath before he fussed with the sleeves of Karkat's shirt, righting them so they weren't folded over themselves, and then looking into his matesprit's eyes. 

"When we get back home tonight, I'm getting wasted. Okay? Drowning the fuck out of the day, in hopes that it'll be completely erased from my memory." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead, grabbed his laptop and put it in his bag, then walked back out.

"Save me a few drinks when you do and I'll be right there with you," Karkat muttered then grabbed his own computer hoping that in the meantime while the others arrived for the soundtrack recording, he would be able to continue the work he'd fallen asleep in the middle of the night before. When he emerged, he casually avoided looking directly at John, yelling that they were ready to go and cuffing the back of Sollux's head as he passed when he heard John mention off-hand that he hadn't expected Dave or Karkat to go in for flowery air fresheners. 

When they arrived at the school's film department John split off with Dave's half of the party to watch the process of Sollux being strung up in a harness with his arms trapped over his head. Karkat was in the music department with the group that he was to be working with for the soundtrack, including Bro and, unexpectedly, Dad Egbert come to apparently supervise. What he hadn't expected was for the man to look as young as he did; anyone having to deal with John on a constant basis as well as getting thrown into a Dersite prison should have had more grey hair than that, at the very least. He was quiet and respectful of the musicians as they set up, tuned, started to practice separately under Rose's direction. She was absurdly good at keeping them all on-task and helping them work out their parts, sight-reading with them for a few parts and playing along.

At first, it was simply a few selections that would be toyed with to make background ambiance for a variety of the scenes, eerie violin refrains, some sharp, atonal notes from one of the guitar players to be stretched and hollowed out artificially, general background white noise from one of the percussionists. Then a full piece had to be recorded for the credits, a longer, dirge-like piece meant to give the end an unhappy, stomach-dropping feel. There were variations of the same to be put in the backgrounds of some scenes and layered behind Vriska's voice acting.

At the end of it all, Karkat sat back feeling rather exhausted, holding the neck of his instrument against his shoulder, chatting quietly with one of the other musicians until he noticed someone new out of the corner of his eye, stiffening then shrinking down when he realized that John was standing there, that he'd never noticed him walk in, that John had heard him performing _oh god John had been watching him play_. Dave had sent several texts warning his matesprit of incoming Egbert doom, but couldn't hold their mutual friend - and crush - back from finding his way there. Once the shoot with Sollux was over, he helped his friend out of the harness and congratulated him on looking extremely terrifying in his own right, and then while he waited for Sollux to get back into his regular clothes, he paced the halls in front of the bathroom, texting Karkat again, **i know he probably found his way there by now i am so sorry**. He pounded on the bathroom door and yelled, "Come on, you fucking slackass douche, we need to get to the music department like now."

The rest of the filming would have to wait for another day; Dave had spent so much time trying to get everything right with Sollux's setup and the tendrils, and then had to take several takes to get it all right, that it ate away hours of his time. "Christalmighty," he muttered and texted Bro, who swiftly replied that John indeed had shown up, and that Dad was there with them. "Oh good god, this bodes ill as hell," he muttered.

Once Sollux was ready to go, it was a five minute walk to the music building. He got there just in time to see Rose delightedly chatting to John off to one side, while Dad had taken up residence at the piano and was helping Ferrus sort out the main theme that would be going onto the credits. Dave swiftly made his way to Karkat's side and goggled at the scene. "I swear to all that's holy, these two are the plague. How are things going beside this?"

Karkat clutched at his sleeve and shook him minutely, glancing at John then hissing in Dave's ear, "He just fucking showed up out of nowhere, what the fuck, Dave." He wheezed quietly then straightened up, trying and failing to act normally when John glanced back at the two of them. Rose was smiling sweetly at him, which could only mean that absolutely nothing good was going to happen. "And since when is his Dad involved in this? I could've found someone for a piano score if I had to but now he's just over there with your brother and I can't handle this, Strider."

Sollux had long since taken a seat a little ways away from the piano, tapping idly at his phone as he listened to Dad going back and forth with Bro and Ferrus about the music then playing a couple of things for them, apparently making suggestions and generally being helpful. Dave shrugged with complete bafflement. "I literally can't know any less than I do right now about what's going on." He squeezed Karkat's arm a little. "I texted you like seven times, man, I tried to warn you," he looked over at Rose who gave him a coy little smile. It was then that John popped by both of them.

"Hi! It's getting really late, guys. Dad and I have to get going early tomorrow if we want to make it to California by evening. This was really fun!" 

Dave put on a completely casual stance and nodded. "Well, it's really great to see you again, Egbert. Next time, give me a call when you're in the area, all right?"

"No problem!" He waved to Dad, who slipped away, nudged Bro with an elbow to the side in a jovial gesture of amusement, and they both walked out again. "Seeya guys!"

Once they were out of sight, Dave deflated and rubbed his face. "What the hell happened with the day?"

"You know," Rose said, popping up behind them, startling Dave, "He knows that you two are still completely smitten." She rocked on her heels, hands behind her back. "I asked him, and he said he knew, he just wanted to come and say hi, anyway. He maaaay have also mentioned that he's been standing close to you two and using innuendo all day just to see how red you guys could get."

Karkat stared at her for a few seconds, then slumped and yelled at the ceiling. "Oh my fucking god that little twerp I swear I'm going to just...ffffffngh..." He put his forehead against Dave's shoulder, his hands hanging limp at his sides. He ignored Rose's amused titters and shook Dave's arm again like a child. "Ok can we go home and eat and vegetate on the couch now? Sollux can just...go sleep with your brother or something."

Dave let out a groan of embarrassment concurrent to Karkat's yelling, and then buried his face in Karkat's hair, huffing a defeated laugh. "That absolute fucking asshole got us, man. Got us good." He ignored Sollux's jab and huffed again. "I'm going to fucking kill him," he muttered to Karkat against his scalp. "Just gonna kill the little shit."

"Oh thank you for jutht dethiding for me," Sollux piped up from his seat, rolling his eyes at the pair of them. They were being incredibly immature about the sudden arrival of the windy dipshit and his dad. Bro had been completely stoic about the entire situation, and in fact, was in a fairly good mood, despite the nasty-looking scrape on his cheek and a black eye. He got cake out of the deal, and time to shoot the shit with a guy he'd been into for a pretty long time. He sat down beside Sollux and shrugged.

"You say that like you haven't waxed flush for some rampaging asshole before. But honestly, do you really want to deal with these two sexually frustrated pricks all night?"

"Yeah yeah, I get it, believe me. But I like to think it'th in my right to give them a hard time, ethpethially with their thnarky bullshit about thith." He gestured between the two of them, then glanced back at Karkat and Dave as they started out. He reached up and thumbed the light bruising to one side of the scrape on Bro's cheek, shaking his head some. Then he blinked at a sudden thought. "Oh man, I forgot to athk, did you ever actually find Cal before they towed your car?"

"Yeah, he's fine," Bro nodded, "I've got him stashed at the lodge. He was a little soggy when I found him, but he's dried out and just fine, now." He closed his eyes and chuckled, "Thanks for askin', though. You know I'd flip some shit if he was messed up." He stood then, and held back from wincing at the bruise he got from a classy loafer to the chest. "C'mon, let's get outta here."

"Yeah." With a small smirk Sollux led him back out, his bag slung over one shoulder comfortably as they stood to wait for the cab that would be taking them back to Bro's hotel room, wherever it happened to be this time around.

\--

Dave had resigned himself entirely to the fact that John was the king of mindfucking by the time they got home. By the time he walked in the door, Karkat was ready to crawl into bed and try to pretend that John Egbert had never happened. Breakfast had been sociable but uncomfortable at best, and the parting revelation had been one of the worst things that could happen to them, he was certain. He latched himself to Dave's back, his nose pressed into the crook of his matesprit's neck as he more or less hindered his steps just for the sake of being clingy and pathetic.

"Let's drink 'til our hearts stop," Dave muttered, putting his arms around Karkat's, head bowed forward. "And then sleep until the sun burns out."

"Can't tell if that's being serious or poetic but either way, I'll take it," Karkat muttered and nosed behind Dave's ear, only pulling away when they drew level with the kitchen and standing on tiptoe to retrieve a bottle of whiskey that had been stashed in the back of it some time ago. He put it down on the counter and fetched a pair of glasses, filling each one halfway just to start with.

Dave leaned against the counter across from the fridge, and took his glass once Karkat was done pouring. He looked at Karkat with a lopsided smile, "To another fucking chaotic day, right?" He said as a halfassed toast, before drinking down at least half of what was in the glass in one swallow, his eyes narrowing at the burn before he leaned over, coughing some, chuckling a little afterwards. "Right. Whiskey." He shook it off and then took his shades off, setting them aside, rubbing his face.

Karkat slouched against the other side of the counter, taking a smaller mouthful of the drink and wincing some at the burn as it went down the back of his throat, coughing quietly then taking a larger swallow that made him shudder afterward. "And this shit's not even over yet."

"Three more days, then another week," grumbled Dave as he finished off his glass and set it aside, slumping back to rest against the counter, propped up on his elbows. "Remind me again what I said about this being a good idea?" He tilted his head back to look at Karkat upside down. "Something like, 'oh yeah, it'll just be our friends, we can handle it, we lived with most of these assholes for years,' pfff. Fuckin' foolproof."

"We seem to have neglected the fact that all of our friends are assholes of the highest degree," Karkat muttered, then leaned forward over the counter to press a slightly awkward kiss over Dave's mouth, sucking the whiskey flavor from his upper lip then going back to his glass and taking another swallow.

"Birds of a fucking feather, Vantas. We're not exactly known for being exceptionally kind and sweet." He fluidly turned around to face Karkat properly and shook his head, "Man, no. _Fuck_ Egbert. If there's ever a time I've ever waxed black, it's with that absolute doucheknuckle." He smiled though. Damn, that kid had all his fuckin' shit together, even if he was a goddamn sneaky prick.

"I'm pretty sure I could live the rest of my fucking life not seeing him again. Goddamn hot fucking asshole." Refilling his glass, Karkat took a few long swallows of the whiskey only to fall forward with a hard cough, his eyes watering. His lip curled as he straightened back up and he rounded the counter, grabbing the front of Dave's shirt and dragging him along, baffled and coughing, in the direction of the bedroom. He pushed him back through the door and let him overbalance and hit the bed on his back then crawled over the top of him to assault his neck with open-mouth kisses and a sharp bite to his Adam's apple. Dave moved one hand into Karkat's hair to pull at it, his other hand down to tug Karkat's shirt up, scratching his nails up his matesprit's spine firmly enough to leave trails in their wake, while he rocked his hips upwards just enough to firmly tease against Karkat's upper thigh. Karkat's back arched up into the scratches as he let out a hard breath against his throat, shoving Dave's shirt up and starting to mark his way down the other's chest. He bit on the piercing through one nipple and pulled some, the other hand running over and flicking over the free one. One of his legs fitted up between Dave's and pressed into his crotch while at the same time moving himself down over his matesprit's thigh.

With another sharp gasp, Dave arched into the rough touch, grinding down against Karkat's leg. He unwound his fingers from Karkat's hair only long enough to pull his matesprit's shirt up over his head, and put his leg up to rock between Karkat's. His pulse was pounding in his ears as he realized how aggravating clothes were just then, and tugged out of his own shirt, sending it across the room with a low, annoyed tone from the back of his throat. Once free of the shirt, he grabbed Karkat's shoulders tight.

Karkat seized one hand and pinned it down to the mattress over Dave's head, fingers laced together and gripping down tight. The other hand hooked under Dave's leg and hiked it up to allow him to roll his hips down into the other's harder while his mouth swept back up the front of his throat then worked into a rough, slightly bruising kiss. Dave groaned his disapproval at the fact they were still even remotely clothed, grinding his hips back up as he tightened his own grip on Karkat's hand. He moved his free hand up and tugged the hair at the back of Karkat's head, if only to pull away from the kiss momentarily and practically rumble, "Why the hell aren't you fucking me yet?" before he let go and crashed his lips back into Karkat's, deepening the kiss in the same moment.

"Just waiting for that," Karkat growled back at him, giving him a dark look then biting down hard on his lip and reaching his free hand down to wrench open the fly of Dave's pants, shoving them down just enough to pull his cock out into the open and squeeze down around it tight. He sat back up and shed the last of his clothes, throwing them over the foot of the bed. He straddled Dave's hips and took just enough time to manipulate his bulge into the open before pushing down to the hilt in one fluid motion with a harsh groan. Dave groaned through his nose as he saw white and tilted his head back, gripping the bedding beneath him with his freed hand. He bucked his hips upward with a loud growl, before grabbing one of Karkat's wrists roughly and pulling him closer again, going straight for his matesprit's neck, to leave a bruising open-mouthed kiss to his throat then biting in. He moved his hands down to grip Karkat's hips, nails digging lightly in as he bucked his hips again, letting out a huff of breath as he did, and set a rough, quick pace based on that. Karkat's head wrenched to one side to expose his throat, growling into Dave's ear as he pushed back down with every hard thrust up, the slap of skin audible even over the distressed creak of the bed beneath them. He raked his nails down Dave's sides, leaving nearly bleeding furrows in their wake then dig them into the other's waist. He swore vividly against the side of Dave's head, slipping into breathless, jagged Alternian. Genetic material began to drip and stain the skin of Dave's stomach and down his sides, going completely ignored for the time being.

The heat of the fluid on his skin made Dave gasp and groan once again, bucking harder with each upward thrust, before he moved one hand down from Karkat's hip to tangle with his bulge, sliding his thumb down to the sensitive area near the sheath and rubbing there. He knew he wouldn't be able to last very long at this pace, his orgasm already threatening to put a stop to the fun by way of speedily approaching, but he was too into it to stop. Karkat huffed loudly against his shoulder, then sat up as he dragged his nails down Dave's chest and stomach, his head falling back with his mouth open at the bruising pace. He wasn't going to stop though, not even to find the pail. Fuck sheets. They had a mattress cover. The only thing that mattered was that he was so close to coming, and by the slight stutter in pace, he could tell Dave wasn't far behind. It was just good that he would recover quickly; he wasn't stopping with just once.

Dave wasn't concerned with the mess they'd make or the noise they were currently making, he simply wanted to keep going. He reached his peak with a loud moan, his grip tightening around Karkat's bulge as he came, his jaw tightened against the sound. He didn't stop moving except for a split second when the power of his orgasm made him tense up completely. Karkat's jaw clenched at the squeeze and he clamped his hand around Dave's wrist tight enough force his hand to loosen up until he could buck a few more times just hard enough to finish, releasing in torrents that would leave the other's skin pink for at least a day. His breath locked up for a few seconds, then his chest unclenched and he let out a loud groan and started to fall forward, catching himself and propping himself upright on shaky arms. He waited until Dave could look back up at him then ran his tongue across his teeth, giving him a little smile that, when coupled with how huge and dark his eyes had gotten, made him look as likely to eat Dave as to fuck him.

Dave's breath was shallow and short, and he looked into Karkat's eyes as he smiled in a similarly dark, devious way. The look on Karkat's face only spurred him on as he murmured, "I'm not done with you," and he leaned up to nip his earlobe and murmur, "you have two choices." His hand ran up Karkat's back, tracing his spine as he continued, "Either you get on my face, or you can turn me over." He flopped back onto the mattress and moved his hand down to slick off the fluid from his stomach, wiping it across the blanket beneath him.

"Both is good," Karkat muttered, fully intending to do just about anything that Dave could come up with. He pulled himself up and off the other's hips, biting on his lip as he felt the warm fluid dripping down the inside of his thigh. He positioned himself on his knees over Dave's mouth with his hands planted on the wall in front of him. "This, then whatever else..."

Dave put his arms around Karkat's thighs and leaned up to lick the still dripping mess from his matesprit's thigh, working his way upward and inward. He then moved his tongue up inside Karkat's nook, tasting his own come intermingled with the sweet genetic material. He chose to ignore the taste and simply go for the reactions, groaning through his nose as he plunged his tongue as far in as he could reach. Already oversensitive, Karkat shuddered and nearly lifted back up. He leaned his head against his arms on the wall and let a quiet diatribe of curses under his breath. He looked down at what he could see of Dave's head between his thighs and wound his fingers into his matesprit's hair, pulling and scratching some as his hips rolled with the movement of Dave's tongue. The pull elicited another groan through Dave's nose, and he murmured somewhat once Karkat started riding his face. He continued his tongue's ministrations, while he moved one hand up to lightly trace his fingertips across his matesprit's bulge, before letting it tangle around them. It was only another few moments before he moved his mouth and tongue up across Karkat's sheath, nosing against his bulge as he licked up every drop of fluid he could.

After the first orgasm there wasn't as much fluid, but he was still leaking heavily over Dave's fingers and over his cheeks, down his chin and neck and once more staining the ends of his hair. He closed his eyes and shifted some in place to get Dave's nose and mouth to a couple of different tender spots, shuddering violently. Dave slid the ball of his tongue piercing across the sensitive area that Karkat had been trying to get him to pay attention to, applying firm pressure there before working his way up to other spots that needed his attention. "I hope you know," Dave murmured as he dragged his tongue up to meet with his fingers, "that once I'm done here, I'm going to insist on that other plan." He finally slipped his hand away to let Karkat's bulge find its way into his mouth.

Karkat's lip sucked into his mouth as he sat back up, one hand on the wall with the other tangled back into Dave's hair. "Fine, don't care, whatever you want..." He groaned quietly as his bulge twisted some inside Dave's mouth and curled around his tongue. Dave groaned through his nose and squeezed Karkat's ass with one hand, while the other caught Karkat's hand and gave it squeeze. He undulated his tongue against Karkat's bulge, slowly getting himself prepared before letting his jaw go slightly slack, and his tongue down from the back of his mouth, letting it slip further back than he'd ever had. The whiskey had given him enough of a buzz where he felt numbed, and knew that this was a good chance to try and take more of his matesprit's bulge in.

The further his bulge dipped back into Dave's mouth and finally slipping into his throat, the harder time he had controlling his own movements, whining quietly as he forcibly removed his hand from Dave's hair to curl against the wall. He started to mutter again in slurred English and Alternian, his hips moving again and jerking when he felt the light scrape of Dave's bottom teeth against the base of his bulge. Dave's eyes started to water faintly at the feeling of Karkat's bulge so deep in his throat, but he kept on. He found the sensitive spot he'd been toying his piercing against earlier once more, groaning through his nose as he had to swallow down the fluid that dripped into his mouth. He finally moved back, bearing off just enough to catch his breath, and then worked his way back down again, slowly and carefully. Karkat hissed quietly, staying right at that searing edge where his body was starting to grow painfully sensitive, his bulge moving slowly against Dave's tongue but withdrawing a little at a time. He whimpered quietly, his lip bleeding as a layer of skin was peeled away by the near constant worrying.

Dave finally slipped away and looked up at his matesprit with a contented smile. He wiped his eyes with the back of his wrist, and then blew cool air against Karkat's bulge, chuckling to himself. "If you need a few minutes, just say so."

Wincing at the sudden cool air Karkat leaned back, licking his lower lip as his bulge retracted a bit. "You should consider the fact that not everyone can immediately get back up and going within a minute," he muttered and sat back astride Dave's chest, looking down at him with his feet planted on either side of his matesprit's head.

"C'mon, even I can't do that," Dave argued quietly, laying his head down. "Ten, fifteen minutes at the least. I'm not Superman." He ran his hands up Karkat's thighs and smiled up at him. "Take your time." He stretched his legs and put his arms behind his head then, smiling faintly.

"Why do I get the feeling you're enjoying this," Karkat snorted, reaching down and rubbing his thumb across Dave's lip then grabbing a corner of the blanket and starting to wipe the fluid away from his face.

"Because I am," Dave admitted freely. "And because I'm pretty sure we weren't thinking about each other for a hot minute there."

Karkat's lips pressed together at that and he nodded slightly, glancing away then looking back and offering a small shrug. "At least before, I'd never even think of letting him near my bulge with those ridiculous teeth..."

"Dude, I want to send his orthodontist flowers or some shit, he did good work on that trainwreck." With a chuckle, Dave squirmed his way up into a semi-sitting position. "Stupid geeky fucker. He totally played us, man. What the hell was the point? Asshole."

"I want to know how the fuck he _knew_. He was completely fucking oblivious to it until now," Karkat sighed and scooted back until he was sitting in Dave's lap, his legs draped loosely around the other's hips.

Dave shook his head, "Nah, man. At least with me, he knew I had a thing for him." That was why they'd stopped talking, after all. "And I'm pretty sure your spectacular ability to be as blatant about how you feel as you are tipped him off. You were blushing all morning, dude." Not that he wasn't, but Dave already knew that. "Still, it doesn't fuckin' matter how he knew, I wanna know _why_ he did that. Like, what the fuck kind of dumbass reward did he get from it? I mean, unless he was fucking with us specifically to get us to notice him?" He shook his head. "I don't get it. He wouldn't be that malicious for no reason."

"He was the one that just fucking waltzed in here all fucking smug with that goddamn face and had to fucking act like nothing was up when there was very fucking obviously a lot of shit up. That's not right, man." Karkat fumed quietly then sighed and put his head down against Dave's shoulder. "Fuck..."

"Iunno dude, maybe that's his way of coming out to us. Like a fucking tool." He was mostly joking. Dave pressed a kiss to Karkat's head and then ran his hand gently through his hair. "Mm, I don't care. If anything, it made me crystal clear on two points. I'm definitely done with my stupid crush on Egbert, and that I'm a hundred percent sure that what you and I have is one of the greatest fucking things I've ever been a part of."

"That's quite possibly the sappiest thing I've ever heard come out of your stupid mouth," Karkat murmured then looked Dave in the face, using both hands to push his hair up away from his eyes then letting them run down the lines of his face and cradle it as he pecked his lips then took a firmer kiss, his eyes closed tight.

"You like my stupid mouth, Vantas," he said with a chuckle before responding to the kiss in kind, running his hand through Karkat's hair still. He grinned a little at a thought while he kissed, and then murmured, "But it's true, you know." He'd never felt like a relationship prior to this was anything but tenuous. Every time he'd tried, he had felt like at any moment, the bond between himself and the other would snap. Not so with Karkat.

"I know." Smiling faintly against Dave's lips, Karkat took the other hand and laced their fingers together, holding the back of Dave's hand against his chest directly over where he could feel the slow pulse of his blood pusher. "And just so you know, this is...undeniably the happiest I've ever been. You did that, Strider. I hope you're proud of yourself."

Dave smiled sincerely at that and huffed a chuckle. "Same here, asshole. And yeah, I'm kinda happy I made a change in you for the better." He leaned up to kiss Karkat once more, squeezing his matesprit's hand, before putting it over his own heart in turn.

"Yeah, now I just have to make sure it stays that way," he replied quietly and put his cheek against Dave's shoulder, his forehead tucked against the side of his neck as his hand flattened against the other's chest. "If I ever went back to how shit was before I honestly don't think I'd live through it."

Tangling their legs together, Dave shook his head slightly, brushing his fingers across Karkat's scalp. "It won't ever fall that far to shit again. We know we're not alone. There's something that's tethering you to this world now," he murmured, looking up at the ceiling. At least, that's how he felt now. He knew that was precisely how he felt before Karkat came out of fucking nowhere. "Something that makes sense, something real and tangible. Nah man, it'll never go back to that. Even if everything else falls to shit, I'll be around."

Closing his eyes, Karkat took Dave's hand and pressed his lips to his fingertips. "That's more than I could have ever hoped for from anyone. So thanks." He held the hand in his tightly, chewing at the inside of his lip for a long while before speaking up again. "I meant it, the day I said you'd saved my life. You argued but it didn't make it any less true."

Dave nodded, closing his eyes before pressing another kiss to Karkat's head. "I argued it because I seriously don't see you as weak as I am. You got tenacity that I just don't have. Fuckin'... I spent so long looking at the damn walls, wondering what would happen to all my stuff if I died. Spent a month mindfucking the subtle goddamn nuances of a suicide note I'd never write." He shook his head. "And I couldn't believe that you'd be that far down that road. So yeah, I argued it. He squeezed Karkat's hand lightly. "So don't mention it, y'know? I'm pretty sure you've saved mine more often, anyway." He yawned slightly. "We keep each other afloat."

Karkat sighed softly and conceded, deciding that now wasn't the time. At this point, it felt like it would only damage the peace they'd found again. Instead he brought Dave's hand up to his lips again, letting his lips linger against the knuckles before letting it fall away and putting his head back down. "I've got class tomorrow on top of whatever else you have planned for the project," he muttered, his eyelids drooping some as he spoke.

Dave's smile was sleepy as he nodded. "M'just going to be shooting some of the filler scenes, stuff you don't need to be in the shots for. Probably spend all afternoon editing, take everyone out for lunch or dinner. I dunno." He wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist and murmured. "But before we do anything, we should get some clean blankets on the bed. I'm pretty sure these ones are soaked through."

"You need a shower," Karkat added, nudging his head against Dave's gently then climbing out of his lap to sit beside him. "I think dinner with everyone sounds like a good idea. Let everyone wind back down after how busy we've been keeping." He crawled out of the bed and stretched, his arms up over his head as he stood on tiptoe until something popped. He waited until Dave moved to strip the covers from the bed, rolling them up together and tucking them into the hamper to be seen to in the morning. While Karkat pulled the blankets off, Dave pulled out another set from the closet, and then started putting them on the mattress. He chuckled as he looked down at his stomach, stained pink.

"No tube tops for me this week," he said with a put-on tone of sadness. Once the sheets were changed out, Dave walked off to the bathroom to take a quick shower, scrubbing away at the stain that had reached around to his back. Karkat stepped into the stall behind him, feeling rather sticky himself. He grabbed for the body wash and scrubber and started to work on the blotch that extended almost all the way across Dave's back, muttering that it had been a stupid idea to completely forego the bucket. Dave looked over his shoulder as he washed his hair, knowing that there was no way that the pink would be coming out without bleaching his hair or just getting it cut. He didn't care that his skin was stained temporarily, or that they had to change the bedding. It was a complete mess, and the fact that in the heat of things, neither of them cared, was erotic and good.

"You know what's good, though?" Dave piped up, turning around to face Karkat as he scrubbed his own face and neck, "I can actually say I'm happy for Bro. Sollux too. I mean, sure, I'll give them hell about it, but that's because both of 'em were so casually avoiding talking about how they felt before, even though it was fuckin' obvious. I have every damn right to point and grin. It's Bro. He needs this."

Karkat wrinkled his nose some, then nodded. After this long, he knew Sollux needed this too. Just like him, there was nothing really grounding his friend to his life. There was his job, but how long would that last, really? Especially when Sollux's habit for snooping in and blowing up others' systems came in.

"At least they'll keep each other occupied," he muttered as he rubbed the scrubber over Dave's stomach across the pink skin. "This either bodes really well, or really fucking scary. With their forces combined, I think I could safely say that nobody is safe from whatever assholery they could cook up."

Dave chuckled at that, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure Bro's on the straight and narrow, and would drag Sollux there with him if he had problems with something he was doing." He licked his lower lip before turning around to face Karkat, still surprised that his matesprit was a full six inches taller than he was used to. "If anything, those two will keep each other from going absolutely insane; they've both got that side to 'em, you know." He shook his head and rinsed his hair by leaning his head back into the stream of water. "I dunno, the only thing that gets me is that I'm pretty fuckin' sure that Sollux is technically like, only a few months older'n me. And even that ain't too weird, y'know, 'cause Bro acts fuckin' twelve half the time."

"Sollux is a fucking brat," Karkat snorted then draped his arms around Dave's waist. "I really think this could end up being really good for them. It's weird, yeah. But I've seen weirder, and they actually enjoy each other's company. There aren't many people I can actually say that about when it comes to him." He nudged the bridge of his nose against the underside of Dave's jaw, still inclined to grin about the fact that he didn't have to stand on tiptoe to do so anymore.

"Bro's not known for being very easy to make friends, either," Dave agreed, brushing his lips across the tip of his matesprit's ear. "And he's not a jealous kind of guy, so that'd work to Sollux's advantage." He ran his hands over Karkat's slick waist and then pressed a kiss to his cheek. He thought about the plans for the next day, and slipped away again to turn and grab the conditioner.

"I don't think Sollux will actively want to fall into any quadrants, to be honest. It's never gone well for him in the past." Karkat reached past him to grab the shampoo for himself, deciding he should actually make an effort to clean up since he was in there sharing the water.

"Didn't know that. Dude's been kinda cagey since I've known him, so I don't really bother prying. He's cool, but yeah." He browarched at Karkat then, smirking a little as he scrubbed the conditioner in, leaning against the wall to look at the other. "You know what really surprised me is Furlue and Ferrus? Didn't expect that to be a thing." He shrugged, "Then again, she and I really don't really talk about this sort of shit. It's usually all business."

Karkat gave a quiet laugh at that, shaking his head. "I really didn't think Ferrus would be social enough to make a friend, let alone start flirting. But hey, as long as they're happy, good for them." Taking up the water as soon as Dave moved out of it, Karkat scrubbed his hands through his hair to rinse out the shampoo, foregoing the conditioner in favor of drying off and crawling back into bed.

Once he rinsed the conditioner out of his hair, Dave turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, drying off and scrubbing the dampness from his hair, before walking back into the bedroom, tossing the towel in the hamper as he walked past. He was under the covers before he could even think about second-guessing his decision, and buried his arms under his pillow, facedown as he got comfortable. He liked the comfortable, clean sheets, and how the room still smelled faintly of Karkat. Creeping into bed beside Dave, Karkat laid his head against his matepsrit's shoulder with a soft smile, starting to doze as soon as he'd pulled the clean blankets back up over them. After a long day and all of the stress that came with it, he was ready to not be conscious for a little while.

After only a couple of hours, things began to surface, pleasant at first, then growing figurative teeth. By morning, Karkat was wheezing into the pillow under his head, curled in on himself with his back to Dave. When he woke up it was sudden and his entire body was tense and sore as it uncurled, his hands shaking minutely as he sat up and pressed his back to the wall, looking down at his matesprit with an unreadable expression. He stayed there for a minute, waking himself up as the images drained from his memory before he could grab onto one, then crawling out of bed. It was earlier than Dave's schedule usually had him waking up, but by the time that came around Karkat was already up and moving, dressed and making a pot of coffee. Dave padded out of the bedroom after waking up and getting dressed, already sending texts as he walked into the kitchen to press a kiss to Karkat's cheek and grab himself a cup of coffee.

"This week needs to be over yesterday," he muttered as he walked back past with his coffee, kissing Karkat's cheek again, on his way out to the patio. He was off in his own little world, looking at his phone. "Boss wants one of us in today," he called over his shoulder as he opened the door.

"Well yeah, that doesn't surprise me any," Karkat muttered then shook himself mentally and gulped down his coffee, clearing his throat. He didn't feel good, but that would pass, or else he'd just ignore it. He had set up his computer on the counter and started back into working on some school assignment by the time Dave came back inside.

Dave came back in, and shrugged, "I guess I'll go in. You've been dragged out of schoolwork this whole week, I don't want you dying of stress if I can help it." He set his mug down as he went to pour a bowl of cereal. "I'll let everyone know it's another day off, and if they want to work more on soundtrack shit, that'd be okay." He was mostly done with filming, and needed a lot of time to work on the actual production and editing of things more than he needed more stuff to work with.

Bro showed up with Sollux in tow as he did every morning, grinning. "What's the plan?" He asked in lieu of hello, going straight for the lucky charms again.

"My boss wants me to come in today, so I'm calling it another slackass day for the crew. Rose and Ferrus might record some more stuff, but I dunno." Dave responded as Bro looked over Karkat's shoulder at what he was working on. He was flipping through a couple of different articles about the ethical basis for different regions' religious practices, typing notes in a word document when he found pertinent information. Mostly, it was dull, tedious and uninspired, but with occasional pieces of speculation thrown in here and there to be followed up on the longer the assignment went. Sollux poured himself a cup of coffee, loading it with cream then sitting down beside Karkat and peeking at his assignment then shaking his head, muttering about how Karkat could force himself into a major that was nothing but writing.

"Maybe I should go abroad and study with the Tibetan monks to get more familiar with their personal philosophy then," Karkat replied conversationally, internally rolling his eyes.

Bro chuckled at that and shook his head. "Well I guess that means we're stuck doing fuckall then."

"Seems that way," Dave replied as he grabbed his laptop out of his bag, plugging it in before starting on the editing process of the trailer once more. "Why don't you take the girls and laserface up to the mountains for a day or something? It should be pretty nice up there today. Go look at elk or some shit." 

"Can I wrestle 'em?" Bro smirked, and ate his cereal, leaning against a wall. "All right, all right. I'll wrangle everybody up and play ringleader of the circus, keep 'em outta your hair." He raised an eyebrow, "But first I'm gonna cut that mop you call a hairstyle. C'mon, get up, assmunch, go grab a towel and get to the patio."

Dave nodded and set down his laptop to go do as he was told. "Sollux, take a look at the progress if you wanna, it's hells of unfinished, but it's getting somewhere." He wanted to get Sollux out of Karkat's hair as well; dude needed to work.

Sollux nodded and grabbed the laptop for himself, flipping through to find the movie's folder and grabbing a pair of headphones from his pocket to plug in so that he could listen to it without disturbing Karkat. He propped his chin on his hand as he flipped through the clips and the in-progress whole, making minute adjustments here and there where he could. Karkat was working silently, looking as if he'd rather be doing anything else, which wasn't really far from the truth. He could hear Bro outside tackling Dave's hair and wondered for a moment whether he should get his done as well; it was starting to fall over his eyes and tickle his neck and generally get in the way.

"Hey, you ok Nubby?" Sollux asked after a little while, taking out the headphones and leaning forward to look at Karkat with a small frown. Karkat returned the look and rubbed a hand over his face, nodding some.

"Yeah, just didn't sleep very well last night. The shit with Egbert before kind of fucked with both of us."

"Thomehow that doethn't really thurprithe me. But Egbert'th gone tho pull the bug out of your ath. Might help with thothe typoth," he added, smirking a bit as Karkat finally registered the red squiggles nestled under several of his sentences.

Dave came back in after about ten minutes, trimmed - but no less pink in the underside of his hair - and Bro followed in his wake, "You too, shortstack, get out here," he said, and Dave chuckled, shaking his head at Bro's sudden compulsion to take care of everyone. He looked over at Sollux with a browarch, and then smiled faintly. "Good thing you keep your hair short, or he'd be after your head next." He looked to the screen and raised an eyebrow to the minor adjustments that Sollux made. "Good eye, I was about 80% asleep when I was working on that. Probably had my eyes closed when I worked on the color saturation."

"Yeah, I can tell," Sollux snorted and glanced up as Karkat walked around them, pouting some about suddenly being pulled away from his work. "For the motht part it lookth ok, but you definitely need a pair of fresh eyeth on it when it cometh to the fine-tuning. When you crop in the retht of it it'll be eathier to tell what needth fixing but for now you're doing pretty good I think. But then I'm not a film thtudent tho I don't think I really have all that much relevanthe here."

Karkat groused some as his hair was trimmed outside, his arms crossed over his chest as he tried to hold his head as still as possible. "When you're done with this we need a little more of the soundtrack recorded and refined for the trailer," he mentioned after a little bit, shivering a little at a breeze on the back of his neck.

Bro was careful and quick with his work, keeping the usual shape of the style, while clipping it back to a more reasonable length. "Yessir," he murmured. "Hey listen, I'm gonna be stickin' around here for the rest of the month while the camaro's in the shop. If you want, I can help you out with honin' that newfound skill of yours. Findin' a way to work with it." He smiled faintly. He was sincere in his offer.

Dave nodded to Sollux's assessment, but he shrugged, "I dunno, dude, you might not know the technical terms but you've seen enough movies to know what looks good." He slid his hand through his newly clipped hair. "Though I'm pretty fuckin' sure this'll turn out some kind of sick once I'm done pasting it together and sewing it up like it should be. Man, it's going to be an unholy terror." He got back to work on the trailer, working with a particularly telling part of Vriska's narration overlaid with the visuals. Her voice was catching, and when it was taken out of context and truly focused onto something like being Mindfang, it was almost its own kind of attractive. As he worked, he chewed on his thumbnail.

"Good dethision uthing Vrithka for your Mindfang," Sollux mentioned now that he was actually hearing the performance for himself. He reached across and turned up the sound on the laptop a bit, replaying the account of the slave in her care, the hinting that it might have been the Dolorosa, nodding in approval. He looked back around at Bro as he talked with Karkat, raising an eyebrow at that. He wouldn't have expected Karkat to talk to him much, unless they were ribbing one-another.

"I figured since she was in our way, we could use her skills. She has that damn diary memorized. She actually yelled at me for clipping stuff out that wasn't contextually relevant, before I told her the reasons why." He leaned back and looked up from the screen briefly to check on the guys outside.

"How do you intend to do that," Karkat was saying, keeping his voice down as he tried to look up at Bro without moving his head. "I don't even know what the hell I'm doing. What happened to Vriska was just panic."

Bro walked around to start working on Karkat's bangs, his expression stony and concentrating. "I got a few ideas. Are you freaked out by seein' blood?" He asked quietly as he brushed the clippings away from Karkat's face as he worked with his hand. "Y'know, 'cause workin' with it in the open might get kinda gory. I was thinkin' pig's blood, I can get that pretty easy. If that don't work, I'm sure you won't be able to do much damage to me personally."

"I've seen enough blood in my lifetime I really should be desensitized by now," Karkat muttered, closing his eyes to keep from getting falling fluffs of hair in them. "I can manipulate blood inside the body, apparently. It's less messy that way but it's probably a lot harder since I can't actually see it."

"Well, I'll teach you somethin' else then, to keep you mentally focused," he said, nodding towards the living room. "Tried teachin' the kid Tai Chi, and he has zero damn attention span. You've at least got that." He ruffled Karkat's hair to get it to let loose all the clippings, and then brushed it back into style. "There you go, kiddo. G'on and get back to work." He smiled as he took the towel carefully away and shook it out so the hair fell on the floor of the patio, which he planned to sweep up promptly after.

"Tai Chi," Karkat repeated, giving Bro a raised eyebrow then snorting quietly and shrugged. "Why not. Even if it does jack-all for my training it'll at least give me something to do when school lets out this summer. Y'know, provided we live that long."

Bro smirked and patted Karkat's shoulder at that. "You'll live, that's what I'm here to make sure of." He herded Karkat back inside before going and grabbing the broom and dustpan, going to clean up the black and blond hair scattered on the patio. 

The day wore on; once Dave had to get to work, he shooed Bro and Sollux out to give Karkat room to work and study, and Bro went back to help with the final pieces of music with Rose and Ferrus. But once it was all over, he texted Dave, saying they'd all be having dinner at Dave's place. Bro had ordered takeaway from a fairly upscale place, and bought drinks for everyone. Once back home, Dave was greeted with a full house once more and despite the fact that the past few days were stressful, seeing his friends all mellow and hanging out with music in the background made him really happy. He grinned and immediately scanned the room to find Karkat, and once his shoes were off, he went straight to his matesprit's side.

"Hey," he murmured. "Hope you haven't been too fucked up by this."

Karkat leaned against Dave automatically, pecking his cheek lightly then yawning as he put his forehead against the other's jaw. He had been lingering out of the way by the kitchen counter, where he had a few different bottles sitting out for people to refill from as they wanted, watching them mill around and talk amongst one-another generally being sociable and...incredibly normal, at least for this group. "Long day. Lots of bullshit. Too much typing. Glad you're home," he muttered. He glanced up to where Sollux was sitting, fiddling with his computer and the playlist that had been going in the background. He was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, more or less keeping to himself as he was wont to do rather than mingling with the others. Kanaya was chatting with Furlue and Ferrus about her costume work, enjoying getting to explain it to someone who genuinely seemed interested, Furlue even asking if she was considering fashion design as well.

"Bro offered to teach me Tai Chi today," Karkat mentioned off-hand as he poured a healthy amount of rather cheap wine into a mug and handed it to Dave, "He thinks it might help give me something to focus on and channel my powers."

Rose settled into a seat on the sofa and was chatting with Bro about her latest book, and he seemed keen to hear about it. Mom Lalonde had come along with Rose, settled beside Bro on the sofa and was busy texting. Dave smiled at the group and then turned to kiss Karkat, chuckling a little at the revelation. "Did he really? Good luck with it, he's a good teacher, but that requires more guru-like concentration than I can put into one thing at a time." He grinned a little, and then plucked a piece of chicken off the serving platter, popping it into his mouth. "It'll be a good way to mellow your wound-up brain."

"Yeah, he mentioned you were a squirrely little fuck," Karkat replied as he took a swig from his own mug, grimacing a little and putting it back on the counter. "I'm not sure how much it'll help when it comes to my aspect, but he said that it would at least help with my concentration. Pretty sure that'd be good for keeping me from accidentally killing everyone with one bad twitch." His tone was light, but it was obvious that this was something that weighed heavily on him. He looked back up at Dave with a soft frown. "Hey, I want to try something right quick, if it's ok with you," he muttered, then put Dave's hand on top of the counter with his fingers splayed. "You have to be relaxed though or it'll most likely hurt like hell."

Dave smiled as he left his hand where it was, relaxed as he could ever be. "Yeah, no problem." He had been wondering if and how he could help establish Karkat's powers, and then he blinked and smirked a little. "Wait," he said, putting his hand back up before he concentrated on his fingers movements, pantomiming having a set of turntables under them, and the tables flickered into existence. That was all he needed to know that he could, and once he dismissed them, he put his hand back on the counter. "Sorry, I would've forgotten to try if I didn't just then. You know how I do." He looked up at Karkat and then back to his hand. "Go ahead."

Watching the brief display with his head at a tilt, Karkat nodded thoughtfully. Each of them would have to practice to get their abilities back to passable, Dave maybe not quite as much so after how much practice he'd already had manipulating the flow of time in-game. He placed himself in front of Dave in a similar stance with his hand maybe six inches over Dave's, licking his lips and lifting each of his fingers one at a time, concentrating on his matesprit's pulse and pulling up on each of Dave's fingers as if they were connected by wires. Dave watched and then his nose wrinkled with a chuckle. "That's weird as hell, man," he murmured. "Feels like..." He had to think about it for a minute before he realized what it was that it reminded him of, "It's like G-forces you get when you get on those carnival rides that spins, you know? Only just my hand." He figured with enough force, Karkat could rip the blood right out of him.

"It's because the blood is slowing down and stopping where the force is," Karkat explained, letting the hold go gradually. "That's why it's better that you're relaxed when it happens otherwise the tissue around it could tear and end up blowing a vein like someone fucking up an IV."

Dave nodded at that, "Could give me one hell of a bruise if you hold it for too long," he surmised, "pull it too close to the surface." He chewed the corner of his lip as he considered other possibilities. "Give someone one hell of a headache. Disperse it and give them heart failure..." His ears turned red once he got to another thought and he smirked. "Yep, interesting power you got there, nubs." He grabbed a plate and started to fill it for himself.

Glancing around at Dave when he drew away, Karkat spotted his ears turning colors and smirked faintly in kind. "Everything's dicks with you," he teased quietly, then bumped gently against his side as he picked at the platter of fruit that had been set out, avoiding the out-of-season melon cubes in favor of a handful of grapes.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Dave said with a chuckle. He popped a baby carrot into his mouth and walked around to give a kiss to the top of Rose's head and settle on the arm of the sofa to listen to her.

The party rolled on, and soon, the girls and Mom had to get back to their hotel. Bro offered to drive, but Kanaya assured him that the Lalondes were in steady, sober hands, patting his cheek before leaving. Furlue left shortly thereafter, on the arm of Ferrus. Dave had indulged in only a couple shots and a beer, but was feeling pleasantly buzzed, having settled down to watch TV. Sollux was settled comfortably against Bro's side with his phone in his lap, flipping through his apps to find something to do. Karkat had gone back to the bedroom to change into his pajamas, figuring this would be his last day to be able to actually relax and be comfortable for a while as more and more coursework was piled onto him. He settled down beside Dave on the couch with his legs pulled up in front of him, one knee tucked under his chin as he watched whatever it was that Dave had chosen to devote his attention to.

The movie was one of the Final Destination series, and Dave was content just to relax and watch it, quiet as he idly rubbed his thumb across the pads of his fingertips, silent and at ease. He'd taken off his sunglasses somewhere between the time that the girls had left and now, clearly at ease with the people he was with.

Bro had his arm around Sollux, more because that was the most comfortable position than anything, and chuckled a little. "We've got over a hundred thousand hits on that stupid video," he said, holding his phone with his other hand. "Pretty good for only a few days. I've been trackin' its viral outreach, and there's memes and shit already spreadin' across the board. None so strong as the rather flatterin' 'I'd fuck the tall chick on the left', though." He smirked at Dave who huffed a single amused chuckle through his nose.

Karkat choked a little on the swallow of water he'd just taken from the bottle in his hand, looking over at Bro with something between a smile and a grimace, brow furrowed. He couldn't help but laugh as he looked back around at Dave as well. "Great. You're a meme."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Dave said flatly. "I always wanted to be a sex symbol, but this might be the most sideways way I could've approached it." He smirked and wrapped his arm around Karkat raising an eyebrow when Bro pulled out his sylladex, releasing two t-shirts and a can of soda, grabbing them all in mid-air before they could fly across the room. He handed off the red shirt over to Dave, and a black shirt to Karkat. "Here, got these made up. Gonna be sellin' the one Karkat's got on my online store." 

Karkat's shirt had white lettering in addition to a silhouetted version of the three of them on stage. It read, 'I fucked the tall chick on the left.' Karkat held up the shirt, staring at it as if unsure whether to be mortified or amused. "We'd better be getting royalties for this," he muttered. The only time he would ever wear it would be at home, he was completely certain of that.

Dave's grin spanned his entire face almost as he read his shirt. "Oh holy shit, I'm wearing this to work on Saturday. Fucking. Beautiful." He grinned over at Bro, who waved it off. "Yeah, I planned on tossin' him like a quarter of the sales money anyhow." He opened the can of squirt and sipped it, wrinkling his nose. "Needs whiskey and vodka in this. Just a sec." He slipped away from Sollux to go make a cocktail out of the soda.

Dave grinned as he put his shirt on his lap. "Now I can only hope that the film gets as much attention as the shit we did on the fly."

"Add in a small-print 'by the Tall Chick on the Left' in the credits and you'll get a wider audience," Karkat snorted then folded the shirt, shaking his head at it again and looking up at Sollux, who had been very quietly laughing at them the entire time.

"Oh yeah, totally how I want to kickstart my career, that's a brilliant plan, nubby, why don't I just call up A Lost People and Tey Zonday and have _them_ do the soundtrack." He rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Karkat.

"Might want to call in the Village People to replace your catht at thith rate," Sollux added as Bro returned with two glasses, holding one out to him. He was thanked and then Sollux went right back to smirking at Karkat, sucking down some of the drink and giving a quiet cough.

"You guys are fucking ridiculous. All of you."

"You fuckin' love us and you know it."

Bro looked over to Karkat with a grin, and shrugged. "If by ridiculous, you mean completely fuckin' awesome at owning up to all our fuckin' weirdnesses, then guilty as charged."

"In any cathe," Sollux said as he stood up to let Bro sit back down, "it'th not like you could live without uth tho might ath well get uthed to it, Nubth."

"Yeah yeah, I know, Jesus." Rolling his eyes, Karkat leaned back more comfortably against Dave with his water bottle in his lap, fiddling mindlessly with the cap.

Bro chuckled faintly at Karkat and Sollux bickering, sipping his drink with a nod. Yeah, that tasted all right. "So after you get the rest of the filler and Furlue's scenes filmed, that's about it, huh? You're pretty much done with filming?"

"Yep, just about ready to stick a fork in it. I've already begun editing. It'll be another month's worth of work, but it's fuckin' boss so far. I'm not looking forward to it, but it's going to be a fuckin' huge foot in the door." Dave smiled as he continued, "This fucker's the rightest damn thing I've ever done. So goddamn perfect, that they're changing the definition of perfection to simply "Dave Strider's First Year Film Project that Still Doesn't Have a Title."

"At least there's nothing else that I have to do which means back to grinding to get my homework made back up before the pile gets any bigger," Karkat sighed, yawning quietly and stretching his legs back out in front of him. "I really don't think any of my professors will accept 'sorry, I was helping my boyfriend with his homework for the last two weeks' as an excuse."

Dave's ears went red again and he smiled faintly. "Heh, sounds like a lie, even if it's not." He leaned over to press a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "Mm, I'm gonna head off to bed. You two don't fuck on the couch. I'm warning you."

Bro gave a completely ridiculous mock salute to that while Dave stood, and took Karkat's hand and pulling him along with him. Dave hoped that they could get plenty of rest, even though the chances of them having that happen were pretty slim, considering the time.

Bro looked at the clock on the wall and took a swig of his drink. "Should make my way back, I guess," he said, before eying the drink. Nah, he had a couple too many to consider driving. "Or I'm gonna crash out here, whatever."

Karkat rested his chin on Dave's shoulder as they headed down the hall, yawning against the side of his neck. How it was that Dave had been the one actually doing things all day when he'd just gone to class then come home to shepherd their friends and yet _he_ was this tired, he still didn't know. He crawled into bed immediately and sprawled on his stomach, watching Dave sleepily. "I got a message from Bill earlier telling me I was taking the shift tomorrow so that you could do the last of your filming and editing shit," he murmured, pulling a pillow down to tuck under his head.

Dave pulled out of his clothes as he responded, "Yeah, I tried to talk him out of it, but he said it was either you or Drew who's been working for the entire time we've taken off. It's kind of a pain, but at least it's something." He slipped between the covers and wrapped his arms around Karkat with a sigh. "Once we're back on a regular schedule, I'll be a hundred percent less likely to have a meltdown, I'm pretty sure."

Karkat tucked his head against Dave's neck as he started to doze, muttering a bit about finally having the apartment to themselves again. At least, he hoped it would come sooner rather than later. It was just a matter of how long it would take Bro's car to come back from the shop sparkly new.

"Mm, just a couple more days," murmured Dave, drifting off to sleep shortly after, listening to the sound of Karkat's steady breath as he gently ran his hand over his matesprit's back.

Out in the living room, Sollux had situated himself on the floor beside the couch with his laptop by his head, tapping passively at a couple of the sites that he was helping Bro maintain. He hadn't had the chance to check in in a couple of days between every other thing he'd had to do and he didn't want to feel like it was falling apart without them keeping up with it.

Bro looked over Sollux's shoulder and smiled faintly. "I've been keepin' an eye on it. Don't worry, nothin' has gotten too unkempt without our ever-present eyes." He sprawled out on the sofa and finished his drink. "But I've been kinda itchin' to get back to work, myownself." He pulled his hat off and set it aside, looking over at the TV that still was running its cheesy gore marathon.

"Jutht felt like making thure thomeone didn't manage to fuck up somewhere or thtart thpamming the commentth again," Sollux shrugged, finishing up and turning onto his side with his head on his hand. A bad horror marathon sounded about as entertaining as whatever else he could have come up for his night, at least. "The thooner I can get back to my own thythtem the eathier it'll be. Better prothethor."

Bro nodded, "I hear you, man. There's nothin' quite like gettin' home to the tower computer where shit is slick as snot to load and all the good porn's stashed." At least the second part was a half-joke. "And I've had to postpone shitloads of shootin' new content for the site, have about seventy goddamn orders put on hold for one-of-a-kind smuppets. But the way it's goin' here, it's worth it." He put his hand down to squeeze Sollux's shoulder gently. "Sucks it'll be an extra couple weeks 'til I get cam time with you, in a couple days."

"You're really gonna have to try and get people around to help with cuthtom orderth. You're good, but people are impathient ath fuck." Looking back up at him, Sollux wrinkled his nose then gave a soft chuckle and leaned back against the couch. "Yeah, but at leatht by then we won't really have anything elthe to worry about until the thcreening. Which I fully intend to come and thee," he added, laying his hand over Bro's wrist.

"I am _not_ outsourcin' my one of a kind original smuppets to some fuckin' asshole who can't fuckin' do shit exactly to spec, Sollux, that's a dumbass idea. Sure, they can make all the goddamn cheap-ass mass-produced shit they want off in that factory in Woodland Hills, but as far as the collector shit is concerned? I'm stickin' with it. I'll be sewin' those cute little fuckers 'til I'm old and gray." He moved his hand to wrap it around Sollux's, squeezing lightly. "It's not like it takes tons of fuckin' effort or anythin', I got that shit down to a science. You've seen me, bro, I can sew one by hand, stuff it, sign it, and box it within a couple hours."

He then paused and squeezed Sollux's hand again. "I'll fly you out here for it, no question." Bro knew that was months from now, but at least there was a solid 'next time'. It put his mind at ease.

"You'd technically be flying me out anyway, theeing ath that plain ticket would be coming out of what you pay me to maintain your therverth," Sollux chuckled and returned the squeeze, sitting up with his back against the couch, his head leaning back against Bro's side. "I can jutht imagine the eventual newth report, the polithe butht into your apartment and find you dead in your computer chair, naked with a half-done thmuppet in one hand, the thewing needle in the other."

"True," Bro said with a shrug to the plane ticket situation, and then his smile went lopsided. "It'd take 'em two weeks to fuckin' find me, nobody checks the fuckin' crawlspace. I can just see it, though. 'He died on a Tuesday,' 'how y'know that?' 'well, look at him.' Heh." He smiled slightly, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure by that time, I'll be good and senile, too."

"Now that'th a thcary thought." Tilting his head to look back at Bro, Sollux's smile faded off some. Now that he actively thought about it, he realized how much of a gap there was in their ages. Not only that, but his lifespan was already longer than that of the average human's anyway. Not that Bro exactly counted as an average human, but it still worried him some. If they were still...whatever it was they were by then, that wouldn't exactly be easy to deal with.

Bro's smile fell at Sollux's expression and he shook his head. "Don't worry about it, dude. I'm pretty fuckin' sure I'm gonna live into my nineties at least. I'll fuckin' beat the grim reaper off with a baseball bat if I've gotta." He smiled faintly and ran his knuckles gently over Sollux's cheek. "Anyway, that's a real long way off."

"Yeah." Sollux turned some in place and laid his head down against the couch cushions, careful of his horns as they got close to the other's stomach. He marked that up as habit on his part and pushed the thought back down, glancing back at the movie instead. "How can people like thith drivel? It'th almotht ath bad ath KK'th obthession with romcomth..."

"I dunno, dude. I'm not into gore like the little man." He yawned and reached up to scratch through his hair. "Fuckin'... no substance to it, I think." Bro smiled faintly as he grabbed the remote, handing it off to Sollux. "Dunno if you'll find anythin' better, but it's worth a shot." He slipped his glasses off and set them beside his hat, before he shifted to lay on his side, his hand brushing up against Sollux's neck. Sollux yawned in kind and started flipping through the channel guide, already annoyed at how many channels there were with absolutely nothing decent on. He leaned some into the touch, carrying on until he found something on National Geographic about planets. It felt rather ironic, watching a special about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but he reminded himself that at one point, humans still had no real idea about life on other planets. Trolls must have come as a bit of a shock to humanity as a whole.

Bro chuckled a little at the choice and shook his head. "Why's that even up for debate?" He murmured. "Not like y'all just mysteriously popped out of the ground or nothin'. Makes me wonder what the story this world's gonna cook up that makes it so we've been coexistin' since forever."

"Altho gotta wonder where all thethe other people came from. There'th a whole world'th worth out there," Sollux mused, glancing toward the sliding door to the patio. "What if they're all expired thessionth?"

Bro's brows arched at that. Even he didn't know if _that_ was entirely true; there was a high likelihood of some of them being that, as he'd met Guardians that he knew weren't part of sessions he was privy to, and talked to them about the kids they were looking after, but all of them? "That'd be a pretty good guess for a lot of 'em," he said with a nod. "Not just a good one. Accurate." He smiled a little. "I'll let you in on this. It ain't just Aradia and Jade up there, pullin' this shit into existence. We got a helluva lot of folks workin' to make everything real. Most of the Space and Time players. Dave an' Kanaya were too injured when they got here to be a part of it, but you're right that it ain't just you'n yours." He sat up and stretched his arms up over his head, popping his back before standing and grabbing his cigarettes, walking over to the patio door. "It's a pretty big deal, bro."

"I'll thay," Sollux muttered, getting up and following him, suddenly feeling a distinct need for nicotine himself. He grabbed his cigarette case from his bag and joined Bro out on the patio, leaning against the rail around it and grimacing as he lit it. "That would explain why Furlue wathn't completely freaked out by the sudden attack of an outer god. Her power mutht have been pathive though tho there wouldn't have been much for her to do."

"It's possible she didn't even get to the Medium, too," Bro said with a shrug, taking a long drag of his cigarette once it was lit. "There's too many fuckin' little details to get caught up in it all. All we gotta focus on right now is makin' sure that this place stays viable as a world. And that's where me and the others come in." He looked over at Sollux with tired, world-weary eyes. "It's gonna be a chore, but knowin' that we have this second chance, it's better than anythin' I'd have ever thought to want."

Sollux thumbed the filter of his cigarette as he thought about it, then nodded and stood back up straight, returning the look with a tired one of his own. "All that motht of uth can really do ith jutht be grateful we have it, even if we can't exactly fight for it."

"I told Dave, Karkat, an' Terezi this when they came down on his birthday. The rules of the game are to kinda ignore that this ain't real, at least 'til it is. Only reason one of those otherworldy fucks even came down is 'cause we got together way too many folks from the same session. It's risky, havin' y'all here at once. But I'm willin' to think that we'll be safe for the next few days. They really don't attack more'n once a week, tops." He looked up at the sky, eyes narrowed as if to challenge them to prove him wrong.

"Ath far ath I'm contherned, it feelth pretty fucking real." Sticking one hand into his pocket, Sollux took a last drag off his cigarette then put it out on the rail. "Tho I'm gonna take it. Hell, maybe when I've got the time and enough money thaved up, get thome kind of thpeech therapy, or thurgery if that doethn't work. Make life a little more normal and thtop people thinking I jutht affect the lithp ath an image thing."

"Cool," Bro said with a shrug. "Doesn't bother me, but it's a pretty big issue to you." He finished his own cigarette and looked back up to the sky, giving it one last menacing glare before stepping in. "Is it the two-tongue thing or is it your teeth?" He always wondered, though he never had a chance to ask.

"Pretty thure it'th a combination of the two," Sollux replied as he settled back down against the front of the couch, flicking the tip of his finger across the touchpad of his laptop to bring it back out of sleep mode. "If I can get it worked out with therapy, which would be greatly preferred, all the better but if not, I'd go in for the dental correction. No way in hell are they cutting up or thtitching together my tongue."

Bro grimaced with the thought of his tongue having to get surgery. "I dunno if it'll help, but er..." He reached over to grab his wallet, and flipped through a few cards, to the one he kept. "Back before all this shit, Dave had some jank-ass teeth. Here's the guy that worked on his." He handed the orthodontist's card to Sollux and shrugged. "Wasn't as bad off as you, but still, the guy did good work." He sprawled back out on the sofa. "Can't say I know any speech therapists."

Plucking the card out of Bro's hand, Sollux raised an eyebrow and glanced back at him. "You realithe that motht likely thith guy'th not in thith iterathion of the world right? Unleth he'th a guardian or he played the game himthelf, I doubt I'd be able to find him."

"Even if he ain't here, which he should be 'cause I still have his card, Roxanne can twiddle him into existence. Or twiddle braces onto your face. She's weird. Her shit is weird." He smirked and laid back, looking up at the ceiling.

"Mom Lalonde ithn't twiddling shit onto my fathe," Sollux immediately insisted, pointing back at Bro and wrinkling his nose. Now that he was really thinking about it, the prospect of corrective surgery made him somewhat apprehensive. "Therapy firtht. Putting thingth in my mouth later."

He shrugged at that, "Fair enough. That should go pretty smoothly, I figure." He smiled faintly as his eyes slipped closed. "You'll do great at that. Still can't quite picture you without the lisp, though. 'Cause it's directly affectin' my ability to hear that smartass tone you got, too."

"Oh believe me, jutht being able to pronounthe an eth thound ithn't gonna affect my thpeech pattern one bit." Sollux grinned toothily at him then went to turn off the light, settling back down in front of the couch and curling his arms up on the cushion and laying his head down on top of them.

"You sure you won't stop bein' a fuckin' smartass? That's one'a my deep-seated fears, right fuckin' there, that you get all fuckin' respectable on me." He smiled, stretching out against the back of the sofa to give Sollux room to move up if he wanted.

"Come the fuck on, Thtrider. You really think anything could make me a rethpectable member of thothiety? Pleathe." After a moment, Sollux finally climbed up onto the couch beside him, laying with his back to Bro and his legs hanging partway off into the air. "It'll be nithe, though. Thomeone getth into an argument with me, they'll actually have to come up with a more intelligent rebuttal than jutht mocking the lithp."

"Get better material, shit," Bro said with a huff of a chuckle. "Why you think I wear those glasses? I've been sick of 'em for a few years, but if they're gonna mock me, whaddya think they go straight to, first?" He smirked as he wrapped one arm around Sollux and closed his eyes. "Keeps 'em distracted with fuckin' Kamina ridiculousness, so I got a better shot at blowin' their minds. Or roundhousing them to the ground. Whatever."

"Yeah, people learned not to comment on my eyeth after about the third perthon I nearly put in the hothpital by throwing them twenty feet. That'th about all I can really do with the pthionicth thethe dayth. Funny thing, it'th only the humanth that make the commentth about the eyeth though," Sollux mentioned, leaning his head back against Bro's shoulder. "But fuck them. I think your eyeth look pretty cool."

Bro looked down at Sollux, and chuckled. "I've never had an issue about my eyes. Fuckin' love that they're orange. Scares the unholy fuck out of self-righteous pricks." He shook his head and then laid his head back down. "Nah dude, it's not a problem for me like it is for the little man. Always been self-conscious about that noise." He sighed and shook his head. "Your eyes are fuckin' awesome as hell though, dude. I never questioned that." His voice was only faintly above a whisper at that point, and it was clear that he was drifting off. "Just...kinda love how you wear dichotomy on your sleeve. S'a good look on you."

"Never had any reathon not to," Sollux muttered and tucked himself down carefully to sleep with his arm under his head.

Come morning, Karkat was the first one up, coming into the living room with his bag over his shoulder, hoping to get in to class early. He stopped long enough to throw a blanket over the two on the couch, then grab something small out of the fridge for breakfast. This early, he was able to take the walk at a leisurely pace and still arrive at his first lecture early enough to be able to talk to his professor, with whom he had a rather good rapport. Unlike a lot of teachers, this man actively engaged when it came to questions rather than pointing to the book, encouraged debate and new ideas. And never once had Karkat ever gotten mad at him. When he explained why he hadn't attended the last few classes, the man actually seemed interested, saying that he would like to see the final result when it came time to do so. With that in mind, Karkat went back to his seat, feeling a little better about life in general. After class and a subsequent early lunch, Karkat sent off a text to his boss to let him know that he would be coming in that day and that if he had to he'd work a double shift.

Dave woke up well after Karkat had left, and groaned, looking at his phone to see that it was Karkat's stupid fucking early morning day. He hated Fridays the most, because their schedules were absolutely fucked for seeing each other until either work, or after the cafe closed. He'd been given leave by his other professors to undertake the film project, having laid out in detail what he'd planned on doing weeks in advance, which, for Dave, was as good as giving them an embossed and gilded certificate of clear intent to pursue this project wholeheartedly, as he managed to actually remember to inform anybody else.

He slunk off to the bathroom and emerged clean, dressed, shaved, and ready for the day, making coffee for the lumps on the sofa as well as himself, and as he waited for it to brew, he worked on putting the finishing touches on the trailer. The trailer itself was 2 minutes long, and the splash screens took the most time to create, though when he looked back up, it had only been ten minutes, though he could have sworn it had taken far, FAR longer to work. His smile twitched into place when he realized that he'd been passively manipulating time again, and he went to grab some coffee.

Bro woke up to the scent of the brewing coffee and stirred faintly, realizing he was pinned between the sofa and Sollux. He opened his eyes to notice that if he had swung forward instead of back, he would've put his eye out on one of Sollux's longer horns. "Close call," he murmured as he disentangled himself from the other, sitting up slowly so as not to wake him. Sollux rolled over to face the couch as soon as he had room to do so, dragging the blanket back over his head to block out the light. He was awake, but he didn't exactly want to be. He dug into one of his pockets to find his phone, having enough presence of mind to turn the screen into the couch to keep from being blinded by it until his eyes had adjusted. He muttered some at the time and finally pushed himself upright with a loud yawn.

"Coffee..."

Dave huffed a chuckle at them both and stood, grabbing two mugs out of the cupboard to pour them coffee, making sure that Sollux's had a fair amount of cream. "I just got the finishing touches put on the trailer. It's fucking killer, dude, like... That's some serious Zodiac Manson Dahmer shit right there." He brought the mugs over to the sofa, offering them up. "How the hell long were you two up? I heard you talking in here when I got woken up at like, 2." 

Bro immediately looked concerned. "Dreams again?" He got an affirmative nod, before he shrugged. "Probably around 3. I didn't bother checkin', little man." He looked over to Sollux with a sleepy browarch, sipping his coffee. "I been meanin' to ask. You ever have dream problems? These two get 'em all the time, an' from what Terezi said, she gets 'em, too. And not the usual spooky fucked up chucklevoodoo troll shit, but like, serious horrorterror whisper problems."

Sollux grimaced as he pulled himself up off the couch to accept the coffee, nodding a little as he sipped at it. "Thometimeth. Haven't lately with you guyth running me all over the plathe but...yeah. I wath taking medicathion for it. Thleep aidth, dream inhibitorth, but they thtarted having addictive affectth tho I thtopped."

Dave nodded to that, "Yeah, I was on those for a couple years, did fuckall to stop 'em, and I didn't want to get hooked on the pills, so I stopped taking them, and found other solutions." He leaned against the counter and sipped his own coffee. "I'm not saying I endorse illegal shit, even though I fuckin' do, but pot's helped to kill night terrors pretty well. Having nubby around's helped more." He knew Bro wouldn't flip over the sincere admission to self-medicating. At least he'd hoped that Bro wouldn't mind.

Bro didn't mind. He nodded. "It's legal here, so whatever works. I figure they're trying to psychologically weaken people so they can knock you guys out faster. Just keep fightin'," He said with an encouraging nod. "You were sayin' about the trailer?"

"Oh, right. I got it finished," Dave said, waving Sollux over to take a final look. Rubbing a hand into his eyes, Sollux made his way around the counter to Dave's side, propping up on his elbows to watch. He nodded in approval at how the clips didn't honestly do the movie itself justice while still being fairly intriguing.

"You're gonna have to have to actually come up with a title eventually or elthe people won't be able to look it up later."

"Ugh," Dave said as he rolled his head back, "I don't fuckin' know," he groaned, and went to grab some breakfast food.

"Are you really that fuckin' thick, or are you just ignorin' the clear solution?" Bro asked. "It's kinda fuckin' obvious what you should name it, bro. You know. Since it's about the guy."

Dave looked back over to Bro, then to Sollux. "The Sufferer?" He looked almost pained to admit that it was succinct and worked. "But it's so fucking..." He trailed off, floundering for a word as he gestured with one hand.

"Or maybe jutht 'Thufferer'. Giveth it an artthy feel," Sollux shrugged, finally a little more awake after coffee and cinema. He yawned anyway and scratched at his side as he retreated to the spare room to grab a change of clothes then ducked into the shower to scrub off the last of the leftover itchiness from sleeping with another body. Dave blinked at Sollux's suggestion, and then bounced over to fill in the four second gap at the ending with the word, making it fade in, glow, then bleed before the fadeout, the breathy voice of Vriska saying the word as it came up on the screen only cementing that as the title. "Works for me." He saved it as a video file and ate his pop-tart with a nod. "Looks like with the exception of the shots today with Furlue and Kanaya, you guys are off the hook to go play grabass or whatever it is you two actually do."

Bro shushed his brother as he re-watched the trailer, completely astonished that it came out looking so professional and polished for something that was worked on for less than a week. "You work quick. And we hang out. That's what we do. Hang out and occasionally fuck if we feel like it, that's all you need to know."

\--

By the time Karkat got home that night it the apartment was deserted, leaving him free to do as he wished for a little while at least. Work had been hectic and slightly miserable and his tips hadn't really amounted to much and now all he wanted to do was be able to wind down, put something in the microwave to eat and get comfortable. He knew that they had several of the tray ramen dinners for when neither of them felt like eating much and settled on that, setting it to cook while he went and put his things away. He took up a space in the middle of the living room with one of the stools and his cello to fiddle with after he ate. He had a few ideas milling around for something original, but he didn't really know how to work Dave's recording equipment so he would just have to work it out on his own for the time being. Maybe later he could ask for Bro's help. If he wasn't off boning Sollux silly anyway.

Dave had texted earlier that they were running late due to traffic in the canyon; some fuckstick had swerved to avoid a deer on the road and wound up fishtailing and colliding with the barrier. But they were fine, if utterly bored while waiting for the traffic to ease up. They finally arrived about half an hour after Karkat got home, with Dave looking like he was about to punch somebody as he skulked off to the bedroom to get changed out of muddy pants. Bro slipped into a silent seat on the sofa, not disturbing Karkat's process.

Karkat winced as he drew the bow back badly and ended up squeaking the note, looking around at them then wrinkling his nose and following without asking anything, hoping to distract from possible frustrated blowups. He let the instrument lean against the stool as he went, whereupon it was immediately fiddled with by Sollux, its strings plucked curiously.

"You know, I never really believed it when he told me he'd taken up an inthtrument," he commented, sitting on the stool with the neck of the cello propped against his shoulder to prevent it slipping and falling to the floor.

Bro shrugged thoughtfully. "Everyone's got their hobbies, dude. It's just good that his doesn't involve getting himself more bent out of shape, y'know?"

Dave was in the process of pulling up his pants as Karkat came in, and turned to shake his head, "It's cool, just go back to your cello dude, I just need a serious chill time to go down before I find a damn gun and go Elmer goddamn Fudd on every fucking deer in the state." 

Karkat nodded some and pressed his lips together, laying his hands on Dave's shoulders and leaning up to kiss the bridge of his nose. With that same peculiar G-force effect, he shifted blood flow slightly within Dave's major muscle groups to help him relax. He offered a soft smile, pecked his lips then left again, arching an eyebrow at Sollux and standing there with his arms crossed until he'd moved. "If you guys are hungry, there are leftovers, frozen pizza, microwaveable shit. Hell, we have a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese if you feel like actually trying to use the stove."

Dave was left slightly perplexed, but infinitely more at ease with the kiss still lingering on his lips as he stood, scratching his head, trying to figure out how to relax. He decided that he'd take time to start working on getting back into the habit of his own powers. He summoned up the timetables and watched the alarm clock's seconds as he slowed down time, and then reversed it, easing it back and forth carefully. He knew that the tables were only a physical manifestation to concentrate his power and give him something to focus on - he had been doing it passively for weeks - but he kept the use of them for his own sanity's sake.

Bro looked up at Karkat from his seat. "Thanks, shortstack." He stood and went in to stare in the fridge for a moment, before picking out some leftovers from last night's dinner. He wasn't enjoying the idea that tonight would be the last night that Sollux would be there, and was in a sort of contemplative funk.

Karkat grumbled some at the continued use of the nickname, even when he was nearly as tall as Dave was now, but let it go as he sat back up with the cello between his knees. He looked back and forth between Sollux taking up part of the couch and Bro standing in the kitchen, brow raising at both of them. Sollux just shrugged at him and shook his head. He was getting that same feeling of impending loss, and it was showing. He looked up again as Karkat started to play, sinking down in his seat to listen silently. He recognized this song; it was like a pitched-down version of Cockney Violins. It sounded much calmer without the beat in the background.

Bro listened quietly from his lean against the counter in the kitchen, picking away at the plate of meat. He gave it a moment's thought and then slowly set the plate down, and flashstepped into the living room, set up the recorder, and pressed record, all in the span of two seconds, before he was right back at the counter and taking another bite of chicken. Karkat barely noticed the flicker of movement, eyebrow arching up once more as he spotted the recorder then ignoring it in favor of continuing to play. Whatever Bro was doing with it, he guessed he'd see soon enough.

Dave came out after a few minutes (Which he mentally tagged as about an hour) and walked in, happy that he didn't have to create a stable time loop due to his dicking around; nothing substantial happened that he'd completely changed the course of his personal history. He settled down on the sofa and watched Karkat for a minute, before getting distracted by the way Sollux and Bro were both still moping. He nudged Sollux quietly before whispering, "Why don't you go back to his room, and then let him drive you to the airport tomorrow? It'll give you two some time together."

Sollux nodded and ran a hand back over his head with a frustrated sigh. "It'th going to be boring ath fuck when I go home," he muttered, leaning back against the arm of the couch. Sure he'd still be able to chat back and forth with everyone, but going back to his own life started to feel like it was going to be kind of a let-down.

Dave shrugged at that and leaned back. What was there to say about it? He simply felt like the two of them were getting pretty down about their inevitable departure from each other, and that worried him. The two relatively chillest people he knew getting worked up about _anything_ put Dave on edge. He waited until Karkat was done playing, before turning off the recorder for Bro and getting up to kiss his matesprit's cheek. "That sounded cool as hell man," he murmured, before walking up to Bro and murmuring to him what he'd suggested to Sollux.

Bro thought it over and then nodded. "If you wanna pack up your shit, dude," he suggested to Sollux, "I can take you back to the room?"

Dave settled down on the sofa again, looking over at Karkat with a brief smile.

Again Sollux nodded, getting up as soon as Dave had sat down and heading to the counter, picking a few bites off of Bro's plate. "Might ath well give thethe guyth a night to themthelveth, right?" He muttered then went to gather his belongings from where they'd started getting scattered around the room, zipping his clothes into his bag and tossing it out into the hall then retrieving his laptop to carry over his shoulder until they left. When he came back out Karkat was somewhat pink around the ears from the compliment. "He'th right, man. That thounded pretty fucking thweet even without the background."

"I was just dicking around," Karkat shrugged, plucking idly at one of the strings.

"Christ, one of these days, I'm gonna give you a serious dose of ego. You fuckin' need it more than me, dude." Dave looked over the back of the sofa to Bro and Sollux. "Probably won't see you in person 'til the showing," he said to Sollux. "You keep funky fresh, man. Try not to let the big guy talk you into anything stupid."

Bro huffed in amusement and put the rest of the chicken back in the fridge, and then pushed his feet back into his boots, looking around to see if Sollux had forgotten anything, and satisfied, he put his hand on the doorknob. "I'll keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn't wind up hackin' the entire world."

"Don't tempt me," Sollux snorted and grabbed the last of his things, shoving them into the side pocket of his bag then coming back to Bro's side, gesturing to the door.

Once they were gone, Karkat reached over with his bow and prodded Dave's arm gently. "You sure you're ok? You looked ready to pitch a fit when you got home. That's my territory, remember?"

"I hate traffic jams, and I hate deer, and I hate having those two asswads in my car, talking binary and generally acting like psychotic toddlers." He smiled a little, however. "I'm over it. Spent some time with time, and it got me out of my funk." His smile faded when he looked to the door. "Jesus fuck, those two are flushed as hell. I don't know if Bro can handle long distance relationships." His brow furrowed in concern.

"And you know they're never going to admit it to themselves, much less each other," Karkat sighed and got off the stool, leaning the cello against it and perching on the arm of the couch instead. "Glad you got a good handle on your powers though. It looks like it's going to come in handy. Especially when finals rolls around and we're both running around like panicked cluckbeasts."

"I wouldn't say I'm there just yet. Got a few straight days to get things back up to snuff, but I'm down for that, if it means I can stop making time act fully fucked around me on a subconscious level." He dropped back into a sprawl on the sofa, looking down to the arm of the couch opposite him at Karkat. "That thing you did though, that auto-muscle-relax thing? That's fuckin' handy."

"It wouldn't really work unless you were ready to relax anyway. It just kind of helped the process along I guess," Karkat shrugged then let himself slide off the arm of the couch to sit comfortably, his legs coming up to cross in front of him. "Good thing about learning anatomy and going to therapy with someone that actually knew how to do her shit instead of prescribing me a bunch of zombie pills. I learned a couple of keys to relaxing at least physically."

"Sounds like you lucked out. Apparently we're not the only ones who've been dealing with this stupid dream garbage. Sollux said he's had sleep problems for a while, too, and Bro said Terezi's been the same way. It's probably a side effect of existing in this flux reality, such as it is." He smiled unhappily. "Misery apparently really fuckin' loves its company."

"Well, it's not like any of us are really accustomed to having a peaceful fucking existence," Karkat muttered, then crawled forward and put his head down in Dave's lap as he sprawled over the remainder of the couch. "We just have to exist here for a little while longer until it becomes an actual reality. Just be patient." He reached for one of Dave's hands, pressing his lips to the back of it then simply fiddling with his fingers. "We'll be ok. They'll be ok."

Dave wrapped his arms around Karkat's shoulders and sighed. "Right. Gotta just press on, right? This is the relatively calm part of our existence right now and I should fuckin' stop taking it for granted like some loser who likes looking at gift horse's teeth or some shit." He was babbling and he knew it. "I know the other shoe will drop one day though, that this calm before the storm will cease and it'll start raining fuckin' Outer Gods." He rubbed his face with his free hand and took a deep breath. "'Til then, though, I just want to make sure all of my friends are _happy_ , you know? Content. Like you were saying to me, that I made you happy, that I saved your life. I want that for everyone. Make sure everybody's actually...content here. Grounded."

"I meant that literally, you know," Karkat said quietly when Dave talked himself out, his grip tightening a bit around Dave's hand. "When I said that you saved me." He started to chew at his lower lip as he thought over what he wanted to say, speaking slowly when he started again. "The first day I walked into the coffee shop, I fully intended that to be the last day I ever got out of bed. I was...backsliding. Bad. I used to be prescribed to a form of vicodin to control migraines. Originally I thought that the drugs were better than the self-harm, and I was right for the most part. The problem was that at the dosage I was taking, I was losing more of myself, getting really fucked up, tired and I just...decided I couldn't live with it anymore. So I went about my day with the plan to go home when it was done, overdose and just...go to sleep, and that'd be the end of it. No more nightmares, no more feeling like shit, no more being alone. Didn't even see a need for a suicide note given nobody would have really given a shit."

Karkat stopped after that, swallowing hard, his eyes half-closed as his grip tightened again. "And then you happened. You were right fucking there. Validating what little I still knew. So...yeah. I mean it when I said you saved my fucking life."

As he silently listened, taking it all in, Dave wrapped his arms tighter around Karkat's shoulders. He hadn't seen it, hadn't seen that pain that he knew so intimately. He was so caught up in his own stunned disbelief that the best friend he had been told he'd dreamt was standing there before him, that he'd completely missed it, but he didn't want to let go of his only tenuous grip on what he knew was true. He was quiet for a long while, let it all sink into place with what he'd already known. He sat up to wrap his arms tight around his matesprit, his breath caught against a painful, dry lump in his throat as he held on tight.

After swallowing fruitlessly in attempt to alleviate the harshness, he finally spoke in a raspy whisper, "I'm not ever letting you out of my fucking sight even for another damn moment. Whatever kismet it was that led you in and kept me from staying home that day is firmly at credit here." He buried his head against Karkat's shoulder and grit his teeth, repeating, "Never letting you go," in a firm, harsh whisper.

Karkat's hands lifted to twist into the back of Dave's shirt, his head laying against the other's shoulder. He was starting to regret having said anything, but he knew that it had to be said eventually. Sitting on the information was starting to make him sick, especially when Dave argued with him when it came to who'd done more good for whom. He pressed his lips repeatedly to the soft skin at the base of Dave's throat then tucked his head down against it, whispering, "I'm ok now, I promise."

He nodded and held Karkat close, still clenching his jaw, even though he knew Karkat's assurance was true. He wasn't insensitive to Karkat's feelings, past or present, but worried more about his own. Dave hadn't ever felt the way he was feeling just then, and it was unnerving and worrisome. To fear the loss of someone he cared about was nothing new, but to know that he singlehandedly prevented it _terrified_ him. It was heroic. It was on a grand scale. He passed it off as fate, as some cosmic coincidence. But only on the surface.

He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and then looked into his eyes, his own searching. "Don't ever fuckin' give me the power over your life again, man." He wasn't sure he could handle that kind of responsibility.

"Wasn't like I put the bottle in your hands," Karkat muttered, his eyes falling as his hands moved away from Dave's back and up to his chest, up to his neck to rest against the sides of it. His thumbs rubbed gently under Dave's ears then stilled at his hairline, just remembering that it'd been cleaned up by Bro. "Now your only responsibility is to your own damn self. Finish your film shit. Gain a couple of goddamn pounds before the next strong breeze blows you out to sea or something. Learn to boil an egg. Hell, I'll _teach_ you how to boil an egg. Just don't worry about me anymore, ok?"

"I can't help that," Dave chuckled through the repressed tears, "I've got a fuckin' high metabolism, I've put on, what, a pound since you moved in?" And he'd been eating pretty damn well! "And for the record, I don't worry about you so much as I worry about me if you weren't around, okay? So don't get all fucked up over me being freaked out over the distinct possibility that you could have definitely _not_ existed at some point between then and now."

At the strain in Dave's voice, Karkat looked him full in the face, his hands lying on either side of his matesprit's head. He nudged his nose against Dave's then pecked at his lips, drawing him in a little more each time. "Well I do exist. And I have known a love and passion that transcended definition," he muttered, the words feeling incredibly right at that moment. "And I'm literally right here in your lap so whatever you intend to do, I hope it stays right here because I don't intend to leave any time soon."

"Don't be perfect right now, it's annoying," Dave jokingly scolded, no fire in his tone as he pressed another kiss to Karkat's lips. "Even with all your imperfections. Jesus, it's like you go out of your way to make me want to crawl away and flip out quietly in a corner over emotions. Pain in the ass." He pulled back to lay back down and look fully at his matesprit with an amused shake of his head, finally composed. "You'd _better_ not leave for a while. I still haven't gotten used to you being some sort of ridiculous sexual fantasy version of yourself. Like who the fuck gave you clearance for that level of attractiveness? Who signed off on that? You're fuckin' dangerous, now. Weapons grade hot."

"I think you did," Karkat chuckled quietly and scooted up in Dave's lap until he could prop his chin up on the other's chest. He crossed his arms under his chin with a soft, amused little smirk. "Is this you admitting that you've actually had sexual fantasies about me, Strider?"

"I refuse to answer on the grounds that I may incriminate myself," was the flat response. Dave put his hand into Karkat's hair, sighing quietly as he pet through it, idly toying with the freshly trimmed ends. "The better question here is not if I have, but how long I have. I mean, if you want to make me feel really uncomfortable about my existence." He closed his eyes as he continued to gently brush his fingers over the hair at the back of Karkat's head.

"Oh now I think I'm interested to hear," Karkat muttered and dragged a fingertip down the bridge of Dave's nose then over his lips, grinning a bit at the slight ego boost that was finally coming from being repeatedly told he was attractive. At least coming from Dave, it felt valid. "What kind of fantasies?"

He arched up to press a teasing kiss to Karkat's finger and flicked his tongue out to brush against the tip. "Pretty vanilla stuff, actually. At least, at first," Dave said with a vague shrug, his smile taking a firm hold once he started to play back more recent things he'd been thinking. "Lately though, there's been some pretty heavy leanings towards the embarrassingly thirsty." He pressed the flat of his tongue against the back of his teeth, poking the barbell out between them, rolling the ball across his upper lip. "I'm not even going to say how close I am to begging to get railed, dude. I mean, I'm not above that, but I gotta hold some measure of decorum."

"You're going to have to go into some of this in detail," Karkat muttered, his eyes taking on that dark, mischievous glint they only did when he already had plans. He slipped the tip of his finger around the barbell through Dave's tongue then leaned up to catch his lower lip between his teeth.

With that, Dave stole a firm kiss and then drew back to continue, "I don't know how much more detailed I can get, dude," he teased, "How much more do I have to say I want you to bend me over and fuck me before you actually do? It's not like I haven't made it pretty damn clear for the past Iunno, two weeks that's what I've been wanting." He had shot out that option at least twice in his recent recollection. Even thinking about it had gotten him embarrassingly worked up in a pretty inopportune moment or two. Karkat hummed against his lips, smiling faintly as he drew up and sat on his knees between Dave's legs. Suddenly he thought back to the comment that Dave had almost made concerning fun applications of his power and he was grinning darkly, dragging his fingertips over Dave's stomach then dipping them into the waistband of his pants and pulling it up away from the skin as the blood suddenly started to rush and pool in the expanding vessels in his groin. His eyes shot open and he groaned at the sensation. "That is so unfair, Vantas," he breathlessly muttered, moving his hands down to pull his pants off and down from his hips. "Do I have to spell it out for you, though? Maybe paint a fuckin' mural? Do an interpretive dance of how goddamn often I've thought about you fucking me? Jesus hell."

"Want me to come inside you? You know, like you've done to me how many times now?" Karkat's eyebrow arched up some as he pulled a hand straight upward, seeming to pull Dave's erection up vertical with it.

Dave's breath caught again and for a couple seconds, he attempted to get himself back to a mental point where he could speak. "Christ yes," was what he managed as he rocked his hips up into the air, unsure what to make of the sensation of being manipulated without being touched. Karkat's expression softened as he released his hold, standing and reaching for Dave's hand to pull him up then drag him along in the direction of the bedroom, feeling so much lighter than he ever had before. Now that he had one less burden to carry around he just wanted to revel in the feeling. The hold on his cock didn't make Dave any less turned on, nor did it change the fact that he had a nearly painful erection, but he came along with a somewhat dazed expression on his face. He shed his pants between the sofa and the bedroom, leaving them in front of the laundry closet's doors as he followed behind. Once he got into the bedroom, he wasn't nearly half as compliant, however. With the door closed, he pushed Karkat up against it and wrapped his hand around his matesprit's jaw, pushing into a rough, bruising kiss, only long enough to warrant more, but he broke it off and slipped away. He pulled off his shirt and settled down at the foot of the bed, raising an eyebrow at Karkat.

Karkat licked his lips, suddenly a bit anxious. He reached into his pocket and fished for a moment before coming up with a discreet little wrapper. He'd found it under the couch earlier that evening before the others had come back, obviously left behind by Bro and Sollux. He stepped up in front of Dave and handed it to him before stripping his shirt off over his head, looking down at his stomach with the same slightly perplexed expression he got every time he remembered that suddenly there wasn't really a belly there anymore. With a quirk of one eyebrow, Dave took the sheath and carefully tore its wrapper open. He briefly wondered when Karkat had found time to procure a condom - they didn't really bother with them - but the thought flitted out of his mind as he pulled Karkat closer by the hip, looking up at him as he coaxed his bulge out. He took a moment to slick over one of his hands, gripping Karkat's bulge gently and keeping it in place, before he worked the sheath down with the other. Once he'd gotten it to the base, he slipped his hands away and laid back, using his now-slick hand to dip between his own legs, pressing his fingertips in, two at a time as he took a shallow gasp of breath.

Karkat crawled over the foot of the bed and settled on his knees to watch the display with his lip caught between his teeth. He idly fingered the base of his bulge in time with the thrust of Dave's fingers with one hand as the other came to lie against the other's knee, holding it and rubbing his thumb over the cap until he felt that he could move forward. From here it was unfamiliar territory and he just hoped he was actually up to whatever standard Dave had set. Once Karkat joined him, Dave slipped his free hand down to tease his fingertips against his matesprit's sensitive bulge and brush his fingers over Karkat's. As he laid there, working himself into a more relaxed state, he considered if he wanted to change his position. He raised himself up onto his elbow as he slipped his fingers out and away, and looked into Karkat's eyes. "I'm gonna leave it up to you. How do you want me?" He asked, his voice pitched low and husky.

Karkat swallowed hard and pressed forward to press his lips against Dave's then sat back up and gestured to the head of the bed. "Up there, on your hands and knees," he murmured, running his hand down the length of Dave's thigh. He figured that it would be easier to see what he was doing if he did so from behind. "It's going to be a lot different from your toys, I hope you realize that."

"God, I fucking hope so," Dave said as he slipped away, moving closer to the head of the bed on his knees. "I want _you_. If I just wanted to have something up my ass, I'd have told you." He knew that Karkat wasn't experienced in that way, and he was okay with that. On the same token, this wasn't the first time he'd asked to get fucked and gotten his way, and he knew how it felt. Half the damn reason he was so hellbent on it was because he _liked_ that.

Karkat snorted quietly and laid his hands on Dave's back, running them over it then taking hold of his bulge and guiding it to just start pressing into the other's ass, barely breaching at first as he kept an eye on his matesprit's reaction, keeping one hand on him to monitor the thump of his heartbeat. Swallowing hard, he twisted gently into Dave's body until he'd come to rest halfway in, feeling his own pulse throbbing through his bulge counterpoint to the other's. "Fucking christ," he hissed, his eyes squeezing shut at the new sensation.

Dave let out a tiny murmur of pleasure, his heart starting to pound in his ears. He reached up to grab the headboard, his knuckles gone white as a groan rolled out of him, leaving his lips parted as his head fell forward. He had fully been prepared for the size and width, but Dave hadn't quite wrapped his mind around the heat and movement. Karkat dipped low over his back and pressed his lips to the space between Dave's shoulderblades, pushing forward further until his hips were firmly seated against the other's, his arms wrapped loosely around Dave's waist. His breath shuddered against his matesprit's back then hitched at a minor change in pressure that made his bulge tense and move within the almost too-tight confines. With another low groan, Dave rocked back slowly to facilitate Karkat's movement forward, curling his fingers against the back of the headboard. He closed his eyes and moved his other hand to pump himself slowly, shuddering at the movement within him again.

"Should've thought to grab that vibe for you," he murmured. He continued after his breath hitched due to Karkat's bulge brushing heavily against his prostate, "Put it in your nook and gotten you so worked up that you'd be rigid." It had worked for his ex, at least.

"Keep that in mind for next time then," Karkat muttered and reached a hand behind him, twisting his wrist around to be able to run his fingers around the outside of his nook, trying to help himself along as he started to move with Dave's rocking. Before long he had to grab ahold of the other's hips to keep his balance and push back, his bulge swelling just enough to put a constant pressure on Dave's prostate and writhe slowly inside him.

"Hell yeah, a next time," murmured Dave, sounding far less excited about that than he was, if only because he was too busy trying not to jerk his body away from the overstimulation and too-good sensations of Karkat's bulge. "Fucking christ," he hissed, rocking back a bit more firmly with each roll of his hips, firming up his grip on his erection, "I'm gonna blow way too fast," he muttered.

Mentally Karkat was arguing that yeah, of course there would be a next time, if only because he wanted to be able to do this right, treating it as something of a personal challenge. He stopped moving for the moment though, giving Dave a chance to rest. "Slow down then," he murmured, sitting back up on his knees and running his hands up the length of Dave's back. Dave let go of himself and put his arm up against the wall overhead, swallowing to alleviate his dry throat as he rested his head against the headboard with a quiet chuckle.

"Got so fucking worked up," he murmured, catching his breath. "Hang on, gonna move away," he said, slipping himself away from Karkat, which made him let out a little moan once Karkat was out of him, and slumped down over the side of the bed to drag the box out. He had to shuffle through it to find what he was looking for, a slim, long vibrator that had gone practically unremembered until he'd brought it up a moment ago. A smile twitched against the corner of his lips as he came back with the toy, looking fairly victorious.

Karkat sat back with his bottom perched on his heels, looking at the toy with a soft smile of his own. He leaned forward for it and plucked it out of Dave's fingers, twisting the bottom of it to switch it on to a low vibration. He leaned back with his free hand planted on the bed behind him and started to run the end of the toy around his nook before slipping it inside, already slick enough to take it with no problem. He panted quietly as his eyes fell closed and started to chew his lip bloody again, his bulge swelled just enough to where it would be almost impossible to retract.

Dave watched silently as he lightly toyed with himself, brushing his fingers over the underside of his cock, tracing up the frenum with his fingertip. He leaned forward to kiss Karkat and then slipped closer still to straddle him, brushing his erection against Karkat's bulge. "Lay down," he murmured against his matesprit's jaw, and left another kiss there. "I'll ride you." Karkat gave a quiet sound in his throat at that and laid back, moving around to the middle of the bed and relaxing with one hand still down between his legs, the other beside him as he propped himself up on his elbow. He looked up at Dave straddled across his lap, pink from his ears all the way across his face.

With a faint, reassuring smile, Dave reached down to gently move the vibe within his matesprit. With his other hand, he held Karkat's bulge while he slowly moved downward, guiding his matesprit back into himself with a shivered murmur of breath. When he finally descended back down against Karkat, his eyes closed with a flutter and his lips parted soundlessly. For a moment, he had a fully vulnerable expression, his eyebrows knitting subtly as he slowly inched his way down.

Karkat licked his lips, laying his head back as he pressed his feet into the bed and rolled his hips up gently. He laid his hands on Dave's hips, thumbing the protruding bones gently, examining the other's face as long as that expression stayed on it. It was different, and incredibly attractive. "Fucking beautiful," he muttered and sat up slowly to press his lips to the center of his matesprit's chest.

Dave's ears and cheeks went red at Karkat's words, and he opened his eyes to look down, moving his hand up to Karkat's hair and combing through it with his fingers. He huffed a breath once he finally hit the hilt, jaw quavering at the sheer width of Karkat's bulge at the base. It took him a moment to adjust, to relax and calm himself, and to get somewhat used to Karkat within him, before he slowly started a rhythm, squeezing his matesprit's shoulder. Leaning his weight on one arm, Karkat pulled one leg up to keep his heel against the end of the vibe still inside him and wrapped the other arm around Dave's waist, thrusting up into him gingerly with his face still pressed into the other's sternum, kissing the pale skin repeatedly then leaning just enough to one side to drag his tongue over a nipple and take the piercing between his teeth. Shuddering a loud groan as he arched his chest up for Karkat's benefit as well as his own, Dave gripped his matesprit's shoulder tight, and sped his own rocking hips just slightly. He caught one of Karkat's hands in his own and squeezed it lightly before bringing it between them and guiding it down.

"Please," he barely managed in a whisper, "Please don't be gentle." The tone in his words had just a hint of that vulnerability that had been seen on his face, though it was only a single thread intermingled with a heavy dose of need. Unless Karkat specifically _needed_ to be careful, Dave didn't want this to be tender and sweet. Hardly ever was that a thing that he wanted. Karkat's hand squeezed down around the base of Dave's cock then drew up slowly, rolling the foreskin over the head then pulling it back down again and rolling the pad of his thumb over the opening. He let out a hot breath against the other's chest and dragged his tongue over the swelling nipple then bit on the the only real curve of his chest hard enough to draw blood. All the while his hips were still pushing up, rolling his bulge repeatedly into Dave's prostate, though the pace was starting to grow somewhat erratic as every time either of them moved, the vibrator was shifted inside of him and pressing at some new angle. He let out a rather high, breathy groan and started to suck a dark mark into the skin of Dave's chest then moved to his collarbone to do the same.

Dave gave a sharp gasp at the bite and his hips jerked downward, only to make him let out another loud groan. Every moment that passed and movement Karkat made served only to drive Dave further and further from composure, and he struggled to catch his breath, only to let out reedy whimpers while he brought his hands down his matesprit's back and scratched up them to cling to his shoulders once more. He finally managed to do something other than scramble for some foothold of composure by catching Karkat's jaw in one of his hands, pulling him away from his skin to pull him into another, rather rough kiss. Karkat's back arched into the scratching as he pressed back into the kiss wholeheartedly and nicked Dave's lip with his teeth without realizing it, tasting the coppery blood on his tongue and groaning around it. He rocked himself up onto his knees and used his free hand to grab around Dave's knee and pull him forward, sandwiching his cock between them as he thrust up hard. With a moan that warned briefly that he was nearing his peak, Dave rocked down against the thrust, and brought his hand up into Karkat's hair, tugging faintly. He broke the kiss so he could breathe, leaning his forehead against his matesprit's, lips still parted to let free sharp and shallow breaths out while he looked between them. He could taste his own blood and didn't particularly care; that sort of thing just happened when they got carried away. It only took another few moments of that pace and angle before Dave leaned against Karkat and tightened his embrace around his shoulders, practically growling as he tensed around his matesprit, his orgasm slamming him into seeing white.

The hand between them continued to stroke him through it, smearing come over him then coming away to grasp at his hip and lift him up. With the amount of motion that had been happening the condom was almost ready to come off, furled up halfway up Karkat's bulge and exposing the tender flesh to the spastic clamp of Dave's muscles around him. He let out a loud, jagged growl and sank his teeth deep into Dave's shoulder close to his neck, finally finding his own release and realizing too late that it didn't have anywhere to go but back out, dripping out of Dave and over his knees and once more turning the day into a laundry day. Removing his mouth from his matesprit's shoulder, Karkat sat back, retracting slowly with his face tucked against the side of Dave's neck. Dave bowed his head and sighed out a final groan, going nearly limp against Karkat. He slipped away after a few moments and then winced a little once he looked down and saw no sheath over Karkat's bulge. He knew exactly where it was.

"Oh boy," he drawled, sliding his legs over the edge of the bed, "This is going to be an adventure." He patted Karkat's leg as he stood and walked awkwardly to the door, and then out towards the bathroom.

It was after about fifteen minutes in the bathroom that Dave returned, both amused and exhausted. "Totally worth it, though. Just for the record."

Karkat wrinkled his nose as Dave came back, making a face when he realized what had just happened. He rubbed his clean hand over his face and crawled out of bed and walked somewhat unsteadily to the bathroom himself. He would have to wash or risk an infection of some kind. He spent ten minutes in the shower washing down and carefully manipulating himself to at least be able to rinse what he could then came back to take the bedclothes to wash before the stains could really set in. Dave stripped the bed while Karkat was washing up, re-made it with another set of bedding, and pulled the dirtied sheets and blankets over towards the washer, where he took a moment to clothe himself once more, tugging up the pajama pants with a small smile of amusement at how they'd gotten there. He tossed the bedding in the washer - careful to keep them even, so as not to wake the neighbors with loud, tap-dancing appliances - and then tossed in some detergent and set it to run. Once that was finished, he went back into the bedroom and sprawled out, turning on the TV in there simply to space out. He figured that he spent enough goddamn time mindfucking his own film project that he had every goddamn right to watch somebody else's movie for a change.

Karkat joined him, smiling faintly as he sank back into bed at his matesprit's side. He yawned and tipped his head against Dave's shoulder as he eyeballed the movie without thinking to ask what it was.

"Just a Stiller movie," Dave mentioned casually once Karkat returned. It was one of the Meet The movies, though he'd only had it on for half a minute and wasn't really paying attention, but Stiller was Stiller, and that meant awesomeness all around. It wasn't a secret that Dave's favorite comedy duo were Stiller and Wilson, though his love for them had waned fairly since his early teen years. 

He wrapped his arm around Karkat as he mindlessly watched the TV, really more occupying his eyes while his mind wandered aimlessly. Karkat muttered quietly as he turned his head into Dave's shoulder, ready to go to sleep for the night after a long-ass day. He gave another huge yawn and stretched out against Dave's side, pulling the clean blankets up around himself to try and doze off before the end of the movie.

\--

When Bro's alarm went off at 10:30, he glared at it from his side of the bed, absolutely hating how goddamn shitty of a thing it was to wake him the hell up only after four hours of sleep. But he knew it wasn't entirely his phone's fault; it was also the fault of the airline company for having planes scheduled to leave at that mythical time, "Before Mid-afternoon." He rubbed his face with a grumble and grabbed the offending piece of technology to shut it up. He woke Sollux up with minimal griping on either of their parts, since it wasn't either of them that had been the offensive tool that scheduled airplanes. Once they were showered and dressed and ready to go, Bro drove the hour's worth of fairly mundane freeway to DIA.

The airport itself was something of a living testament to why people were pants-on-head idiotic about being lavish. It was unnecessarily huge, confusing, and due to the murals on the walls in one wing, somewhat surreal and horrific. Bro kind of liked the murals, but there was no time to really show them to Sollux, since he had to make sure his pal got onto his flight on time. The entire process of checking in for a flight was in equal ludicrousness to the murals; it took a goddamn hour to simply get checked in, waved at with metal detectors, eyed by security, and pointed toward the gate. And that was _before_ adding in the absolutely fun bonus of Bro getting mobbed by several fans and a paparazzi nooksuck along the way.

But he took it all in stride, as he was wont to do. He'd dealt with all this shit on a pretty much monthly basis, anyhow. But once they were finally at the gate, Bro took a seat next to Sollux and sighed. He looked over at his friend and started to say, "Y'know, if you--" before his phone started to ring, its ringtone La Bouche's "Be My Lover". Fucking thing. He answered sharply, and had a monosyllabic side of a conversation, then hung up, after saying, "Sure. I'll be there. Yep. Nah, I'm down with that. Cool."

Sollux was careful to stay a few feet away from Bro most of the time, especially when the rabid fans appeared. He was fairly quiet throughout the whole adventure save to answer a couple of questions asked to him by security personnel, slumping down in his seat when he was finally able to rest and put his bags on the ground between his feet. He waited until Bro had finished his phone call before looking over at him with an arched brow. "If I what?"

"Huh? Oh, uh," He shook his head, trying to find his way back to that train of thought. "Right. If you want, I'll pick up a tablet and cam and we'll talk tonight or whatever." He shrugged. "Get you back into the groove of things so it ain't like, some jarring re-insinuation into your daily grind or somethin'."

Sollux blinked at him, then shrugged a shoulder as he tried (badly) to hide the rather warm feeling that came over him at the idea. "If you want. It'th not like I haven't gone home after a vacation before," he muttered, glancing up to check his departure time then comparing it to the time on his phone and sighing quietly. There was still another forty-five minutes before he'd be going anywhere. With a shrug, Bro made a mental note to go ahead and do that, and send Sollux the info to contact him via the tablet once he had it. He stretched his legs out in front of him and tipped his hat forward to mostly obscure his face.

"Shit like this is why I'm always considerin' buyin' a private jet. No wait times, no fuckin' around with security," he muttered. "No sittin' around like a fuckin' jackoff waitin' to get pandered to by a bunch of dumb drunk little bitches who still manage to be employed even if they're fuckin' soused eighty percent of their wakin' life."

"I think being in a field like thith, they have a damn good reathon to thtay hammered," Sollux muttered, leaning his head back against the back of his seat. Discreetly he crept his hand under the armrests between their chairs and let it rest against Bro's leg, keeping his expression carefully neutral as he did.

"Not gonna argue that, but I'm still leery of anybody who thinks gettin' blitzed and then drivin' a huge fuck-off tin can through the air is safe." He uncrossed his arms to put his hand over Sollux's, wrapping his fingers around to give it a gentle squeeze.

Sollux let a quiet sigh, trying not to be too fucked up about flying home away from his friends. "Well, if I die over a thtupid plane crash at leatht you can walk off with being completely juthtified," he muttered, trying to keep the usual snark in his voice and failing a bit.

"At least you'll resurrect. Then you can sue for dying. Be the first one who does it." His smile went tilted as he raised an eyebrow. Something was a little off, though. "What's eatin' at you?" He looked over from under the brim of his hat and squeezed Sollux's hand again.

"I have to wonder how often I can keep rethurrecting though. Yeah I've gone god tier but my luck'th gotta run out thome time." Tilting his head to look back at Bro, Sollux just shrugged his shoulder again and turned his hand over to sit more comfortably in the other's grip. "I jutht don't feel like going home yet, I gueth."

Bro pursed his lips at that. "Shoulda said somethin' before you checked in. Coulda switched you out on a different flight tomorrow or somethin'." He shook his head. "Kinda too late now, bro. No big, though." He smiled faintly and brought his hand up to squeeze Sollux's shoulder. "It's gonna get boring as shit without you around, though."

"You'll find thome way to keep yourthelf occupied even if it meanth invading your brother'th apartment," Sollux snored quietly then sat up, his elbows coming to sit on the arm rests. "And I'm pretty thure even if you didn't do the tablet thing you'd thtill be able to borrow one of their laptopth for a little bit so we could chat on my dayth off."

"No, I'm definitely gonna be doin' the tablet thing," Bro assured him. "Those two have had us all up in their grills all week, they don't need me harshin' their mellow after this. You don't see Crabdad all fuckin' up in their business all the time, why do _I_ gotta be the unrighteous prick, y'know?" He smirked and leaned back again. "Nah man, it's just a pain in my ass that my best bud's gonna have to go back to civvie life now."

"Gotta admit, it'th pretty fuckin' flattering when you thay I'm you're betht bro," Sollux muttered, turning a little yellow around the ears as he scanned the crowd again then checked the time on his phone. It was creeping by at a snail's pace and he was starting to get antsy. There were a number of other equally flattering things Bro had half a mind to call Sollux, but didn't, because while he wasn't entirely up on propriety, he still knew better than to say in public, where there were people who probably were already selling photos of them together and making huge assumptions. He rubbed his jaw and looked around the concourse, and then at his own phone. "I don't know what the hell else you'd think I'd call you," Bro said finally, "I mean, other than your name." He pulled out his sylladex and ejected a handheld game system and a couple games - cleverly named in such a way that they rhymed. "Here, make a town happen, dude."

Sollux's eyebrow arched up at that and he took the system, slotting a game in and glancing back at Bro to make an attempt at reading his face around the glasses. "What about you, are you gonna be ok by yourthelf here with fuckall to do? Thinthe you already thaid you were gonna leave Dave and KK alone."

"You know me, always findin' shit to do when there ain't fuckall worth doin'," Bro said as he closed his eyes and sprawled out once more, looking like he was attempting a nap. Which he wasn't. He was just hiding his face so the paps wouldn't get more pics. "Might do some shoppin' around for a house in the area, since I've been meanin' to move my lazy ass up here, keep an eye on the kid." He actually hadn't really figured he'd need to do that; something told him there would be no point in moving up there, since he'd be just as likely to move again before the year was out. "Maybe kick the mechanics workin' on the car's asses for taking so damn long on my baby. I could get that shit done in half the time at half the price. Might still just."

"It'th what happenth when you trutht thomeone elthe with your shit," Sollux muttered as he started the game on mute and went to playing just to pass the time until he had to board his flight. After a while he spoke up again, "If you did move up here it'd probably make life eathier on both of uth. Thmaller dithtanth between here and home than home and Texath."

"Like I said," Bro responded immediately. He couldn't help the impish smile playing at his lips, which, due to his obfuscating hat, were all that could be seen of his face. "And I've been pretty much plannin' on it since he moved up here. Just haven't gotten around to it 'cause I got a sneakin' suspicion I'd just have to up and move again pretty soon. Don't got much of a choice come this summer, tho'. Gonna have to make sure the spooky fuckers from above don't get any tricksy ideas since Pyrope's gonna be spendin' the summer with the guys."

"Great, everyone'th congregating like it'th exactly the wortht fucking idea to do. Now all we can do ith wait for all the the shit to hit the whirling devithe." Sollux jumped a little as it was announced directly over their heads that in ten minutes they would have to be ready to line up before takeoff. He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, closing the game to give it back.

Bro waved the game away, "Take it with you, I'll get it back later." He sat up and righted his hat. "It won't be too bad, honestly. They were doin' just fine down home with me, as you saw durin' duder's birthday. I'm aware of the risks, but they need each other. I'm startin' to get the sneakin' feelin' that all y'all need each other." He pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and looked over at Sollux. "If you get bored as fuck up there or when you get back, call me. I'm probably gonna be drivin' for a while, but in about," he looked up at the flight schedule and then down at his phone again, "Six hours, I'm gonna be bored out of my goddamn mind."

"Good luck with that. I don't think I've ever driven more than two hourth for any reathon." Sollux stood and tucked the game into his pocket, rubbing his hands into the small of his back. "Well, you've already got my work thchedule, tho if you come out near Thilicon Valley jutht thend me a methage tho I know you're coming and I can thtick a pizza in the oven," he yawned, already bored at the prospect of sitting inside a winged can for an hour or more.

Bro smirked at that. "I'll let you know when I'm there." He stood and gave Sollux a hug, before nodding over to the line. "Enjoy your first class douchefoolery, dude. Get a nap in or somethin'." He had to get back to Boulder to grab his stuff out of the hotel, book another hotel, and get shit rolling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was actually a little hard to write in a couple of places. It also has its own little separate thing that cropped up after the heaviest moment, which you can read [here](http://chronologicalpulse.dreamwidth.org/843.html#cutid1).
> 
> Hope nobody minds that we stuck to John being a bit of a dickwhistle. CH and I really like that little tidbit about his personality that nobody ever seems to get right.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Brollux interlude.
> 
> Enter Meowrails.

Plane flights were never going to be his forte. Turbulence freaked him out, people were horrible and irritating, and the ridiculous patronizing way the flight attendants treated the people they were serving made him want to throw his glass of vodka back into one of the smarmy bitches' faces, regardless of the acknowledgment that they didn't exactly have the best jobs ever. Sollux was glad to be home when he set foot back in his apartment, relishing the warmth of his home as he flopped down onto the couch with his phone in hand. He wasn't surprised to see that there were no new messages.

A couple of days later when he took up a space on the floor of his living room in his pajama pants, all he wanted to do was catch the news after a long shower and catch back up with what he'd missed over the previous day with Bro's various servers. The weather was about the same as it always was out here; he wasn't sure why he bothered to watch it in the first place aside from just putting it on for background noise.

There was a ping on Sollux's computer from Bro. He was requesting a video call.

Bro had just gotten out of a cab, in front of a rather large gated apartment complex. He bypassed the entry code by flashstepping his cheery ass up over the wall and into the community and then locked on and located the specific building he was looking for. He started up the stairs and once he made it to the hallway that led to one particular nondescript apartment door, he stopped where he was, lit a cigarette, and leaned against the wall across from it. Bro adjusted the camera on the tablet, and pointed it straight at himself, and patiently waited for Sollux to accept the video call.

Sollux returned from having opened a window to let in a breeze as he lit a cigarette himself, hitting the button to accept the call and blowing the smoke from the corner of his mouth as he rearranged himself in front of the screen. He was about to make a smartass comment about Bro being up this early in the morning, until he registered the dull pattern of the wallpaper right behind the other's head. Without a word, he stood and padded to the door, pressing his eye against the peephole and huffing quietly before dragging it open.

"Oh har fucking har, Thtrider."

Bro got a cocky grin at that, and turned off the tablet. "You're the one who said I should let you know when I was comin' by. Don't blame me for your clear disregarding of tellin' me _when_ I should tell you." He took a drag of his cigarette and stepped up closer. "I had to do a thing, some mornin' show got wind of the karaoke video and I used it to plug Dave's film." He pulled out his sylladex and then offered Sollux a breakfast burrito while captchaloging the tablet. "Hungry?"

Sollux stepped back to let him into the apartment, taking the burrito and raising an eyebrow at it then shaking his head. "Did you take thith from the morning show thing? You did, didn't you. Jethuth fuck." He bit into the end of it anyway, ashing his smoke in the tray sitting on the little table by the doorway then going back to his laptop. Along one wall his computer system hummed quietly, keeping the room warm all by itself. "Tho how long are you in town?"

"As long as I give a damn to stay," Bro said, tucking his sylladex back into his back pocket. "Figured I'd get a return flight whenever I felt like goin' back. Give those two feckless dopes some breathin' room to get their shit back together." He looked around from where he stood and wasn't entirely surprised by his surroundings, as he'd seen a good deal of it from the view of Sollux's camera.

"So now I've got a home invathion of my own, good for me." Smiling faintly, Sollux shook his head and went around to the fridge sitting on the opposite side of the wall from where he was sitting, taking out a jug of juice and taking a long swallow directly from it. "Ath long ath you're here, might ath well get comfortable. Jutht watch the beeth, there'th a hive hanging outthide the window that I can't really bring mythelf to athk thomeone to get rid of."

Bro looked out the window at the bees and chuckled. "Home invasion, my ass. You let me in. And I ain't any sort of expert on apiology, but I'm pretty sure these are honeybees. You could get some beekeeper to come take 'em to start a new life as productive members of society." He knew Sollux wouldn't; the guy was into bees in general. He took a seat in the closest chair, insinuating himself into it like a fucking king into a throne. "It's a nice place you got here." Bachelor-pad wise.

"Maybe I'll actually get thome bee boxeth and thtart cultivating the honey mythelf," Sollux mused then leaned back against the front of his couch with his juice settled firmly between his legs. He looked up at the large, extremely smug-looking man taking up 140% of his only armchair and smirked a little. "Tho am I to athume thith wath all you had planned for your day after getting out of the thtudio bullshit?"

"Let's see," Bro said, looking up thoughtfully. "Bullshit with a perky morning host, visit Sollux, go to Disneyland, mack on Ariel..." He squinted. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure this was it. No huge overeachin' plans here. Just came to drop by, maybe chat for a while, and skip town after I realized how unsettlin' the valley is."

"Why do you think I thpend motht of my life inthide?" Sollux snorted and rolled his eyes then got up to put his juice back in the fridge, settling down on the arm of his chair with his arms crossed, looking down at Bro with an arched brow. "Where are you thtaying anyway? I athume you got a nithe thwanky hotel room for the duration."

"You could say that. I'm stayin' at a place in Woodland Hills, took me like fifteen minutes on the freeway to get here from the hotel. I was thinkin' about stayin' at a guy I know's place up in the canyon, but I don't like that guy, he's a royal prick." He looked up at Sollux and raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't what you were actually askin' and I'm not even gonna try and assume your actual motive."

"What, I can't be curiouth where you've planted yourthelf until you leave?" Sollux mock-pouted at him then grabbed his hat, flipping it between nimble fingers and pulling it onto his head, though the way it sat on the tips of his horns made it look singularly ridiculous.

Bro could barely contain a smile at the look of the hat on Sollux's head. "As fuckin' awesome as you and hats both are in the singular, you and hats plural don't fuckin' get along." He reached up and grabbed his hat back, sliding it back on his own head, backwards. Not that he needed any more help in looking like an overgrown frat boy. "Gonna have to find someone to make a baseball cap with horn holes for you, that woulda looked good if it sat right."

"I actually have a hat thomewhere, I jutht have to dig it out of my shit." Sollux stood back up again and looked down at Bro with a raised eyebrow. "Put that back on the right way around, you look tho thtupid," he shook his head and went back to where his room sat at the end of the hall, deciding now was about as good a time as any to actually get dressed and try to be semi-productive about his day.

Bro chuckled and just put his hat aside, and put out his cigarette as well, in the closest ashtray he could find. "Hey, wait up, c'mere a second," he called, standing up from the chair. "I actually did come here for a reason, y'know. I didn't just drop by to be a fuckin' tool."

"You realithe it wouldn't really bother me if that wath the only reathon, right?" Sollux yelled back, pulling on a pair of slim jeans, a shirt and a zipper hoodie over it then coming back out with a beanie on as well, nearly hiding his eyes as his horns poked through the top of the altered holes. "What ith it?"

"Okay so here's the thing," Bro started, as he walked to the window to watch the bees and then looked out with a browarch to the palms that were in the courtyard outside, and then turned back to Sollux. "I'm a goddamn asshole and shoulda said that this bromance thing we got goin' on is all well and good, I'm cool with it. But on the other hand, I'm a dumbass for not really expressin' that emotional side to it very well. And while it probably ain't that big of a deal to you, it weighs me down, not bein' able to say anything." He paused, and then added, "And that hat would look better in yellow."

Sollux's smile faded slightly as he listened, his hands tucking into the pockets of his hoodie. "You could've thaid it any time, y'know. You're a hell of a lot better with wordth than I am even if I didn't have the lithp to talk around." Stepping forward, he lad a hand against Bro's arm, looking him in the face. "Look, I know thith ithn't exactly quadrant material. But whatever it ith, I'm happy with it. You dethide you want it to be flushed, we can work with that too. Jutht actually talk to me alright? Not jutht letting it thit until you overthink it. And I happen to like thith hat in brown, thank you very much."

"Where it is is cool, dude," Bro stated, shaking his head. "No, where we're at is fuckin' awesome, that's not the problem. I'm sayin' that..." Oh fucking christ, his brain was just not cooperating. He held up his hand and gestured that he needed a second to put his brain back together and then finally got something remotely resembling what he wanted to say into place. "I'm a fuckin' sap when it comes to shit like this so you're going to have to bear with my special brand of idiot manchild pseudoromance."

"You're acting like I thhould actually have an idea how thith ith thupposed to go. Dude, I've only been in two relationshipth and had one goddamn crush in the last decade. Where we are, I can handle thith. I'm happy alright? Whatever doofy bull you feel like doing, fine. Thtop overthinking it." Leaning up a bit, Sollux swept the hat from Bro's head again then pressed his lips to the space between the other's eyebrows and gave him a small, lopsided smile. "You thaid you wanted to go and harrath Ariel, right?"

Bro chuckled at that and shook his head. "Yeah, gonna go mack on the mermaid, maybe have a man-off with Gaston. You down with that? Wanna come fuck around in the magical kingdom?"

"Only if I get to bring my camera. And we're back by theven. I actually managed to find a thpeech therapitht that wath willing to do a conthultathion with me on short notithe." Smiling faintly, Sollux reached into the pocket of his hoodie and picked out a small, slim digital camera with a strap to loop around his wrist for easy retrieval for snapshots.

"Whoa, great," Bro said, sincerely excited for Sollux that he found someone to help him out. "You got a car, or are we gonna be payin' some jagoff to drive us all the way to Anaheim?" He smiled at the ridiculousness of that notion; he'd rather fucking take out his rocketboard and fly them there than deal with that bullshit.

"Yeth I've got my own car, what do you take me for?" Shaking his head, Sollux grabbed his car keys off the hook just inside the kitchen doorway, conveniently next to the refrigerator. He jerked his thumb at the door. "Pretty thure nobody could pothibly _not_ notithe my car thitting in the parking lot," he commented as he started down the stairs at a jog, leading Bro around to a side door that led directly to the awning over a collection of parking spots closest to his building. He flicked the button on the keyring and smirked some as the bright yellow BMW at the end of the awning flashed its lights with a short honk. "Jutht don't fuck up my theat coverth and we're good."

Bro hadn't come this way on his way in, but once he rounded the corner, he immediately spotted Sollux's car out of the lot of them. "God, I would have never guessed that's yours. Color me surprised as hell, Sollux." He smirked and walked over to it, slipping into the passenger side, immediately rolling down the window after strapping in. He rested his arm on the door, and looked over with a lopsided smile. Sollux just gave him a smirk and settled into the driver's seat, flicking the keys then the cd player and pulling out fast. He barely seemed to pay attention to where he was going, or to acknowledge the speed limit, maneuvering deftly enough to have potentially been able to handle street racing. He obeyed the traffic laws, but only barely. His head bobbed as they pulled up to a light and sat for a minute listening to the mix cd that had been in the changer, which had just switched from 30h!3 to Mindless Self Indulgence. He turned up the volume so that the speaker system wired into the car thumped, not quite loud enough to drown out the treble but to give them a sound vibration.

"Tho, plan for the day or jutht plan on winging it?" He said as soon as the music was just low enough to talk over.

Bro heartily approved of the music, mouthing along to Clarissa, and then turned to Sollux, smile gone impish and lopsided. That was all the answer he provided, however, and it was really all he _needed_ to explain himself. He was completely wingin' it. He also approved of Sollux's driving, being just about as reckless as he was. He didn't have the newer performance vehicle under him to do it with, though, and wound up being a holy terror in classic muscle. Sollux just grinned back at him toothily and gave him a wink, shifting fast when the light turned green and following the flow of traffic until it opened up enough for him to get moving again. He pulled onto the freeway when he could, relaxing as he casually slipped up to seventy miles an hour, Psychostick blaring from the open windows. Bro lit a cigarette about the time that it was the literal worst moment to attempt to light fuckall, but he managed, and then turned to his friend, singing - more like shouting - along to the song. Fuck yes, this was good times.

By the time they were able to get close enough to the theme park to see anything, it was getting late enough in the morning to warrant lunch. As any time he came anywhere near Anaheim the traffic was always killer and there were tourists coming out of his ears but it was enjoyable just people-watching and making sarcastic observations. Doing it with a friend there made it that much better.

"Ok fuck eating lunch in the park, let'th find thomewhere with a thpecial running then come back and go harath thome printhetheth," he suggested, pulling into a parking spot about halfway into the lot that someone had only just vacated. "It'th a nithe-ath day out and I've got no problem walking around before we get in."

Bro, while being the clear winner in looking like he was dressed by a blind person while simultaneously being puked on by the early 2000s in general, had no problem pointing out the obvious winners in the Didn't Do It Intentionally competition. "Good plan, dude," he said, as they drove past a waddling gaggle of tourists. "I think I've got a new favorite hobby today. I'm gonna count the number of fanny-packs I see. I'm already up to seven." He looked around and then pointed. "Steakhouse. There. Food. Yes." He was extremely eloquent, being a guy that hadn't had anything but a single breakfast burrito for the day and required more food than most. Like his brother, he had a high metabolism, but unlike Dave, he had WAY more body to fuel.

Sollux jerked his fist in a not-so-silent 'fuck yes' and started toward the steakhouse, intending to eat just enough to be full and stay that way for more than two hours. Like the Striders, he needed a lot to keep up with his metabolism, but he didn't often get to eat much more than a single meal in a day, either through forgetting to eat or just not having the time. He pointed out three more fanny packs before they'd gotten more than ten steps.

Predictably, the steakhouse was packed, making it nearly impossible to navigate without shouting at whoever was closest to them. Sollux's eye twitched some as his toes were stepped on several times, once by a very large woman in just a little too small of a dress. Sparks crawled along the frames of his glasses as he pressed his lips together to keep himself from slinging curses.

Bro was in an equally sour mood at the group of people who shoved him out of their way, and straight into Sollux. There were some things he'd take with a grain of salt, but those grains added up and quickly. He curled his hands into fists and cracked his neck with a jerking motion of his head. "Gettin' real sick of this shit already, buddy," he grumbled, loud enough for Sollux to hear, but not so loud that it caused distress of others around him. "I'm changin' my mind, let's go somewhere where I _ain't_ gonna defenestrate some inconsiderate fuckstick."

Gritting his teeth, Sollux wrapped his hand around Bro's wrist and maneuvered himself under the other's arm, pulling him back in the direction of the door until finally he'd managed to get back out into the bright sunlight. He took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds then letting it out shakily as the nearly invisible crackles of psionic energy started to fade off. "Maybe thomewhere with an outdoor theating arrangement," he muttered, his lip curling up as he glanced around. There was a sub shop a block down he was fairly certain, jerking his head toward it in the hopes they'd be able to get something big enough between them to keep them full for a while. Bro followed along, managing to strongarm his way through the less cloying crowds of utter fuckery, before people just wound up getting the hint and leaving them room to walk. He belatedly remembered that he was in public, so he pulled off his glasses and hat, tucking both into his sylladex so he wouldn't lose them. He fixed his collar as well as they walked to the sub shop. "Just gotta go incognito," he explained to Sollux. Without the distinct trademarks, he was less likely to be noticed.

"Yeah. Incognito. Like that'th going to help when we're thwamped in by herdth of midwethternerth." Rolling his eyes, Sollux started down the road to find somewhere less crowded, absolutely refusing to eat in the park itself because of the prices that would end up draining his savings faster than investing in radioactive real estate. He shoved his hands into his pockets as he walked, keeping his head down as his posture slouched.

"Why aren't we gonna eat at the park again?" Bro finally asked, brow quirked faintly. "If it's 'cause the shit's pricy, you don't gotta worry. The day's on me, dude, you didn't wake up thinkin' 'shit, let's just go to Disneyland!' So just enjoy a fuckin' free pass to mock the idiots." He huffed a chuckle and shook his head.

Sollux frowned at him, shaking his head. "No. Dude, you're not fucking along to jutht...You're going to be dropping hundredth of dollarth for a few hourth' worth of walking around making fun of dipshit tourithtth. At the very leatht I can buy my own lunch and I don't feel like thpending an entire paycheck doing it." He groused, knowing it was a stupid argument, that just about anyone would kill for the opportunity, but somehow he managed to make it about his pride.

Bro just gave him a look like he was suddenly comprised entirely of potatoes. "I can't fucking believe you're actually bein' serious right now. Dude, fuckin' stop bein' a little bitch about money. God knows I pay you enough to stop worryin' about it." He shook his head and then smiled sincerely, putting his hand on Sollux's shoulder. His smile was disarming, and without the shield of his shades, it showed his emotions far better. "Just enjoy this, okay? Don't fuckin' think you're puttin' me outta house and home here just for a good day. Money don't even fuckin' matter, anyhow. Experiences do."

Sollux turned yellow around the ears at that, crossing his arms and pouting rather childishly then rolling his eyes as he conceded. "Fine, whatever. But I'm not going on any roller coathterth, jutht putting that out there now."

Bro laughed and shook his head, patting Sollux on the back, "You great big fuckin' wuss. C'mon, no roller coasters. I'll make you sit through the distinct hell of the Small World ride." He was fully kidding. 

Once through the gates, Bro looked around, scratching his head. "I forgot how goddamn big this place actually is. Haven't been here since the li'l man was nine." No time like the present, however, to start on the quest for food. He looked down Main Street, USA, and then put his hands up. "Great, now I can't fuckin' decide what I even want to eat."

"Don't look at me, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here," Sollux shrugged then looked around in the hopes of finding someone that wouldn't be overly friendly that could find them a map by which they would be able to navigate the gargantuan place. He cringed uncomfortably away from one of the suited mascots that was waving to passersby, glancing around as he was nearly clipped by a pair of large horns and giving a somewhat obscure rude sign to the passing troll. He was, by and large, the worst person to ever take to a theme park.

More like the best. Bro chuckled and put his hand at the center of Sollux's back and led him away, towards the closest actual restaurant. Once there, he found a flier map of the place and handed it off to Sollux while they were being seated by a cheerful hostess, who handed them menus. "What would you like to drink today?" She cheerfully asked.

"Seven hundred gallons of whiskey," Bro quipped back, "Barrin' that, orange soda'll be just fine." He opened the menu and scanned it over. Ah good. The americana place. Way easier to pick from burgers and fries of all varieties than to have to deal with stupid themed lunch. Chuckling quietly at Bro, Sollux found himself actually trying to relax as he looked over the available drinks, settling on a glass of iced tea while he started staring down the various different versions of the same burger, his chin coming to rest on his hand. He licked his lips at the prospect of a double swiss loaded with everything he could think of, keeping that in mind on top of a mountainous plate of onion rings that he wasn't entirely sure he'd share. "Would it be too much to athk you not to do your weird twinkly thmile thing at every cute girl you thee today? I mean I'd like to be able to look around without pushing twitterpated bottle blondeth out of the way the whole time, y'know."

"I solemnly swear that I will only twinkle at the ugly people," Bro said in a somber tone, though the compliment didn't slide past him. He decided that a teriyaki burger with swiss and mushrooms with a metric fuckton of fried cheese sticks and fries would be his lunchtime conquest. "Huh. Weird," he said aloud as he got a peculiar feeling, and looked out the window to see if he'd recognize anybody walking past. No such luck. Sollux's eyebrow arched up some at that and he glanced around himself, scanning over the passing crowd in case he would pick up on whatever it was that had distracted Bro. He didn't recognize any of the humans swarming past, and the trolls wandering back and forth didn't look all that familiar either, except...

"Holy shit."

There was a young couple standing out of the way with a map held up in front of their faces, arguing back and forth. The taller of the two was holding the unfolded paper up out of the way making a face at the girl hopping up to grab his arm and pull it back down. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail out of his face and he must have gotten new shades at some point, but there was no mistaking the utterly ripped blue-blood arguing with the tiny olive-blooded girl. "How much do you wanna bet he thtill doethn't know how to thwear..."

"You see someone you know?" It wasn't really so much a question of if, but more a question of who. "I had a feelin' that we weren't alone in the park, but I only have a fifty-fifty chance, or thereabouts, of recognizin' someone from the combined session." The waitress came by and set the drinks down, taking their order quickly before slipping away. Bro sipped his soda and raised an eyebrow, following Sollux's line of sight to see the two very obvious moirails bickering over the map. He smiled sweetly at the siightof her sticking her tongue out at him, and then simply scrabbling up his back to get a better look at the map, slumping down across one shoulder.

"Doethn't even look like they've changed one goddamn bit," Sollux murmured, smiling faintly himself as the pair wandered away, the girl toted on the back of her moirail as if she weighed nothing. He sat back, shaking his head and sucking down a few gulps of his tea. "The otherth mentioned that thothe two didn't theem to remember anything outthide of their quadrant. It'th probably better that way."

"Best to keep our distance from them today, then. If you triggered any memories, you might set off a domino-effect, so to speak, of some pretty fucky happenstance. I really don't feel like destroyin' Outer Gods today, so let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best." Bro leaned back in the booth seat and put his arms behind his head.

Sollux looked down at the table in front of him, then turned a small smile back on Bro. "Yeah. Lookth like they're pretty content at leatht. Wouldn't want to fuck that up when there'th no reathon to get involved in the firtht plathe."

Bro smiled faintly, closing his eyes as he carefully weighed the options. At this juncture, he saw no further disruption of neither his good day, or the cozy way the world worked. "You know what'd be all sorts of awesome? Bein' able to keep all y'all together in one space, completely oblivious. Make shit a helluva lot easier than hoppin' on a plane every time shit hit the fan."

Sollux sighed and leaned forward, rubbing a hand under his glasses then pushing them back up on his nose. "Yeah, the only problem ith that with everyone together thingth are more likely to get fucked over. I don't know about you, but I like where my life ith right now. I've got a good job, a nithe apartment and hell, I'm actually getting laid now. I'm not about to want the threat of cothmic monthtrothitieth fucking that up for me. Call it thelfish but I don't feel like rithking what I've worked really fucking hard to achieve in the last few yearth."

"Shit hittin' the fan is somethin' I can handle. Dealin' with you stellar dunderfucks in one place would be useful. While I'm used to keepin' you asshats alive, it's gettin' to be a pretty spread out chore. I know there are guardians where every single one'a you go, and that's totally fuckin' fine. But y'all are part of _my_ kid's failed session, so y'all are my responsibility. Such as it is." He took a small sip of his soda and looked at Sollux, his eyes the color of the drink in just the right light. "You ain't selfish for wantin' that. You did good for yourself, dude. I am _never_ gonna begrudge a man for his insane fuckin' ability to be self-made. Never." He smirked knowingly, "Ill-begotten or not, Sollux."

"Hush you." Sollux cracked a small smile and went back to his tea, watching pedestrians strolling by and the occasional character mascot. He looked back around when the waitress returned with their tray of food, giving her a shark's grin and a thanks as he picked up his burger, which was just a little too big for his mouth until it was squished down. He waited until she was gone before he continued, "Tho yeah, I'm not gonna uproot. Nor do I intend to temporarily relocate and let thome other jackoff come into my plathe and potentially fuck up my thtuff because they couldn't help thnooping."

Bro thought that over as he crushed down his own burger and took a large bite of it. "Mm, gonna have to burst that bubble of yours, bro. There's a strong possibility you're gonna have to relocate eventually, regardless of your desire to stay in the valley. Rose has a feelin' all y'all are likely to convene, and hasn't figured to what end. Everyone, eventually. Even the ones that ain't aware of the situation as of now." He poured out some ketchup and then swiped a few fries through it, munching them down.

"We'll deal with that when-thlash-if it happenth." Sollux shrugged, taking a couple of his onion rings and layering them into his burger as well then digging back in, conversation giving way to stuffing of face until they were each reasonably full. He did end up sharing his onion rings with Bro's prodigious appetite, which was just as well as he filled up nicely between two large glasses of tea and occasionally nabbing cheese sticks. When they started walking again it was only a matter of time before they started seeing the wandering princesses and Peter Pan surrounded by children, teaching them how to invisible sword fight as he regaled them with tales of his battles with Hook. He stopped to take the occasional picture, seeming to genuinely enjoy himself in spite of the initial disgust at the crowds. Bro was glad that if anybody recognized him, they didn't make a big deal out of it. It was a breath of fresh air, honestly. He walked with his hands tucked half into his front pockets, strolling casually along and simply enjoying his time counting fanny packs and making the occasional quip about the genuinely stupid people.

Once they found themselves closer to the lagoon, they spotted the Gaston face character and Equius having an exceptionally manly debate over whose muscles were more intense and macho. Bro huffed a chuckle as they flexed at each other, and patted Sollux on the back as he left his side. "Excuse me," he said to interrupt, "But I'm sorry, I gotta object. You both got good points, but have you ever considered _this?_ " With that, he flexed his arms and pecs at them both, catching them both offguard and almost making the Gaston fall out of character with a laugh.

"Oh my god," Sollux muttered as he fell back some, switching his camera to video mode as Equius considered Bro for a moment, then nodded in approval before taking a better stance and giving him a slightly veiny display of his own swollen biceps. The Gaston actor clearly didn't want to let the opportunity go as he straightened up and puffed out his chest, giving a heroic flex of his own. Nepeta was standing off to one side looking unsure whether to be mortified or not. There was a small crowd gathering as three slightly ridiculously muscular men attempted to outdo one-another in the most grandiose fashion.

And once they all ran out of extremely STRONG poses to show off every ounce of their builds, they stopped and shook hands. Bro grinned and patted Equius on the shoulder, and they got off on some unrelated tangent about horses. 

John was walking through to get from employee parking to his new job when he saw the crowd dissipating. Probably some silly show put on by the face characters, he thought, before he saw Gaston walking the opposite way from him. Well, there was one. Then he saw Dave's brother, shaking hands with... "Whoa, Equius?" He said aloud, before nearly tripping over Nepeta, who was sitting on the ground, waiting for her moirail to be done talking to the big freckled blond guy. "Whoops, sorry Nep- ...Nepeta!"

"Purrdon me? Do I know you?" She asked, head tilting.

Bro's eyes shot open at John's voice, and he went to high alert, turning on his heel at the windy idiot. Sollux froze, his hands jerking then tucking the camera away as Equius turned around to face the new person saying his name. He reached down to pick Nepeta off the ground and put her back on her feet, immediately leery of John after he'd nearly stepped on his moirail. He knew better than to get snippy when he saw the employee uniform but he still puffed up some nonetheless.

"Egbert, come here," Sollux snapped, pointing at the ground in front of him as if actually expecting John to listen. He just hoped that he could stop whatever was about to happen before it happened. Nepeta gave a curious look to Sollux from over her shoulder as Equius and she walked away, completely baffled by the entire situation. In her expression, there was a glint of recognition. Equius narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses back at the trio as he laid his hand against Nepeta's back, trying to ignore the itch of deja vu. He was distracted by a sudden passing crowd though and pushed on ahead in the hopes of getting back to their day.

Bro didn't even let John argue, and flashstepped him over to Sollux, having moved him bodily by the shoulders. "HEY, knock it off, Mr. Strider! I was just trying to be friendly! Where are they off to? What's going on?"

"Would you keep your fuckin' voice down?" hissed Bro, jaw set. "They don't know you, okay? They're better off not knowin'. Just. Shut up."

"What's going on? I thought you guys were in Colorado still," John griped, only to be cut off again as Sollux grabbed his collar in one hand and leaned down close to his face.

"Leave them alone, Egbert. What they don't know will keep them and the retht of uth alive, you underthtand me?"

Bro's tone was deadly serious when he responded, "Look, you probably ain't privy to the shit that's goin' down, Kid Egbert, because you ain't supposed to know, but I'm gonna tell you one damn thing right now. If you see anybody from your session, you leave 'em the fuck alone unless they speak to you. Can you handle that?"

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" John said, obviously unnerved by how Bro managed to look as imposing and terrifying as he did. "Is this some kind of prank you and Dave are pulling off in retribution for my severe burn on him and Karkat?" 

Bro pursed his lips with an eyeroll, and cuffed John upside the head. "I don't give a shit about your petty hateflirting, Egbert. Just don't fuckin' talk to people you remember from then. Easy fuckin' concept." He looked over at Sollux with a shake of his head. "He definitely didn't get his dad's scruples."

"Doethn't have two brainthellth to rub togehter, lookth like," he muttered, to which John puffed up some and edged away from Bro to avoid being struck again.

"I'm right here, you know!" he whined, "And what's so bad about talking to them? I thought we were all friends in this."

"If you give a shit about them you won't go anywhere fucking near them, you get me?" Sollux snapped, then stood back up straight and took a breath before continuing a little more calmly, "Jutht trutht uth on thith, alright?"

Bro nodded at that. "It's better if you don't know the whole damn story, anyhow. If you really gotta be nosy, ask Mr. Egbert. Dude knows what's up. Now get the fuck to work, and if they come in, make yourself fuckin' scarce." He was proud of Sollux for pulling back from his temper, and as he pointedly motioned towards Main Street, John left, rubbing his head and muttering about how weird all the Striders were, and how it was totally uncool to hit him like that.

"Fuckin' guy," Bro finally muttered once he was certain that John was out of earshot.

"I know he'th not a bad guy. He'th juth dumb ath a thack of hoofbeatht shit," Sollux sighed as he rubbed his hand up under his hat then looked back at Bro and pulled his camera out again. "I got thome choithe shotth of three muthlefuckth being macho at each other for later viewing by the way."

Bro shook his head at John in general, then smiled at Sollux, slipping closer. "You gonna show me this shit or am I gonna have to wait?" He grinned. "I gotta say, that was fun as hell. Never get enough chance to put on a gun show." He tucked his hands back in his pockets.

"I could barely handle the amount of tethtothterone in the air," Sollux snorted and flipped the camera up into his hand, thumbing a couple of buttons then starting the playback for Bro, his own sniggers audible in the background. Bro watched with a lopsided smile, sneaking his hand around Sollux's waist. "Hell yes. That's quality." He nodded at the impromptu performance - the experience itself - approving entirely about the way the three of them just managed to be equally, amazingly ludicrous. "You just know that if anyone else was recordin' that shit, it'll be up on youtube before I know it."

"And then onthe again you'll be a viral thenthation overnight." Shaking his head, Sollux laughed and leaned a little into Bro's side at the arm moving around him. "I can't wait to show thith to your brother. He'd pith himthelf."

Bro chuckled at the first, shaking his head. "I'm used to it, dude. I'm pretty much constantly fresh material for those weirdos." His fingers inched around Sollux's hip and teased there a moment before he slipped away and pointed with his chin. "C'mon, I bet there's some weird shit goin' down over here." He started off in the direction of the Haunted Mansion, hands tucked back into his pockets, thumbs hooked over.

"Oh fuck yeth." Sollux's grin stretched across his face as he wrapped his own arm around Bro's back, starting to bring up the various Disney creepypasta he'd read and once or twice actually written after taking the time to do some serious research into the place. It was more amusing a pastime than counting fannypacks, at least. Bro listened with a smile on his face, laughing a little at the reception Sollux's stories had gotten.

"Best thing about that genre of writin' is that when you mix facts with unverifiable but plausible shit, it makes for a way better response. I didn't know you were in the habit of writin' that shit." He was really impressed. There really wasn't much of a way to trace anonymously authored stories, and he was impressed. "S'fuckin' awesome, dude."

"It'th jutht a bullshit hobby. Kind of like Nubby and hith cello thing," Sollux shrugged, grinning some as his ears started to tint yellow again, trying not to look overly pleased with the praise. "But hey, if I get to freak out a few people, totally worth it."

"Can't argue with the reasonin' there," Bro said with a shrug, moving his arm up around over Sollux's shoulder, and subtly brushed his fingers over the pointed ridge of Sollux's ear. "It's a good hobby, though. Free entertainment." He looked at the line to the haunted mansion, which was short enough that it wouldn't take three years to get into the attraction. He considered it, and shook his head. "Man, attractions are crazy. Not gonna bother with 'em this time."

Sollux's eye closed at the touch, his nose wrinkling a bit but otherwise he didn't acknowledge it in case something embarrassingly public came of it. "Yeah, we can alwayth vithit again thome other time. For now I'm jutht good walking and we still have a few hourth to kill before I have to be home."

"We'll go grab some mad ridiculous souvenirs to send the dorks in Boulder. I'm sure Dave'll want a pair of mouse ears. Little shit won't ever get over those stupid things." Bro figured that if anything, he could grab himself a new jacket or hat or some shit. 

They walked around for another couple hours, taking frequent stops to chill out and peoplewatch, simply shooting the shit. Once back near the gate, Bro took a detour into a store and bought a pair of mouse ears for Dave, a Jack Skellington hoodie for Karkat, and a gray baseball cap for himself, with Oswald on it. They left the park shortly thereafter, and started back to the car, and Bro immediately lit a smoke. While they'd stopped at a couple smoking areas in their stroll around the park, he didn't have nearly enough nicotine, and the crowds that had started accumulating for the night show on Main Street were wearing his patience thin. "Glad we got outta there when we did," he said. "Once sundown hits, they got this stupid light parade shit, and it's shoulder-to-shoulder crowded."

"Believe me, I know. I've come down here before. Traffic getth hellaciouthly bad," Sollux muttered pulling his arm back from where it had been around Bro's back for the last couple of hours, the other hand occupied with flipping through the photos on his camera. Blowing them up with his computer could come later. He leaned against the car on the driver's side, glancing around for the best route out that could get him back to the freeway without too much of a jam. "Tho do you wanna be dropped off at your hotel or what?" He asked as he lit a cigarette himself, taking a short drag and letting the smoke out through his nose.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan. You can drop by for dinner after your speech therapist thing," Bro said as he dropped into the passenger side, sprawling his overworked legs out before him. "It'll be just enough time to do some sweepin' up on the forums, get some other shit done." He didn't buckle in this time around, and ashed out the window. He finally turned his collar back up, sighing in relief. "God, that fuckin' bothered me."

Reaching a hand over to lay it against the back of Bro's neck, Sollux leaned across the console and looked him in the face. "If you wanted to leave, you coulda thaid. But look at it thith way: You probably thaved a couple of innothent liveth from Egbert'th clueluethneth. Call it fate or cointhidenthe or predethtination or whatever, but maybe we were meant to be right here today."

Bro smirked at that, leaning over to put his hand on Sollux's knee. "I'm always right where I need to be." He gave Sollux's thigh a light squeeze and he snuck a brief, teasing kiss, before slipping back to stretch again.

"Interethting how thethe thingth turn out thometimeth, huh." Sollux smiled as he sat back and started the car, keeping the stereo turned down for the moment as he made his slow way out of the parking lot, following the trickle of traffic running out of the park. Once he'd made it back to the freeway though, he was able to comfortably crank it back up, grinning at Sick Bubblegum rattling the back windows of the car as his speed picked up. He sang along at parts, his voice drained out by Zombie's.

At a particularly long traffic light, Sollux had the presence of mind to ask where Bro was actually staying again, punching it into the GPS that had been stashed in his console then following the instructions. He explained that usually he didn't need the thing, but for those times he wanted easier routes around traffic to where he was going, it came in handy. Bro was staying in an upscale hotel located just outside of Woodland Hills, which he said was fuckloads better than the Hilton in Venice Beach. He had thought to stay in Venice Beach, but decided why bother? It'd just take longer to get to both the studio he'd had the interview in, and to Sollux's place. The GPS discussion was interesting - he explained how he dinked around with one that he'd bought, and reprogrammed it to rap the directions, and give him sass if he veered off-course.

Once at the hotel, Bro got out of the car and walked around to lean down through Sollux's window. "Good luck at your first appointment. Tell me how it goes when you come back, huh?"

"Don't expect drathtic rethultth thith thoon," Sollux warned him then leaned up to press his lips in a firm but more or less chaste kiss to Bro's before pulling into reverse and backing out again.

"Dude, I'm not lookin' for progress today. Shit, I like your stupid lisp," he replied with a smile before returning the kiss and slipping away.

When he came back he was still dressed down casual, though he'd left the hat at home this time around. He thumbed the space between his middle and ring fingers as he waited just outside the lobby doors rather than going inside, glancing up at a raincloud that was drifting in off the sea.

Bro came down shortly after Sollux arrived, still in his usual polo and slacks, and nodded to him. "You got anywhere you wanna eat in particular? I don't know fuckall about what's in the area. What's good?" He had finally put on the shades, after looking more or less normal for most of the day. "I'm in the mood for anything, as long as there's a lot of it."

"If you don't mind waiting a little while for a table I have thith one plathe that in wetht LA that hath itth own table grillth and it'th all you can eat," Sollux shrugged a shoulder, unsure what he wanted to do himself but figuring a place like that, they couldn't go wrong. He started back toward his car, glancing back at Bro once before dropping back into the driver's seat.

"Sounds like my kinda place." Bro slid into the passenger side with ease, and settled back, looking completely mellow. It was rare for Bro to let his guard down (though not really) but rarer still that he actually seemed like he wasn't about to go on the offensive and kick some ass. In fact, he seemed like he was just about as calm as he could ever get. "Could eat my fuckin' weight in steak right now."

"Trutht me dude, the food is conthithtently kickath." Smirking a little, Sollux pulled back around and out the way he'd come in, turning his cd back on and cackling as the Left Rights happened. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, looking for all the world as if he had no idea what was going on behind the scenes of his reality.

"I've been meanin' to ask," Bro said on the way there, "How the hell did you wind up dyin' that Vriska had to pixie her ass out here to get you to your quest bed?" He looked over to Sollux with his head rested against his fist, leaning against the door, his cigarette perched on his lower lip.

"Y'know, I still don't know how the fuck she managed to get out here tho fatht after that. Ok tho there'th a guy who liveth over the manager'th office of the apartment building right? Real tool, former THA mug. Anyway, turnth out that he only cared about that because it gave him information on trollth in hith area. Not nameth or anything, but it let him know where we were more or leth. And he found me and my car at the time. It was a fuckin' pretty thing too, '70 Buick GSX I just finished getting fixed up and paid off. Tho thith asshole creepth up in the middle of the night or thome shit and cutth my brakeline just enough to make it so it wouldn't fail until I wath down the road a ways. I was actually taking thith turn right up here," he gestured to one of the swooping overpasses that nearly hairpinned into a clover before they passed it, "and suddenly I can't slow down to get around thith dippy little thmartcar and I clip the back of them jutht hard enough to thtart thpinning and-" he made a high pitched whistle as he mimed with his hand the arc his car had made before it hit the ground.

Bro grimaced. "Ugh, please fuckin' tell me that guy's not still around." He had noticed a slight change already in Sollux's pronunciation of certain words; the s sound finally came out on occasion, and it made him mentally cheer, despite the unfortunate story. "It sucks to hell that you lost that car too, those things are fucking gorgeous. But I'm glad she got you up and out."

"She was there before the paramedicth were," Sollux nodded then wrinkled his nose. "Dude went to jail for a year for tampering with my shit and cauthing the acthident but he couldn't be tried for manslaughter given nobody found the body and I went to work the next day. And I wathn't about to tell my boss at the time 'hey, thorry dude I kind of died there, I'll work the double to make up for it'. The guy moved to another apartment complex. I have hith IP adress and I've been fucking with his computer ever thinthe. I think he'th had to get a new one maybe...four timeth now?" Sollux grinned some at that and accelerated around a Scion that had been steadily creeping closer to his front bumper.

Bro smiled faintly - a dark little smile that Sollux would likely not recognize as of yet, one that meant that someone was going to get his shit absolutely fucking ruined, very very soon. "You got your ways," he quipped, "And I got mine. You're gonna have to tell me his IP; I'm gonna have to have words with this fella. Fuckin' with people just 'cause they're a different species is totally fuckin' idiotic, and if this had happened to some poor random anywhere near local to me? You'd better be fuckin' believin' that your little fuckin' friend would be in the hospital over it." 

Suffice it to say, the entire Houston area had a propensity for violent crime going poorly for the perps, especially when it came to speciesist hate crime and domestic abuse. It was likely that the authorities _knew_ who was responsible for putting so many assholes into the hospital, considering the fact that Bro had been brought in on a lot of minor scuffles and bar fights, but they had no evidence or even any eyewitness accounts to back them up on it.

Once they arrived at the restaurant, Bro had long since abandoned that discussion to talk music with Sollux, having gotten on the topic by complimenting the mix CD that his bud had been playing. They were still on the subject when they walked in. "Nah dude, if there's one band that's fuckin' killer live, it's Rammstein. It's a little heavier than my usual tastes, but holy _fuck_ do they put on a show."

"If there'th one thing I'll alwayth regret, it'th not theeing thith one small-time band out of Colorado Springs live. Found some of their vidth online, ok-ish audio but for the life of me I can't track down an album. They broke up yearth ago which really fuckin' thuckth. They had some real potential, y'know?" Shaking his head with a huff, Sollux glanced around the smoky room and approached the register to ask how many people were in front of them, wrinkling his nose at the answer then going back to Bro's side to wait.

"Man, don't I fuckin' know it. That's the kind of thing that always happens 'round my area, too. Fuckin' decent band, awesome music, real winners, right? Then they fade out or break up before they hit their prime. It's a shame, honestly, how much talent ain't gettin' established." He planted himself against a wall to wait, and shrugged. "It's a killer business, though, you gotta remember that. As saturated as it is, it's hard to get noticed in the music industry." He was lucky enough to get by with his other endeavors, and when he felt like pursuing his DJ act, or his ventriloquist rapping, he had his foot in the door on name alone.

Sollux leaned his shoulder against Bro's and tucked his hands into his pockets, yawning quietly. "Then lucky for me that I have the muthical prowess of a stoned donkey." He made a face and pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Fuckin'...never gonna be able to get used to talking like this. Having to slow down and think about what my tongue's doing."

Bro shook his head, assuring him, "The more you do it, the more it'll become second nature. If Dave can pull the Texas affectation outta his speech, you can do this." He watched the crowd of people through the smokey grey of his shades, and tapped his fingers against his elbow. The crowd in front of them thinned slowly but surely as that behind them thickened and jostled them a bit until finally they were able to sit, taking their table near the back of the restaurant and able to breath a sigh of relief. The process was fairly simple from there, a selection of raw or partially cooked foods offered for them to cook for themselves, Sollux waving off the instructions with the assurance that he knew the process and that Bro would get the hang of it easily. He ordered a beer for each of them, sticking to imported then grinning at Bro as he started to prod his food across the grill contently.

Bro was all about this shit. Grilling was his groove. He settled in comfortably, and managed to completely own it. "Good idea for dinner, bro," he commented, sliding the finished product off the grill and onto his plate once it was done. He was just about to dig in, when he got a curious little smile, chuckling to himself. Not bad for a first not-date.

"One of my favorite platheth for the nightth I actually feel like going out," Sollux replied as he picked his own slightly messy, very lightly burnt food off onto his own plate and grabbed for the dish of hoisin that had been put on the edge of the table for them. He manipulated the chopsticks between his fingers easily and blew on his food before popping it into his mouth with a quiet, content little groan. "Haven't been here in a while for obviouth reathonth."

Bro was a natural with his chopsticks, and ate quickly and tidily, chuckling a little, "That new boss of yours is a real fuckin' hardass, makin' you work all weird fuckin' hours of the night." His smile was lopsided, his tone lighthearted as ever. "Shit dude, it's amazin' you even get time to sleep."

"I deal. The benefitth are pretty fuckin thweet," Sollux smirked back at him and picked more of the food onto the grill before he'd even finished his first plate. "I know how to thleep well in the time I do get to thleep between working with that shit and my day job."

"Pssh," Bro dismissed the first, doing much the same, drizzling teriyaki onto the beef as it seared, grinning at the scent it gave off. "And it doesn't seem like you mind him ridin' your ass, so there's that." He sipped his beer and swiftly flipped his food just as it hit the perfect brown.

Sollux gave an un-lovely snort of laughter at that and shrugged with a smug expression. "Maybe I like it. Maketh work interethting." Licking his lips, he took a chance to pour a little bit of his beer over the meat sizzling in front of him. He took a breath of the steam that wafted up and flipped it a couple of times before dipping it into the sauce then blowing it and popping the whole piece into his mouth and just spending time on it as the rest cooked.

Bro had a similarly smug smile on his face. "I dunno dude, if I had a boss that ran me ragged like yours? I'd tell him to suck my cock." His tone was casual and conversational, to a degree where it was really more a question if he was flirting ironically, or just for shits and giggles. He plated the food again and grabbed some steamed rice to go along with it, and started in on the second plate.

"Can, will, already have." Sollux seemed to be picking up Bro's effortless skill for casual sarcasm and irony, throwing it back at him easily enough most times. He finished off his first beer and loaded his second plate finally between picking things directly off the grill to snack between helpings. At this rate, he would easily be able to keep pace with Bro's consumption, or at the very least with Dave's usual amount.

Three and a half heaping plates in and more innuendo later, Bro finally started to slow up. He made it through his fourth before cutting himself off. "Nope, can't do a fifth," he said, knowing that if he ate much more, he'd wind up with indigestion. He grabbed their bill and looked at it. "Wanna go dutch or...?"

"Thoundth good to me," Sollux replied as he leaned back and rubbed his hand over his stomach, feeling just the slightest bit bloated and definitely full. He was only slightly tipsy and extremely content, looking like he might doze off on the spot. When he reached forward for the bill to see it though, he woke up a little more and smiled faintly. "Love thith plathe," he muttered then pushed himself upright and pulled his hoodie back on. "So, your plathe or mine?"

"Either works, you're the one with the car," Bro said with a lopsided smile, settling his half of the bill in cash in the little fold that the bill had come in, before getting up and stretching a little, glad for the food. He started out beside Sollux, and took a deep breath of the ocean air. It smelled different from the gulf and held a natural chill, as opposed to the gulf, which had more warmth to it. "Gotta come out here again soon. Bring my board with me next time." He missed larger waves, and southern California was perfect for those.

"I've lived here ever thinthe the end of the game and never learned how to thurf," Sollux mused as he laced his hands together behind his neck as he looked out in the direction of the ocean though he couldn't quite see it from here. He waited a second before climbing back into the car, pulling his seatbelt on for the first time that day. "You come out again when it getth a little warmer we'll go to the beach and thee what you wanna do from there."

Bro followed suit, slipping in the car and belting up. "Thanks for your permission. Appreciate it," he said with a tilted smile. "I'm actually kinda unsurprised you didn't learn yet. From what I know, oceans were kinda set apart as home for the aristocracy, right? I'm sure there's some weird genetic "fuck you" goin' on with oceans for you'n others lower on the hemospectrum."

"Yeah, kind of. KK can't thwim, I never really go near the water either. It'd really burn ED if I learned though jutht tho I could fuck with him on hith turf." Chuckling quietly, Sollux started the car and started more carefully than normal back toward home, deciding his own apartment was favorable after having spent the week away from it.

With a moment of trying to connect nicknames to proper ones, Bro nodded once he figured out ED as Eridan. "Right, that's one'a your little band of miscreants I haven't met. Seen him on the news a couple times, seems like a stuck-up douche. First time I saw him, I coulda sworn he was older'n he is. Huh." He settled in the seat a little more comfortably and nodded to the beat of the song on the stereo.

"Oh believe me, he alwayth wath and it wouldn't thurprith me if he thtill ith. Karkat sent me a couple of the articleth that Eridan'th been in and he'th jutht... The biggetht bag of dickth I've ever come acroth." Shaking his head, Sollux turned carefully onto the freeway back in the direction of the apartment.

"Sounds like a real winner. You guys have such great friends, it's a wonder it took so long for you to start killin' each other off." Bro murmured with a lopsided smile. "No offense, but I'm kinda fuckin' glad I ain't met like half of those jokers. Gonna have to eventually, if what's been happenin' continues on its course, but for now, I'm pretty fuckin' grateful I just know a couple of you." He figured if Vriska was the worst it got, he'd be able to handle it.

"What I don't get wath how KK managed to get all fuckin' clothe to him. Like jutht becauthe a guy bugth you for romantic advithe doethn't mean you really have to give him the attention." Shaking his head, Sollux finally pulled the car back into the apartment parking lot and killed the engine as soon as he'd parked. He closed one eye, concentrating for a moment. "As far as I'm concerned, he doesn't have shit to do with me anymore."

"The thing about Karkat, from what I see, is that he's genuinely helpful, but wholly fuckin' hairtrigger when it comes to bullshit. Thin-skinned, but heartfelt." He slipped out of the car and started lazily to the stairs of Sollux's apartment. "Not to mention he's got that sorta romance obsession, so of course he'd help in that degree."

"He'th a little shit. But he'th a good guy and a damn good friend." Smiling faintly, Sollux climbed the stairs just behind him, locking his car with a flick of a button then tucking his keys into his pocket. As soon as they'd gotten into the apartment he broke away and went to hang up the keyring, then ducked back into his bedroom to hang up his sweater and kick his shoes off.

Bro watched Sollux walk off and shed his boots at the door before he settled onto the sofa, smiling faintly as he took off his shades and tucked them in the seam of his polo's collar. He looked around again, managing once more to feel like he'd already been to this place before he'd even arrived that morning. When Sollux emerged he was in an old wifebeater and loose pajama pants, flopping down into the armchair bonelessly and rubbing his hand up under his glasses then turning a small, lopsided smile on the other. "I probably have thomething that'd fit you thomewhere, just have to look for it," he mentioned offhand as if he didn't already know that Bro would much rather just go naked.

Bro shook his head at that, his own expression slipping into an impish smirk. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm gonna just have to pass on that." He slipped closer and shook his head. "I doubt you got anything that'd fit around me. Unless you're countin' bedsheets, or like," he pointed, "Your nappy-ass curtains."

Sollux's eyebrow arched up at that and he snorted, crossing his arms in mock defensiveness. "And jutht what ith wrong with my curtainth, o' fabric guru?"

"They're ugly and you probably don't ever wash them." Bro sassed back. "Don't fuckin' start with me, you're seriously stickin' up for some old-ass seventies shit? I'd better hope to _fuck_ that's ironically, because sincere affection for pea green anything is a sign of mental instability." He lit a cigarette and leaned back, exhaling the smoke through his nose. "Yes doctor," Bro said in a barely put on voice, "I'm afraid he's been infected with... _Hippietitus._ "

Sollux's head tipped back as he gave a genuine laugh then looked back at Bro with an incredulous expression. "Ok, that wath bad even for you, dude. I don't give a flying fuck about the curtainth, they were here when I moved in and I jutht havn't cared to go get new oneth."

Bro grinned, "I'm off my game, dude, can't fuckin' help myself with the CSI-level bad puns when I'm so fuckin' distracted. But yeah, I kinda figured. Nobody sane would buy those curtains unless they were landlords circa 1973." He crossed his ankle up over his knee and shook his head. "You know how I fuckin' get, though. I get one fuckin' idea in my head and I'm like a damn 'gator, dude, clenched on there onto that one idea, and not payin' attention to fuckall else."

"You're honethtly going to sit there and tell me that you're _that_ thingle-minded about my curtainth?" Sollux chuckled and turned in place to drape his legs over the arm of the chair.

"Yeah man, it's totally the fuckin' curtains I'm hung up on, and very much extremely not you. Good job, you've solved the mystery." Bro took a drag of his cigarette, shaking his head with a grin. "You gonna just lounge there like an oversized cat or am I gonna have to make the first move?"

Sollux rolled his eyes and draped himself back over the opposite arm of the chair with his arms over his head, groaning dramatically. "But Thtrider, I'm tho tired and full and I jutht can't bring mythelf to move~" He grinned and stuck his tongue at Bro then slid his own glasses off and folded them to place underneath the edge of the chair.

"You're so fulla horseshit, Sollux," Bro muttered as he pulled out of his shirt and set it aside with his hat and glasses, before he moved so silently and fast that Sollux was likely only to see a ghost image of him as he stood. Before Sollux could know what was going on, he was picked up and sat back down, in the same position, while Bro settled into the chair beneath him, wrapping one arm around his waist, while he set the cigarette down in the nearby ashtray.

Sollux's only reaction was to tense then flop right back down limp again, grinning up at Bro with his head on the other's arm. He tipped his finger against the underside of Bro's chin and used his thumb to tilt it down, craning his neck to press a quick, slightly moist kiss to his lips. With a smile into the kiss, Bro leaned forward a little more to continue downward, leaving a rough trail of nibbles and licks down Sollux's neck. With his hand busily bunching up the wifebeater so he could get to Sollux's skin more easily, he murmured, "I'm glad as hell I managed to hold back today. Didn't want to get kicked out of Disneyland just 'cause I wanted to play grabass right then'n there."

Sollux grinned and tilted his chin up with a quiet chuckle, his hand curling against the back if Bro's neck and running up into his hair. He made a thoughtful little sound in his throat and nudged his nose against the other's temple then leaned back in his lap again. "I know it'th really fucking early in the year, but if you really wanna do that thomewhere and not get looked at, I'd thuggetht Folthom."

"The only reason I wouldn't want to get looked at," Bro muttered as he moved his hand down Sollux's body, "is so that I won't have to get arrested and inevitably have to go to court again and explain why the hell I was fucking in public." He raised an eyebrow, "But color me intrigued." He leaned back into the chair, brow arched still.

"Have you never heard of the Folthom Thtreet Fair? Or jutht never been," Sollux asked as he combed his fingers through the back of Bro's hair. "It'th a leather fethtival in Frithco. Charity, leather showcathe, public bondage, lotth of thkin. I figured you of all people'd know it already."

"What the hell would give you that impression?" Bro joked with a browarch, before he shook his head. "Dude, naw, there's hells of better fuckin' places to be than that fuckin' cliquey-ass rodeo, I just noped the fuck out of that once they started gettin' all _one of us_ on me. Still get fuckin' fliers for it, years after I had a booth there." Bro, while he wasn't any kind of leather fetishist, could appreciate the scene for what it was, back when it wasn't some venture to exploit the queer community and turn a city into a queer-bait tourist trap. "Just color me fuckin' interested that _you_ brought it up."

"You mentioned the public thing, that wath the firtht thing I thought of. I attended a couple of yearth back when I wath thtill with the other job," Sollux shrugged, letting his hand fall away and reclining back against the arm of the chair. "I wath thuppothed to do a thing with thomeone experienthed and the guy offered to pay my way and thinthe I wath broke ath fuck at that point I went along with it."

Bro was going to say something to the effect of 'there's a difference between public fucking and a circus', but he got caught on Sollux's anecdote, and raised an eyebrow. "That was an amazin' amount of shyin' away from details."

"Becauthe thothe detailth are barely relevant anymore." Sollux poked the end of his nose lightly, then turned in place to get up out of his lap.

"No, there was at least _one_ vital piece of information you danced around that was pertinent," Bro said as he moved his arm away from Sollux's waist. "Which is what that 'thing' you were gonna do _was_." He leaned back to look at Sollux, lips pursed in a cocky little smirk. "Kinks are fuckin' chill with me, I mean fuckin' look at me dude, I make a living off kink."

Straightening his shirt back down, Sollux scratched some along one side and wandered over to the couch to sprawl out instead. He looked up at the ceiling and mushed his tongue against the roof of his mouth for a second. "I was hired for a suspension scene. Found out I dig on it pretty hard. So I'm not really part of a scene but there you go."

The gears started turning in Bro's mind at that and he nodded with a sincere, if not a little dark, smile. "I can see that bein' a pretty interestin' venue to explore," He finally said as he sat up in the chair. "Hadn't really considered that somethin' I'd get into myself, but it'd probably be pretty fuckin' fascinatin' to me once I give it a little thought" He propped his head up on his fist, and thought about that for another moment, before he shrugged. "Mine, I mean, other'n what you already know? Orgasm denial. Pain. You know the latter already, probably." He didn't even consider his exhibitionist streak a kink as much as it was a personality trait at that point.

"The denial thing doethn't really thurprithe me to be honetht. Delayed gratification is amazing when done right." Smiling some to himself, Sollux laid back on the couch with his legs bent up, crossed at the knees with one foot hanging in the air. "Y'know, for thomeone apparently horny ath fuck you got thidetracked pretty eathy."

"I've got ADD, fuckin' sue me, Jesus," Bro said, shaking his head as he got up from the chair to settle himself on the sofa, moving Sollux's legs so he could slip between them, running his hands over Sollux's thighs. "You know what I'm kinda fuckin' hung up on? That night I was blowin' you and they got home midway through? It's a fuckin' shame I couldn't finish you off."

"No kidding, I wath hurting for a while after that," Sollux grumbled and let his legs fall open as he closed his eyes and smiled faintly to himself. "Their reactionth were pretty funny though."

"You get off on schadenfreude," Bro teased, as he slid his still-gloved hands over Sollux's legs, bunching up the fabric of his pajama pants as he pulled them down. "I'd wonder about why you're so into other people's misery, but then I remember you're a Doom player." He smirked and bowed down over Sollux, nipping the other's chest through his wifebeater.

"Wathn't alwayth like that. Learned to make it into thomething other than conthtant pethimithm." Sollux lifted his hips to let his pants come off easily, wearing nothing underneath and already starting to give off a mild sweet scent. He sucked in his stomach and pushed his ribs out, his lower lip coming between his teeth as he looked down at the top of Bro's head.

"At least it's something," murmured Bro as he pushed up the shirt to brush his lips and tongue against Sollux's skin. He took a moment while he left a hot, damp trail of kisses and faint suction against Sollux's protruding hip to pull off his gloves and brush his bare hands up across the other's thighs. With a soft hum Sollux tucked one arm back under his head, the other coming back down to rest against the back of Bro's head, fingers tangling loosely into his hair. His leg lifted up to plant his foot against the arm of the couch, giving the other more room to move. Bringing one hand upwards and inwards to tease and coax Sollux's bulges out, Bro let out a little huff of amusement when he finally managed to ease them from Sollux's sheath, and twist them together without much trouble. As he did, he busied his mouth and tongue against Sollux's nooks, not spending much time there before he moved up to go down on both bulges with a low groan in the back of his throat. His mouth barely fit around them both at once, but he wasn't the type to give up on the challenge set before him. Sollux squirmed minutely with the ministrations but otherwise kept still, letting a quiet breath through his nose. The ball of Bro's piercing always rolled over the skin in the best ways and he couldn't help making a soft noise as he dropped his hand to cup the side of the other's head. His bulges moved in tandem with Bro's tongue and twisted around it languidly. His fingers went down to brush against Sollux's nooks, only penetrating once he made sure his fingers were slick. Bro gave a dark little look from his place between Sollux's legs, before he relaxed his jaw and went deeper down, his tongue rolling and pulsing heavily down against the bulges, finding even more sensitive and subtle places to press the barbell and ball against. His hand sped, with graceful, intentional movements of his fingers. He slowly moved his other hand down to undo his own fly, shoving out of his slacks while he kept his attention focused on Sollux.

Sollux let out an almost sleepy sound and stretched his legs, the one still on the couch lifting to lie over Bro's shoulder. He licked his lips as his hips moved up the longer it went until finally he was outright thrusting into Bro's open mouth. The hand under his head crept up to grip on the arm of the couch, fingers pulling at the worn fabric. Bro took short, shallow breaths through his nose every time he managed, and though his jaw was starting to get just the faintest bit sore, he pushed onward, and started to speed the motions of his fingers, the fine dexterity taking on a companion of almost unbelievable speed, in order to stimulate all that he could at virtually the same time. By now Sollux knew Bro's speed and talent with his fingers and knew he shouldn't have been surprised by it, but he was still taken momentarily off-guard and finally gave a louder sound as his toes curled. "Jethuth fuck, Thtrider..."

Instead of responding verbally, Bro vibrated his tongue with a shivery sensation, parting the tips of Sollux's bulges from each other to slip past them to the roof of his mouth, before descending farther. He moved his palm and thumb upward while his fingers moved, two to a nook. He moved them against the base of the other's bulges, and then he beared off, taking a deep, groaning breath. Bro sat up and insinuated his free hand between both bulges and worked each sensitive inch with the same subtle touch and intense speed, squeezing against one, then the other as he stared down at Sollux's face. Sollux's nose wrinkled and his brow furrowed, mouth dropping open at the sheer amount of stimulation, his hips pushing up on reflex as his back bowed. There was a vague resentment for how fast and how easily Bro was able to manipulate him into a complete mess but that took a back seat to the spiking pleasure. His nails dragged down Bro's forearm until his hand wrapped around the other's wrist and gripped down tight to attempt to make him let up just a little before he ended up losing himself too quickly. Bro stopped immediately and slowed to a relative snail's pace, still looking down at Sollux, his lips pursed in a tiny, victorious smile as he slipped his slick hand away from Sollux's nooks, and over himself instead, pumping himself slowly with a firm grip. He let out a soft, low sound, and his eyes slipped closed as he gripped both bulges in his hand, pumping them as well.

As soon as he was able to form a coherent thought again Sollux smiled faintly in kind and put his foot against Bro's shoulder, pushing him back and sitting up as one hand dipped between them, taking one of his bulges and guiding it around the other's cock. He knocked Bro's hand out of the way until the tip of the bulge was pressed firmly against his frenum then wrapped his own hand around them both, leaving the other bulge free.

Tipping backwards with the push of Sollux's foot, Bro watched Sollux's movement through half-lidded eyes, putting his hands over Sollux's shoulders, letting another quiet sound through his nose with a rock of his hips once Sollux's bulge and hand were around him. The sight of it alone was erotic as hell, and he was loathe to tear his gaze away from it. He finally did, though, and as he spread his legs, brushing his thigh against Sollux's hip, he caught the other's lips in a kiss, his tongue moving in to brush between the tips of Sollux's. Sollux pushed back into the kiss eagerly and draped his arm around Bro's neck, his legs hooking around Bro's thighs and pulling him close. The other bulge wrapped around his balls and put down the same pressure. He flexed a couple of muscles that tightened down both of the tendrils and made them slip slowly over the other's skin.

Bro slid one hand down over Sollux's spine, and then his ass, squeezing firmly as he deepened the kiss with a low groan through his nose. His hand moved away after only a moment, however, and around to brush his fingertips firmly against Sollux's nooks and waste chute, simply teasing as he rocked his hips upward again. His breath caught once Sollux's bulge tugged his balls in just the right way, and then he let out another contented groan. Sollux let a quiet sound into Bro's mouth as his hips shifted, opening him up further to the other's touch. He bit on Bro's lip with a quiet huff then started to mouth his way down the side of Bro's neck to suck a mark into the skin at the base of it, knowing that not only would he care, that Bro would walk around with the mark proudly. He would have to make more eventually for that.

As he tipped his head back to give Sollux more room, Bro let out another sound and pushed his fingers back into Sollux's nooks, brushing his thumb's knuckle against his chute, and flexed his muscles, twitching his cock against the other's bulge. He rolled his hips forward and placed one leg down on the floor, further spreading his legs while he dipped his free hand down to wrap his hand down around both Sollux and himself, pumping with an almost rough grip. Sollux dragged his mouth back up to kiss along the other's jaw back to his mouth, lapping across his lips then dipping back into his mouth. The bulge not occupied with his cock slipped away from his balls to tangle with the fingers slowly becoming completely covered in slick, sweet-smelling fluid, only adding to it until it was dripping off them and down the front of the couch. Bro kept rocking his hips as he moved his hand tight around Sollux's bulge, squeezing it with an undulating movement of his hand. Due to the slickness below, he was approaching his peak, letting out a long, languid groan into the kiss. He murmured against Sollux's mouth, encouraging the other to let go, before his own climax hit him, sending his hips jerking forward as his come splattered against Sollux's stomach and chest, and he sharply gasped, head dropping back once more. Sollux shuddered, bulges tightening briefly then nearly stilling as he dragged his hand through the warm mess before wrapping his fingers around the other's cock once more and pumped around both of them, the second bulge coming to wrap around the base and creep up to join the other one. He panted quietly against Bro's neck as he pressed his mouth to his throat and nicked the skin with his teeth.

With a shuddered sound, Bro arched as he moved his hands to Sollux's hips, oversensitive to the stimulation that the other's bulges and hand were giving him. And at the nick to his neck, Bro chuckled slightly, turning his head to nip Sollux's ear lightly. "Gonna need a fuckin' mop," he murmured in amusement.

"I have a wet/dry vac," Sollux muttered then grinned against his neck, moving his hand to pull his bulges away from the other's cock and twist them together, squeezing down tight to stave off his own orgasm for a little bit longer. "We're gonna need it unleth you go get the bucket under the think."

Bro disentangled himself from Sollux with a peck to his cheek, and within a few seconds had sped into the bathroom, found the bucket, and returned, setting it down in front of the sofa before he moved his hand gently around Sollux's hand and bulges, nibbling his neck. "Sorry that took so long."

Sollux just rolled his eyes, grinning as he tilted his head back to expose more of his neck and stroked a hand over the length of his bulges, the other hand dipping to toy as the spot where they bifurcated until finally he tensed up and had to position the bucket between his feet to hold still as he finally released, the air around them growing rather cloying with the scent. He shuddered hard when it finally tapered off and let the bulges slip free of his hand, retreating back into the sheath. Bro looked down between them as he watched Sollux play with himself, committing it to memory so he knew just how Sollux liked it, smiling faintly as he slipped away to let Sollux have room for the bucket. He looked around and found a hand towel in the kitchen, and used it to clean off, settling himself on the arm of the sofa once he was sure that he'd wiped off his leg and ass. Taking the towel for himself, Sollux took a moment to clean up before reclining back against the opposite arm of the couch, once more looking like an overgrown, very well-fed cat, smiling to himself contently. He reached a foot up and propped it against Bro's knee.

Bro grinned and patted Sollux's ankle, before slipping back up and grabbing his boxers from out of his slacks and pulling them on. He settled down on the sofa once his underwear was on, precariously close to the soaked spot, as he smiled faintly. "So I'm probably gonna dash tomorrow. I left most of the stuff that was in my car at Dave's place, and I'm not trustin' my baby at the mechanics any more. That shit would be done by now if I were doin' it."

"Yeah, I know better than to take my shit to any mechanic. I have a guy that doeth my tune-upth for a fraction of the prithe and doeth it _right_. Doesn't matter that he ithn't thertified. Betht pair of handth I've ever had in an engine. He wath actually one of the firtht actually good people I met when I woke up in a fucking alley like I'd been dumped there after a murder." Shaking his head, Sollux sat back up and looked down at the spot and wrinkled his nose. "And I jutht cleaned thith too."

"Usually, I do my own work on her," Bro said with a shrug, grabbing his cigarettes out of his pants on the floor. "But between the havoc of Dave's thing and bein' out of range of gettin' the thing towed to my garage, I really didn't have much'a choice in the matter." He handed over a cigarette to Sollux and lit it, before putting one in between his own lips. "Before I hit the jackpot," he explained, "I was a mechanic. Workin' on machines is basically the one practical thing I got goin' for me."

Sollux took a deep drag off the cigarette then fished around the floor blindly for his pajamas, pulling them back on with the smoke dangling from his lips. He sat back up with his legs crossed, looking back up at Bro with a raised eyebrow. "So after you go home it's back to life as normal, at least until the movie premiers."

"Normal in a relative sense," Bro said with a nod, smiling at Sollux's sustained dedication to eliminating the lisp. "Kinda wantin' to get back into the daily grind, weird as it is. I miss my place, miss just chillin' with Cal and makin' new videos for the sites. Miss not gettin' woken up by cleaning ladies at fucked up in the mornin'." He took a long drag of his smoke and then smiled over at Sollux. "Gonna have only one real drawback, goin' home."

"Still got the call setup. We'll be fine," Sollux assured him then put out his tongue at the look on Bro's face. "Weird ath it thoundth, it's actually making part of my tongue cramp forthing it to do the 'S' thing. Tharah thaid it'll take a while to get uthed to but when I do it'll be eathy enough."

"Yeah, I can't imagine the kind of muscular workout your tongue's gettin', learnin' how to sit in a different way," Bro casually said. "Have to push the tips together just to get that sound out. Like I said, though, you'll be able to do it like it's second nature in time." He smiled faintly. "Y'know Dave had just a thick a drawl as me? Kid got real self conscious about it, 'round eleven years old, started correctin' how he said everythin', 'cause he didn't wanna sound like a hick, he said. Took him a couple years to get himself to talk all like some Cali dude. But y'know, he still hasn't gotten it _all_ under control, you can hear it in certain words." He smirked a little. "So I mean, just keep at it. You'll get there."

"KK told me onthe how funny it wath when Dave would get upthet and thtart drawling all over the place. I haven't theen it yet but I can imagine it pretty eathy after thith long lithening to you." Tipping his head back against the back of the couch, Sollux shrugged a shoulder. "Actually, it'th more about just the positioning of the tongue itthelf. Like when I regularly talk the airthtream's directed between the middle of my tongue and through my teeth because that was the motht convenient way for it to travel. Now I have to keep the tipth of my tongue out of the way and uthe the middle of it againtht the roof of my mouth."

Bro hadn't heard Dave that mad since he'd started correcting himself, but he could just imagine how embarrassing it was for the little dude when he did fly off the handle. Poor kid. He was impressed by the technical details of Sollux's therapy, though, and nodded. "Sounds a little less difficult than what I thought, then. It's still a pretty huge undertakin'."

"Twenty years by your measurement is gonna be a lot to undo but I think I'll manage." Smiling faintly, Sollux got back up and stretched with a soft groan, standing on tiptoe and touching the ceiling with his fingertips then passing by Bro to grab his laptop bag hanging on the wall opposite his kitchen counter, settling back down with it after plugging it in. He scooted over next to Bro as it booted and tapped at it quickly for a few moments until he'd grown a vicious little smile and turned it around. There were three tabs open; one with a document containing an IP adress and home adress, one with a photo, and another with a Google maps street view of a shitty apartment complex. "Here, I figured you would want thith information."

Bro looked over Sollux's shoulder as he ground his cigarette out in the ashtray. His own smile went dark again, and he licked his lower lip, memorizing every detail. "You know it's like givin' a kid the keys to a candy store," he murmured, pressing a firm kiss to Sollux's neck before sitting up and pulling his slacks on. "If I ain't back in two hours, consider me dead." He tugged his shirt, socks, and shoes on with a quickness, before settling his baseball cap and shades on. He walked out to the hallway outside and pulled his rocketboard from his sylladex, and jumped on. "Don't wait up!" he called over his shoulder before the door closed, and started on his way.

Sollux hooked his chin over the back of the couch, not really expecting Bro to leave immediately but shrugging and going to fetch his cleaning things to get the stain out of his couch before it set in any worse. When he was done with that he went to take a shower and scrub off the stickiness still up the front of his body. Within the hour he was back on the couch, music blaring from a small speaker setup conveniently inserted into the back and sides of his couch.

It was about an hour and a half that Bro was gone, and when he came back, he didn't have anything but bloody knuckles and a severe need for a glass of water. "I think he got the picture," he said as he walked straight into the kitchen. "You know, for one'a those human pride guys, he was a pussy? Put the fear'a god into him," he said with a shake of his head, getting a tall glass of water from the tap, swallowing it down, then filling it back up and repeating the process.

"Did you at leatht leave him consciouth? I'd rather him actually be able to feel it," Sollux replied casually, getting up to grab a few things from the bathroom then stopping in the kitchen and taking the hand that wasn't occupied by the water glass and starting to clean the knuckles.

"He'll be feelin' it for a couple weeks," Bro said as he looked over his knuckles, shrugging them off. "He ain't bad enough to go to the hospital, and he ain't well enough off to soon forget what I told him." He settled down on the sofa and took off his glasses and set them aside, settling down in the cushions.

"Ath long ath he doethn't pull what he did to me on anyone elthe, I'd thay lethon well-taught." Smiling to himself, Sollux went back to sit at the other end of the couch with his legs crossed, his laptop perched on top of his knees.

"Oh, there's no goddamn way he'll consider it, now." Bro said with a smirk. "I told him that if another fuckin' troll so much as gets a stubbed goddamn toe within ten miles of his person, he's gonna be the one feelin' it." He didn't repeat what the jackoff said about Sollux, nor did he particularly feel like explaining that he'd flown the fucker up to a height that would have surely liquified him if he'd been dropped, after putting a couple dents in his door.

Leaning against the arm of the couch with his cheek in his hand, Sollux gave him a soft smirk and looked at him over the tops of his glasses. "Gotta thay, righteous indignation lookth good on you."

"Everything looks good on me," Bro said with a lopsided smile. He took off his hat and leaned back into the arm of the sofa, and seemed just about ready to fall asleep just like that. "Fuckers like that need to get fired into the sun."

"There ith no doubt in my mind that you could pull off anything you felt like," Sollux yawned then stretched out longways on the couch with his feet propped up on Bro's thigh, his laptop still balanced atop his knees as he changed the music to a playlist consisting of old trip hop and electronica. He smiled to himself as he laid his head against the back of the couch, his eyes closing at a gregorian-esque vocal that very gently vibrated the cushions.

Bro fell asleep as he was, and didn't overly mind the awkward position in which he was sprawled. He'd fallen asleep in weirder seating positions without discomfort. But when it was something vaguely resembling morning, he woke up with a kink in his neck and a real need for coffee. He woke up to a buzzing in his pocket that turned out to be a text, which he blearily stared at with a furrowed brow. He peeled himself out of his position, and sat up, rubbing his stubbly face and scrubbing sleep out of his eyes. Sollux was still passed out in the same position he'd been when they'd fallen asleep, his back against the arm of the couch with his head dropped onto the back of it, his arms crossed over his chest. The laptop had long since gone into hibernation, the music no longer playing. He looked over at his friend and smiled faintly, knowing that was often how Sollux managed to crash. Bro stood and walked to the kitchen, and with absolute silence - with the exception of the sound of the tap - he made some coffee, having found it in his search for a cup the night prior. He lit a cigarette and considered munching on something in Sollux's fridge, but ultimately decided against it, figuring that it'd just be easier to grab something at the diner down the street.

Unaccustomed to having other people in his apartment, the movement woke Sollux up fairly quickly. He sat forward and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes then put his glasses up on top of his head as he went to the bathroom. He came back out again a couple minutes later and poured himself a large mug of coffee before the pot had finished filling, topping it with a large amount of cream then leaning against the counter opposite his refrigerator to drink. Bro had taken to perching on the arm of the chair, reading some emails he'd been sent over the past day. He had a mug of coffee in one hand and the tablet in the other when Sollux came out of the bathroom and he looked up. "Thinkin' I ought to get back the hotel, clean myself up a little. You got work today, don't you?"

Sollux nodded and put his coffee on the counter, coming to stand beside the couch with his arm perched on Bro's shoulder. "I go in at noon then work 'til about nine. Then I'm home free to work whatever shift you want from me. I can get you to the hotel and then the airport but I won't be able to stay until you take off."

"Nah man, it's cool," Bro said with a smile. "You don't need to go through the hassle. I can get there on my own when you leave for work." He looked back down at his tablet, opening a new tab to check on the server backend. He'd programmed it ages ago to put up a comprehensive readout of data that was needing to be cleaned up, and code that had become broken. It was pretty minimal, all things considered. "Looks like it'll be a short shift for you dude, just got a few lines of code that crapped themselves, and your usual assholes trying to get into a workaround to see the VIP stuff. Y'know, usual shit." He set the tablet down and took a long swig of his coffee.

"Cool, good night's sleep for me tonight." Sollux smiled faintly himself then laid his hand against the back of Bro's neck, pushing his collar down and peeking at the hickey laying dark and vivid against the pale skin. "Very good night's sleep."

Bro smiled faintly as he tilted his head to the side to show off the hickey that would probably be the next huge thing to hit Perez Hilton's stupid-ass blog. He then looked up at Sollux briefly before pulling him down into a quick kiss, though by no means a chaste one. "Weird how the only clean shirt I got left is the one that'll show that off better than any other one I own."

"Even better," Sollux grinned against his lips then returned the kiss with a longer one of his own before going back to the kitchen to retrieve his coffee and go back to his room to get dressed then returned in a pair of, on him, outrageously large tripps and form-fitting tshirt, his hat back on his head down to his eyebrows. "Any time you're ready to go, I gueth."

Bro took that time to get his shit back into his sylladex, and pocketed it before nodding to Sollux. "I'm good to go." He smirked as he stood. "Got one'a my friends callin' me up in about an hour, dude likes to keep me on my toes. Duder is gonna probably be askin' about you, so I'm gonna be cagey as hell." He put his boots on and straightened up his slacks over them, before slicking his hair back and under his hat.

"If you want my opinion, I really don't give a fuck what you tell people. If I thtart getting followed around, woe ith them." Plucking his keys off the wall, Sollux finished off his coffee and waited until Bro's was emptied as well then took them both to leave in the sink until he got home from work that day. He'd have to change before his shift, but he liked these pants and fuck anyone saying he had to wear a button-down and slacks outside of work. "Feel like picking up breakfatht on the way there?"

Bro smirked, "You just remember sayin' that. I'm takin' that and runnin' with it." He walked down the stairs to the parking lot, hands tucked in his pockets. "Hell fucking yes, breakfast.. If I've gotta endure bein' up before ten, I'm gonna be damn good and fed, too."

"Don't make me regret that," Sollux muttered then dropped into the driver's seat for the short trip to the closest diner with a good plate of pancakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
>  Just ignore all the anatomy yuck and have a sketch of a STRONG contest.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spring break!
> 
> Enter the douchey fishprince.

Getting out of class early on a Monday was a rarity for Karkat but it was a relief. Presentations concerning Greek and Roman philosophers didn't really do it for him. He was tapping distractedly on his phone as he walked off campus to head to work on autopilot. He'd just received a text from Sollux letting him know to expect Bro back before the end of the day. He let it go with a sigh at the peace that he was going to lose, but he would deal. He forwarded the text to Dave as he crossed the street, swearing vividly as he was nearly hit by a minivan that had been ignoring the crossing lights. He just barely kept himself from flipping off the woman inside and continued on his way then slouching some behind the counter at the coffee shop. It wasn't very busy at this time of day so at least he had some peace to calm down.

Dave was already at the shop, working on culling the line into something manageable, glad to be back to the daily grind. When he got the text, which was the second of such news - the first being from his brother - he was happy to hear that Bro hadn't gotten into too much trouble out there, AND would be back to collect his things out of the guest room. He tucked his phone back in his apron pocket and kept working, murmuring along to the lyrics of the song that was playing on the stereo system. Seeing Karkat walk in, he gave a little nod to his matesprit, and handed the lady at the counter her change.

"Bro said he'd be back tonight to grab his stuff. He said he'd be working on his car himself, so he can get home faster. I think he's missing the heat or some shit," he said to Karkat as he walked past to clock in. As soon as he'd taken position behind the counter and tied his apron into place Karkat started mixing the drink for the next order so that at least Dave didn't have to scramble to make everything alone.

"What, does he have somewhere here to work on it? Last I checked neither of us had a free garage sitting open for use."

"He'll find something," Dave assured; though he had no idea _how_ , since it was Bro, there would be a way. "Thing is, he doesn't trust anybody with his car. He put it together and has kept it running and in practically mint condition since before I came along. I was surprised as hell when he said he sent it to a shop." He smiled and handled the register as he continued to talk. "But I guess once they fix the body damage, there's nothing they can do that he couldn't do on his own." He took the next order, and started to work on an mint italian soda.

Karkat had to keep himself from making a face at a green tea late that was ordered, nodding as he prepared and handed it over then turned back to Dave. "Hey so I was thinking, with your brother coming back, after we get more done with the soundtrack and filler material, I was going to ask him to help me with the whole Blood thing. I mean I'm getting a handle on it fairly well, but I don't want to end up fucking up something major later and completely boning us all, you know?" He started on the orders at the end of the line, spending the time he was mixing it thinking on how it was likely to go and deciding that 'terribly' was probably an apt description.

Dave nodded. "If anyone could help someone get a bead on a new ability, it'd be him." Once the line had been taken care of, there was a lull, for which Dave was extremely grateful. "And actually, I've got all the material I need. Now I just have to sew the fucker together like the modern Prometheus, and I'll have it done by the time it's due. At least now that I've gotten everything I need, I don't have to feel so bad about slacking in all my other classes." He grinned a little. "But yeah, you shouldn't worry too much dude. He's the best damn teacher I know. And if you need anyone to test shit on, I'm not gonna spontaneously combust on you for at least another six months."

"You don't know that," Karkat snorted, then glanced around the coffee shop in case anyone was watching them very closely then twitched his fingers, raising Dave's hand for him. He chewed at his lower lip as he concentrated. He lifted his hand up after a few seconds and closed it, manipulating Dave's to do the same. He wouldn't do it for very long, knowing it felt uncomfortable, but practicing would be essential in the weeks to come if there would potentially be another attack.

Dave grinned and let Karkat manipulate his hand. "Let go for a minute," he said in a hushed tone, "If you want to do this now, I can stop time for a couple minutes and let you get some practice in." He figured that if anything, they could both get some practice in. And then he had a curious thought. "Hm. I wonder if you could manipulate me _into_ using my timetables. Or if that's a power of my own will thing."

Karkat released his grip and shook out his hands some, nodding thoughtfully. "It's probably a matter of your own free will. But that might actually come in handy. If something happens and you can't move, you can still tap your powers but can't really do anything with them without the medium of the timetables right? So maybe I can do that."

Dave got a devious little smirk at that, "Shit yeah, collaborative asskicking." He cracked his neck before summoning up the tables, and slowed time down to a complete halt for them. It was a little eerie, standing in a cafe of completely paused life; like standing in a photograph. He kind of liked it. He nodded then and turned to Karkat. "Go for it, nubs."

"Just watch, you let it go and we have a line of confused people to work with and you have to stable-time-loop it until it's worked back out again..." Shaking his head, Karkat lifted Dave's hands for him again, trying to get the fine manipulation down then moving parts of his own body, trying to get Dave to move in a mirror image. It was like a puppeteer was rather jerkily manipulating the other's body and the effect was disconcerting. He clenched his jaw as he lifted his hand again, making eye-contact with Dave as he directed his matesprit to the coffee machine, grabbing a cup and pouring it then putting it on the counter. He released a shaky breath and let it go after that, slumping slightly then giving him a lopsided smile.

"It feels weird as hell, is all I gotta say," Dave said as he was moved. He simply let Karkat do what he could. "God, I wonder if this is how Cal feels," he pondered aloud, smile gone tilted as he poured the cup. "You could get seriously freaky good at that," Dave said once he was released, rubbing his arms to make the tingling after-effect fade off. It felt like his arms had fallen asleep, the pins and needles sensation clearly present. "As for having to set things stable? I doubt it. We didn't do anything in the past, and we sure as shit didn't bounce our cheery asses into the future. I think we're golden." He brought time out of its halt and into its regular flow, considering how he managed to subtly influence the flow of it on a subconscious level. The airflow in the shop returned and Karkat took a deep breath then shook his hands again. The power was starting to feel as instinctual as Dave's time abilities, but still awkward as he got used to being able to actively manipulate it. He rubbed his hands together and looked up as the counter was approached, going to work on the espresso as he was closer to the machine.

Dave took that as cue to go round up the dishes and wipe down the tables, smiling to himself at he walked through and made sure everybody was doing all right. He hadn't done bussing in a while, but his natural charm as he walked through and briefly chatted with the customers was something that came easily. It was a fine change of pace, him on the floor and Karkat at the counter. He did that until their first break. He got a text just before he clocked for his fifteen minutes; Bro had just landed back at DIA and it'd be another hour and some change before he'd be back in town. "Bro's back in the state. Batten the hatches."

"Whoop-de-fuckin'-doo." Karkat sat down at one of the tables outside with a latte in hand, glancing around then licking his lips as a bird perched on a rail on the other side of the patio. He raised a hand and caused it to tense, giving a panicked twitter as it was forced to hop off the rail and flop on the ground then get up and start to walk again. It was one of the crows that regularly appeared wherever Dave happened to be and it was obvious that it didn't approve of what was happening, but practicing with more than just humans and, more than that, with an unwilling body did help prepare him for working against muscles that fought back. He felt a little sick as he watched it stumble and let it go, wincing as it scrambled away.

Dave watched quietly, lighting up a cigarette. "Hey man, don't fuck with the crows," he said with a pout. He liked them, no matter how weird it was, and possibly how disturbing it was that they followed him around. The bird chattered angrily and flew up past Dave, landing petulantly on the ledge of the roof. "Great, now I'm pretty fuckin' sure it's going to shit all over my car. Guess who's gonna get to clean _that_ up."

"Sorry," Karkat muttered, flexing his hand some then shaking his head. He honestly didn't think he wanted to try it again anyway. Playing with Dave was one thing, but this... He downed his drink and went back inside, deciding that that had been enough break time for now.

"Whoa, hold on," Dave said as he took a quick, hard drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out and following, "Dude. Dude hold up." He jogged past Karkat and blocked the way. "No man, you're not gonna just sulk off like that. Talk to me, bro." He was concerned, and it was obvious by his tone, if not the subtle frown that settled across his lips. Karkat shook his head and rolled his shoulder tensely, refusing to look Dave in the face.

"I'm just fucking fine, Strider. Let me through."

"Don't give me a line of horseshit," he said as he steadfastly denied Karkat from going any further. "Look, if it's 'cause I told you to stop dicking with the birds, I'm really not that pissed, okay? It'll be fine."

Karkat crossed his arms over his chest and tucked his hands up under them, rolling his eyes and refusing to say anything about it. "Just drop it. Please."

Dave sighed heavily and rolled his head back to look at the ceiling in exasperation. "Ugh, fine. But you know I'm gonna completely overthink this shit until you tell me what's going on." He stepped aside and rubbed his face, pushing his glasses out of the way temporarily. "Fucking mercurial ass."

Throughout the rest of their shift, Karkat was quiet, focused maybe a little too hard on his job and making busywork for himself up to and including wiping down the tables multiple times. He was mindfucking the situation, he knew but he couldn't help but run it over and over in his head and even trying to look at it in a more positive light (hey, he could do it in the first place, that was something, right?) but it just made hm feel sick all over again. He hung up his apron as soon as it was time to clock out for the day then stepped out as the next shift came in and waited outside the door for Dave.

Dave had spent that time occasionally looking over at Karkat, hoping to even catch a glimpse, a clue of some small amount of what was eating him. He finally gave up around their lunch break, and then kept working without trying to mindfuck it too bad, himself. Once out beside Karkat, he stuffed his hands in his hoodie pouch and walked along with his matesprit, back to their place.

"Usually I'd get in your grill about this," he said as he walked along, "but you know what? It's cool okay? If you feel weird about talking about it, I'm not gonna get nosy." He looked down at the sidewalk as they strolled along, silently counting the number of steps it took per square of sidewalk, just to keep himself from talking anymore. Karkat's jaw clenched and he still stubbornly refused to say anything, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jacket as he walked with his head down. He started to worry the skin from his lower lip until it had started to bleed by the time they turned to go into the apartment building. Once inside he stepped away from Dave, heading for the refrigerator and pulling out one of the beers sitting at the back. He peeled out of his coat and went to hang it up, the bottle in hand as he did.

Dave watched in quiet complacency as Karkat skulked around the kitchen and hall, pulling off his shoes as he did. "Okay no, I lied, I can't let this go. Is it because of your powers?" He fathomed a guess. It was the only thing that could have messed with Karkat's head like that. It wasn't like the guy had a particularly high opinion of birds or anything. He took off his glasses and scratched through his hair. "Because if it is, I... I dunno, dude. I dunno what to say."

"If I said yes, that's exactly what it is, would you just let it go?" Karkat snapped, slouching into the couch with the bottle at his lips and taking it a swallow at a time. He put his head down against his hand, rubbing his fingers across his forehead irritably.

With a subtle pout, Dave set his jaw and stared at Karkat, before sighing. "Fine." He didn't really want to get into a screaming match with the master of all things loud and shouty. He dug into the fridge and grabbed a plate of leftovers, and put it in the microwave, and stood with his arms crossed as he waited for the food to heat up.

Bro came in just then, and set down his bags at the door, pulling out of his boots. He immediately sensed the tension he'd walked into, settling into the chair, grabbing his phone and sending a text to Sollux to know that he'd made it back to their place. He looked up at Karkat briefly and then back to his phone. "Rough day?"

"Could say that," Karkat muttered, tipping the bottle up for a longer drink then putting it on the side table before getting up and digging through the cupboard to find something small to eat so that at least he had something on his stomach that wasn't just alcohol. He came back with a packaged danish and sat right back down in his seat, taking a large bite out of it and spending time focusing on that. In the meanwhile, Dave settled back into his side of the sofa and silently ate, poking at the food more than actually eating it, scowling a little. He was clearly not up for doing the discussion thing.

Bro shook his head a little at their foul moods, then stood up again. "Got you guys some stuff at Disneyland. I'll give it to you later." He watched their reactions, and then isolated the problem. "Hey Karkat, c'mere outside a minute, wouldja?" He walked to the patio and left the door open, waiting for him to follow.

Raising an eyebrow at the announcement concerning gifts, Karkat stuffed the half-eaten pastry into his mouth and got up to follow Bro out onto the patio. He brought his beer with him and sat back down at the table outside.

"Look, same thing I told him, I don't really wanna talk about this," he muttered, glancing in at Dave then out at the shadows of the city as the sun set behind the building.

Bro closed the door behind Karkat and shook his head. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. So listen instead. I'm not 100% on this, but this is probably about your powers, and if it is, I get it. I mean, I ain't able to fully empathize, 'cause I've never had to deal with somethin' so grandiose as bein' able to manipulate blood." He leaned against the rail and looked out at the tiny city. "But I can tell you, sometimes you get thrust into somethin' you ain't prepared for, somethin' you can't wrap your head around. Even get scared by. Am I in the ballpark here?" He looked over his shoulder at Karkat and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, 'course I am. Okay, look, you got a part of you now that you ain't fully ready to deal with. Somethin' you just can't come to terms with, 'cause it's too much, and it's questionable that it's even somethin' good." He shrugged. "You got a choice now. Either you ignore it, or you cultivate it, but there's no gettin' rid of it."

Karkat leaned his elbows on top of the table with his hands together, his fingers pressed against his lips as he closed his eyes tight for a few moments. When he looked up again, it wasn't directly at Bro, just in his general direction. "I know. I know all of that, ok? But when it comes right down to it? I don't want this. I'd rather choke to death on my own goddamn bulge." He put his hands down, crossing his arms on the tabletop. He lowered his voice and started to pick at the paint with his head down. "Today I decided to practice and it went alright. I managed to puppet Dave into pouring a cup of coffee. Didn't spill a fucking drop. Then I decided to try something that wasn't human." He stopped there and took a deep breath to steady himself, his hands coming together and clenching down tight. "I literally reached into another living being and forced it to do something it didn't want. I could feel it fighting back and how fucking scared it was. I'm no fucking different from those worthless astronomical bulgefucks screwing with our heads." He swallowed hard and ran his hands back though his hair then laced his hands together behind his head as it fell.

Bro listened intently and took a minute to really let everything settle in. He tapped his fingers on the rails and then turned around slowly. "That's not true. You have the distinct ability to feel remorse, regret, and guilt." He crouched into a squatting position, resting his elbows on his knees as he put his folded hands to his lips. "I think, Karkat, that you could use this power to do great things. If you were ever in grave danger, you could hold your attackers back in a non-violent way." He looked up at Karkat and continued. "You could save others in similar dire situations. While yeah, it ain't ideally kind, it's merciful in comparison to methods that some others might employ."

"I'd rather avoid it if at all possible if it's all the same to you," he muttered and sat back with his hands tucked under his arms. "At least with Dave I know I can trust him to tell me when to stop or that it's hurting him."

"Karkat," Bro started firmly, "A Knight protects. Knights are meant to use their power as honorably as possible, and in such a way that will keep themselves and those around them safe." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "And shit yeah, I get where you're comin' from. I can destroy someone's soul. I can break a person's essence down into its component parts and crumble that into ash." He turned away, biting his lower lip to bite back his frustration. "But we're good people. What we _can_ do with our powers isn't what we _must_ do with them, are you followin' me?"

Karkat winced, then finally sighed in defeat and stood back up, glancing back in at Dave again then looking up at Bro briefly. He nodded in understanding but he still didn't look happy about the situation. "Have you eaten?" He asked quietly, trying to get back to some semblance of normalcy. "I think Dave just ate the last of the leftovers but I still have enough left in the spaghetti sauce jar and a package of noodles. Or barring that, freezer pizza."

Bro stood and put his hand on Karkat's shoulder, looking at him again. "Don't worry about me. I ate. I want you to think on it, Karkat. You got a lot to worry about as it is, without this bullshit weighin' you down, but try'n think about it in a productive light. When it comes time that you need those powers, you got 'em. It'd be best to try'n hone 'em. Carefully, of course." He smiled and opened the door. "Now how about some fuckin' Disney brand souveniers, huh?" He stepped inside and went to one of the bags he set down on his way in, bringing it back into the living room with him.

"I don't know about Dave but I'm not wearing one of those goofy-ass ear hats," Karkat immediately objected as he sat down on the couch, finishing off his neglected danish and crumpling the plastic on his hand.

"Dude, _please_ tell me you got me some ears," Dave said on the heels of Karkat's statement. Bro chuckled at that and tossed Dave the ear hat, with his name embroidered on the back. "Fuck YES!" Dave said, immediately putting them on. Bro then turned to Karkat, and handed over the pullover hoodie. "I figured I'd forgo the irony for you. You don't seem to be a huge fan of the ironies anyway."

"I _live with_ the ironies, remember?" Karkat took the sweater, holding it up and nodding some in approval. He glanced over at Dave and shook his head at the ridiculous black ears perched on top of his head. "Did Sollux get anything? I really can't see him running around in one of those."

"Not that I saw, nah," Bro said as he sat down, glad that Karkat liked the sweatshirt. "He got a video of the manly muscular standoff, I think that's his souvenir." He got a lopsided smile at that, remembering the absolutely fuckawful poses and expressions, and the sheer amount of testosterone. "He send that to you guys yet?"

"No, but most likely it'll be on youtube by the end of the night if it isn't up already." Karkat looked slightly perplexed, but then he reminded himself of who he was talking to and where he'd been. "What, did you run into the guy from Beauty and the Beast and flex him to death?"

"Him and your buddy Equius and me." He recounted the scene for Dave and Karkat, ending when he sent John scurrying off. "This is the shit I deal with on the daily so you dumb fucksticks don't go off and unmake reality. Y'know, just so you know." He smirked as he took off his shades and wiped a smudge off of them with the bottom of his shirt. "But I should let you two get back to your night. I just figured I'd drop by and let y'all know I'm back, and I'll be collectin' my shit once my baby's good'n runnin'."

"I can't believe you ran into Equius at Disneyland," Karkat laughed incredulously, "Has to have been Nepeta's idea. There is no way he would have gone on his own..." He shook his head and started toward the kitchen in the hopes of finding something more substantial to eat than a shitty packaged pastry. He paused by the counter and looked back at Bro, offering a sideways little smile. "Thanks for coming by."

Dave grinned as he set his hat down on the side table and stood, so he could give his brother a hearty hug. "Don't give the mechanics too hard of a time," he said, "it's not their fault they're complete assfucks."

Bro chuckled and rumpled Dave's hair, before grabbing his duffel bag and looking over at Karkat, "You'n me need to schedule some time to work on that Tai Chi thing." He nodded his goodbye, and took his leave.

Once Bro was gone, Dave sprawled out on the sofa, smiling a little. He wasn't going to pry about what the two had talked about; when it was a talk out of earshot, it was private, and there was no argument to be had over that. "I'm gonna work on my papers and shit 'till my eyes fall out of my head or I pass out," he let Karkat know, as he leaned down to fetch his laptop from under the side table, and his headphones from the shelf just above. "if you need anything, throw stuff at me 'til I notice."

Karkat paused, then slapped his hand against his forehead and shouted at the ceiling. "Fuck, I knew I forgot something..." He huffed and went about digging through the cupboards, finding nothing edible then just settling on making himself a sandwich then going and grabbing his husktop to see if the grades for the day's presentation had been posted. He didn't have class until late in the morning the next day, thankfully, but then there was the afternoon and closing shifts at the cafe to worry about. He started scanning ahead on the pages listed for the required reading for a couple of different classes then sighed and went to grab his books too.

Dave had put his music on loud enough that the very faintest sound of it could be heard through his noise-canceling headphones, and while he worked to add references to his report on television history - specifically, the shows that moved from radio to TV - he mouthed along to the words of the songs he was listening to, head bobbing slightly to the beat. It was a pretty interesting paper to him. He got to write about one his all-time favorite old-timey shows, _Suspense!_ , which was always good.

Meanwhile, Karkat was absorbed in his reading, chewing at his lower lip as he read on joint theories and ideals between certain troll and human philosophers. Some of it he recognized; others, he was sure that some of them were made up specifically for this world. It wouldn't surprise him if huge chunks of what he was learning in school was fabricated specifically to fit this reality. It was slightly disconcerting, but when approached from that angle, it made a lot of his studies that much more fascinating.

After a couple of hours of relative silence, Karkat glanced up at Dave's back, then at the clock, sighing quietly. He at least would have to go to bed soon if he wanted to be able to get up for class the next day. He stood and stretched his arms over his head, then crept up behind Dave and slipped his arms around the other's neck, leaning down as gently as possible and pressing his lips to the back of Dave's neck. He lingered there for a moment, then straightened back up and retrieved his things to take back to the bedroom before he tucked in for the night. Dave looked up from his screen and smiled faintly, quick-saving his progress before setting the laptop down and having it go into sleep mode. He took off his headphones and stood, walking along behind his matesprit.

"Glad you caught me before I passed out, dude. I was almost ready to commit a grievous mistake of writing in my sleep."

"I'd love to see the look on your professor's face if you handed in a sleep-written paper," Karkat snorted as he stripped down to his boxer shorts, crawling into bed and flopping out facedown. Dave slipped out of all his clothes and sprawled out, chuckling to himself.

"I have done that _once_ , and that's when I learned to proof read everything before I send it in." He stretched and popped his back before curling slightly and turning over to Karkat. He turned to glance up at Dave, his smile fading off until it was nothing more than a thoughtful little frown. "Hey. Strider."

"Yes, assface?" His tone was all fondness.

Karkat shifted and laid his head against Dave's chest, wrinkling his nose a bit at his he had to curl up to do so. "Sorry for being a complete shit earlier. I know you were just worried and I wasn't helping any."

"M'used to you being a prick, dude. It's okay." He ran his hand gently through Karkat's hair as he sighed contentedly. "I'm just happy you snapped out of it. You were on the express train from sulksville to seethetown there." He closed his eyes and yawned, pressing a kiss to the top of his matesprit's head. "I mean, we don't have to tell each other everything. We can, but we really don't have any obligation to."

Karkat made a face and tucked his face against Dave's side, draping his arm over the other's stomach. "Remind me to send your brother home with something good when he leaves alright? Something so he doesn't have to live off freezer food and junk for a night."

"Mm. Didn't I tell you he is the shit?" Murmured Dave, as he continued to play with the ends of Karkat's hair. "He's such a fuckin' righteous guy. A pain in the ass and a complete affront to everything even remotely normal, but amazing." He was clearly drifting off to sleep as he spoke. "I want to help you make that food for him. Just... remind me I said that. Y'know. 'Cause I'll forget."

"If it involves mixing shit, that'll be your job," Karkat yawned, tucking his arm under his chin as he purr-chirped quietly the longer Dave played with his hair. He dozed off with his head resting against Dave's sternum and barely moved for the rest of the night.

\--

The days passed fairly uneventfully, to the infinite relief of those living them. Life got back on track, and things worked out so that Dave even managed to bounce down to Denver one weekend and finally get his back piece done, as he'd been wanting to do for ages. It was healed by the time March rolled around, and Bro sent two plane tickets and a hotel reservation to the boys dated the afternoon that spring break officially started, with the note of 'surf's up' and the promise that there'd be some badass happenings. Dave hadn't planned anything for spring break because he knew that there was something up Bro's sleeve.

Bro had, in those months, fixed up his car and only drove down to Texas to pack up the vast majority of his shit into a moving van and move up to Lakewood, where he bought a condo to stash it all in. He was up twice a week to teach Karkat Tai-Chi, and in turn, get fed something other than his staple of pre-made deli food. He kept a bead on everything he was technically supposed to be doing, while also working on new content for his sites, hanging with Sollux on cam, and planning for the strange Big Thing that he felt coming up on the horizon. 

But things were going well, all told, when Dave announced that they were going to California to enjoy some goddamn sun for once. It was the evening before they left that he started to pack, looking through the closet and thinking about what he wanted to clutter his sylladex with. He already decided that once they got to the airport, he'd put the car into his sylladex just so they wouldn't have to rent one.

"Y'know, it's been a long damn time since I was in California," Dave commented as he debated between one garish shirt or another equally eye-offending one. "I think you'll like it. It's warm, the crowds are reasonable if you aren't in the fucking middle of tourist trap hell, and the food there is fuckin' _awesome_."

Karkat was sitting on top of his suitcase, already packed with what he deemed "essentials", namely a lot of sunscreen for Dave, knowing that he would either forget or just want to go without entirely, in addition to the coolest clothes he owned that still kept him covered. He was watching Dave fuss over what clothes he wanted, his elbow propped on his knee with his hand on his cheek, fingers toying idly with the matching orbital he'd finally gotten the day Dave had gone to get his tattoo.

"I'm just going to take your word on that," he said with a bored yawn, rolling his eyes at both of the shirts Dave was holding up then crawling off the bed to pick another one entirely, slapping it against the other's chest with a shake of his head.

Dave grinned and set the shirts back up on the rail in the closet, taking the one Karkat not-quite-suggested, instead. "Thanks. I dunno, I'm just fuckin' jazzed to see Terezi and the other girls again. Or maybe it's because I haven't surfed since I was like, eleven." He actually wondered if he still could, all things considered. "You're gonna be a complete ass once we hit the beach, aren't you? Y'know, there's other things to do on a beach besides be miserable and not swim."

"We'll just have to see," Karkat replied vaguely then pecked Dave's cheek before leaving the room to make something small to eat before they hunkered down to wait for their flight the next day. He didn't feel like going to sleep that night, settling instead on watching movies or else playing video games with Dave until they got tired of it or passed out in their seats.

After he was finished packing, Dave put his sylladex up where his wallet, glasses, and smokes usually were set on the counter, and slipped up next to Karkat with a smirk. "I'm surprised Bro's letting everyone convene like this, actually. I guess he knows something we don't." He tucked his hands in his pockets and looked over Karkat's shoulder. "Whatcha makin'?"

Karkat looked back at Dave as he stopped prodding the contents of his pan, taking it off the heat briefly then gesturing toward the refrigerator. "Get me the shredded cheese and the ham. And the green pepper if you feel like dicing it for me."

Dave smiled a little, and slipped away to grab what Karkat had asked of him, setting them down on the counter beside the stove. He grabbed the cutting board from its place on the side of the counter and a knife, and started carefully cutting the green pepper - at least that part of it was something he could do with relative efficiency. He had recently taken to helping Karkat with making the meals, enjoying the company and the small sense of accomplishment that it afforded. He still didn't trust himself around the burners or oven itself, but he could help the prep part along pretty well. There was a smaller pan to one side warming up with a thin layer of oil in the bottom, just lightly starting to steam.

"Dump the diced pepper in there with the ham after you slice that up small. I'm not doing this shit up fancy, it's mostly to hold us over until breakfast tomorrow." He peeled the layer of fluffy egg off the bottom of the pan and flipped it over, working slowly and gingerly as he did. Crepes were something he'd never tried before and he was just bored enough to try until he got it right. With another nod, Dave set into slicing up the ham into little cubes as well, before tossing them into the oil with the peppers, careful not to splash, still a little nervous about even getting NEAR the burner. He set the board and knife back down and then put his hands behind him, rubbing his thumb against his fingers nervously.

"I'm pretty sure you're some kind of magician, actually," he teased, "food prep is kind of freaky."

"And yet without it you would remain underweight." Karkat turned the heat down on the larger pan and started to scrape the cooking mixture away from the bottom of the pan then giving it a couple of short flips to toss it evenly and let it start to brown, sprinkling cheese onto the nearly done wrap to start melting. He poked his tongue from the corner of his lips as he kept the mixture moving and added a little bit of pepper to it before putting it back down and scooting the crepe onto a plate and spreading some of the mixture into it. "Wrap that. I'll make another three for you and a couple for me."

"You're fattening me up for the slaughter, I swear to fuck," Dave murmured with a lopsided smile, and watched intently, before nodding once more, getting to work. "This smells crazy good, I don't know how you do it, dude." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek, and then looked down at the finished product. Three would go fast - he could eat his weight in eggs with no fucking problem - so he inwardly debated momentarily before murmuring, "yeah, I'm making salads too." He went into the fridge to grab the spinach and romaine, and he sliced up tomatoes and shredded a couple carrots. Cold food was something he'd finally gotten the hang of, at least.

Karkat smiled faintly, glancing over at Dave as he worked on the salads. He would never be let near the stove on the best of days but prep, salad and drinks were all things he knew he could trust his matesprit with. He started on another couple of the wraps, concentrating on keeping them neat but managing to tear a couple of them nonetheless. He huffed but shook it off; two ripped crepes out of six total wasn't bad by any stretch. He passed each of them onto the plate to be filled and rolled up, setting the pan in the sink to wash after they ate. Dave took the time out of making the salads to fill the crepes, though he went straight back to making them once he was finished with the little chore. He finished making the salads, sprinkling a little shredded cheese on the other toppings, and then he grabbed the croutons out of the cupboard to toss a few on each then drenched his own with raspberry vinaigrette.

"Smells so good," he murmured as he grabbed his plate and bowl and went to the living room. "Fuck yeah, winner food."

"Look at that, nice fuckin' gourmet dinner for like a third the price you'd pay at any given fancy-ass restaurant." Karkat smirked and grabbed a glass of juice for himself then coming back and sitting down on the floor in front of the couch to eat. He cut into one of his crepes with the side of his fork and grinned at the strings of cheese then popped the piece into his mouth with a content little hum.

Dave was already well into one of the crepes, completely starved, it seemed. Every time Karkat made food from scratch, he seemed to eat far better than if they ordered in or just ate frozen food or some other pre-made meal. He grinned over his fork and nodded. "You pay for the environment at those places, not the food," he muttered over a bite of crepe. "Never understood it. Nice restaurants aren't my deal. Sitting around a bunch of fuckin' strangers and their nasty table habits, making gross smacking noises with their mouths? I don't care how fuckin' fancy your restaurant is, it's still sitting around in public, shoving your face full of food."

"Exactly. It'd be a lot better for everyone involved if they just stayed home in the company of people they actually liked." Karkat leaned his head sideways against Dave's knee as he brought his plate up onto his knees in front of him and ate with his salad bowl in his lap, looking extremely content about life in general.

That night after the dishes had been tucked into the dishwasher to run while they slept, Karkat took care to check both his and Dave's bags to be sure they wouldn't be forgetting anything. This would be a perfect opportunity to play with his camera again, if he didn't spend too much time surfing. He nearly took his trunks out to put away, but conceded at a Look and put them back then tucked the bags out of the way. He took a few minutes to brush his teeth then spent nearly half an hour harassing Dave's ear, then his neck, down his chest and everywhere else he could think to rile his matesprit up with just his mouth, leaving a bite mark on the inside of his thigh before finally paying careful homage to his cock. Though Karkat asked for nothing, Dave had never let a good deed go without being repaid. He didn't argue the point, however, not until he was well sated, and had caught his breath enough to be able to give back as good as he'd gotten. He fell asleep tangled with his matesprit, Karkat purring contentedly into his ear. Given that they weren't going to be by themselves for a lot of the trip, this would be the last chance they had for a while to really do anything like this together.

The morning seemed like a controlled storm in its rush, though they had plenty of time to get to the airport. Cass came by to let them know that Em was in good hands and grab Dave's set of keys so he could come in to keep her fed and played with, and lock up behind himself. Em seemed to remember him, as the first thing that happened when he came by was rub up against him and nearly trip him with her affections. He told them to have a great week and walked with them down to the car once it was time to go, waving them off as they went.

The plane ride wasn't terribly turbulent or overwhelmingly long. Dave took a picture out the window of the mountains as they passed overhead - really more because he liked how they looked than for any artistic reason - and then settled in to watch the in-flight movie. He was glad that Bro had bought them first-class tickets this time around, so they had leg room and didn't have to worry about wanting to punch people in the head for their idiocy.

Bro had arrived the night before and was sporting a new, matching set of hickeys on either side of his neck, peeking out from under his collar, as he waited for the guys' flight to land, dicking around with his phone to pass the time. Once the airplane rolled up to the gate, he pocketed the phone and prepared himself for a rattled Karkat to talk out of flipping out.

Stepping off the plane was about as graceful as it had been the first time around, Karkat clinging to the nearest wall when he stepped off, though at least this time the wall was actually part of the building rather than his matesprit's brother. He glanced around and quickly spotted Bro, arching an eyebrow up at the fresh marks on his neck and looking around for Sollux. Apparently he'd chosen to stay behind though, hoping to stay out of the line of fire when Karkat inevitably flipped his shit. Terezi would be landing at any time, having taken an early flight to avoid the rush.

"Surprised the Douche of Doom didn't come to meet us," Karkat muttered as soon as he was able to stand upright, holding onto Dave's sleeve to keep his knees from unhinging and sending him sprawling across the tile floor.

Dave propped his matesprit up with an arm around the waist, grinning a little. "You'll get used to it eventually, dude," he sighed, though he very much doubted his own words. He looked up at Bro with a smile. "Hey."

"Sup. We got about five minutes or so 'til Terezi will be landing at that gate over there," Bro said with a point of his soul patch towards the seats in front of yet another window. "Then we're all gonna pile into the car and head down to the hotel. It's basically the best damn place to stay," he said with a tilted grin, "It's right there by the beach, walkin' distance to downtown Venice Beach. There ain't a better place to have spring break." Of course, he'd booked the rooms months in advance, making sure to beat the rush of shortsighted college kids. He led the way to Terezi's gate and dropped himself into a seat. Karkat remained standing, subtly bracing for the sudden impact of a small female body. He stood in plain sight with his hands in his pockets, watching the airplane as it steered in to park and let off the passengers. Nearly everyone that finally stepped off looked incredibly harassed, and the cause was immediately apparent when a short, chirpy young troll dressed in a vibrant sundress and trademark red glasses stepped off the plane, looking around then grinning her shark-like grin at all of them and let go of the strap of her carry-on to launch herself cackling into Karkat's arms.

"KARKLES! Oh my god you'll never guess what just happened," she giggled and clung to him around the neck, then blinked when she realized that he'd lifted her off the ground, her toes hanging inches off the ground. "Who are you and what have you done with my Nubs?!" she demanded, kicking her feet a little until he put her back down so that she could round on Dave and Bro when she finally spotted them off to the side. Dave laughed outright at the greeting, and then the immediate surprise.

"Hey, 'Rezi," Dave said, suddenly getting nearly knocked over with her clinging hug that turned into a piggyback ride before he could protest. "How're you?" 

"Your hair!" She exclaimed in lieu of explaining what happened or how she was, "Oh my god, coolkid, are you TRYING to be a pest? Look how delicious your hair is!" She rumpled her hand through it and he laughed again. "Oh so I was gonna say! You wouldn't BELIEVE who was in first class! The whole time!" She jumped down off Dave's back and went to attempt to squeeze the life out of Bro with a hug around his waist. "So I was sitting in my seat in the back and I start hearing this voice, right, and I smelled something? It was very familiar and _very_ suspicious. So I went through to the front just to confirm my senses, and sure enough... THERE HE IS!" She pointed, and then pulled away from Bro to drag him along, "HEY! GET BACK HERE, YOU POMPOUS JERK!"

Dave was trying his best to keep up with her train of thought and her very person when he looked up to see a lithe, svelte businessman in glasses turn around and glare at their group a little, before tending to his phone. Dave's eyes went wide, and his hand went up to hide an entirely devious smile. The seadweller looked nothing short of heinously affronted as he did his best to walk away faster than they could catch up.

Karkat leaned some to get a look at just what was going on when Terezi started to drag the rest of them along, slowing down some when he spotted the figure, his brow furrowing as he tried to catch up with the rest of them. At some point, according to Bro, Eridan had died and hit god tier, meaning that he had to remember _something_. So it was reasonable that he would attempt to avoid them. It didn't stop him from jogging to catch up with the others though as they crowded their way to the luggage carousel. Terezi was talking a mile a minute and shaking Bro's arm as she did, mentioning Karkat's growth spurt at the top of her voice and drawing several looks. Dave set his hands on Terezi's shoulders to calm her and then explained, in a hushed tone against her ear what had happened to cause Karkat's transformation into Beefcake McNubby. She laughed at his phrasing and shook her head with a bright smile and pushed him a little, calling him completely smitten and flushed, sassing him about it. Bro grabbed all of their luggage off the carousel, intending to carry it himself to let them be free to do as they wanted, so long as they followed him to the car.

Eridan _had_ noticed Terezi, and recognized her. Indeed, he remembered quite a fuckin' lot about the game, though he kept himself apart from it. He pretended to be on his phone for a little while longer before he turned around to see that the guardian had distracted Terezi enough to keep her from following, and then tried to suss out who else was there. The Dave Human was obvious, despite his physical change, but the other troll... Well. Even if it _was_ Karkat, which it most assuredly fuckin' _wasn't_ \- he was much too tall - they'd severed ties and he vowed to keep that the way it was.

But fuck it, the temptation was there. He walked towards the baggage claim and tapped Karkat on the shoulder. "Excuse me," he said, having polished his accent to a near-perfect transcontinental instead of the quavering oddity that it had once been, "You're in my fuckin' way."

Karkat turned on him and pointed a finger up under his nose, looking straight at him with a small snarl on his lips. "Excuse your fucking self, you bulgebiting doucheballoon," he snapped back, then softened some, eyebrows lifting as he laid a hand on Eridan's shoulder gingerly.

Eridan's eyes went wide at the impertinence, though it faded away to a more fond smile as he put his own hand onto Karkat's shoulder in return. "Holy fuckin' shit, it's actually you. What did you do, fall into a fuckin' vat a egregiously potent growth hormones?" He smiled briefly and then gave the others a pursed lip look. "Hello, Pyrope. Strider. Likely other Strider." He stepped back to give them all a quick look. "I didn't fuckin' believe that spiderbitch when she said you assholes were all here, but look at you now. What the hell are you all doin' here, anyhow?"

Dave gave a sharp, sarcastic smile in return. "Having tea with the pope, you fucking tool. It's spring break, or did you not see all the kids our age piled into the plane?" He got a cuff upside the head for that from Bro, who muttered, "It was just a fucking question, dude, chill your shit."

Rolling his eyes at all of them, Karkat glanced back over his shoulder at Dave with an amused but slightly frustrated huff. He turned back to Eridan, letting his hand fall away then tuck into his pocket. "I kind of died for about a day," he explained quietly, then looked Eridan over now that they were face to face. "What the fuck happened to _you_ though? I swear if it wasn't for the gaudy-ass rings I never would have recognized you. When'd you ditch the ridiculous hipster bullshit?" He asked, glancing around at the luggage circling around the carousel in case he saw a tag with Eridan's name on it come by. He bristled slightly when he heard Terezi hissing into Dave's ear, "oh no he's hot, better watch your boyfriend."

Dave nudged Terezi with a nosewrinkle. "Don't get me jealous," he teased, before he took a seat. It was going to take a while, and he was feeling lazy as shit.

"About the time I grew outta all of my other fuckin' childish desires and fashions. I see that Strider's taken up the mantle quite well, though, doin' a better job lookin' like a pretentious piece of shit than I ever could." He gave a sneering smile as Dave silently flipped him off while texting to Sollux and the girls that they'd be running a little late.

"I've got a meeting to get to," Eridan continued, before holding his hand out. "Give me your phone, Kar, I'll leave you with my number, and we can get together if you're not too busy with your partyin' and drunken craziness."

"You really think I'm going to be going out and partying? The fuck do you take me for?" Karkat snorted as he handed his phone over, letting Eridan program his number into his address book then pocketing it when he was done. He wrapped an arm around the other's shoulders briefly, grinning inwardly that he could do so in the first place without trying then went back to Dave's side and bumped Terezi out of the way with his hip to her very loud displeasure. She insinuated herself between them again with her arms around each of their shoulders, still giving Eridan a look a shark would give a piece of raw meat. Eridan walked the other direction, needing to pick up the keys to his rental, programming Karkat's number into his own address book, having found it before programming his number into Karkat's phone. He smiled faintly to himself. Well, at least one person on this stupid human-infested rock wasn't a total waste. Karkat looked over Terezi's head at Dave, reaching behind her and taking hold of his matesprit's hand. "I'm getting tired of the airport already."

"Airports are a fucking soul-crushing entity in which all spirit is lost," Dave murmured, squeezing Karkat's hand as they followed Bro out towards the parking lot, smiling at Terezi a little. She was such of a handful, but so worth it. After all, seeing Karkat smile like that was a rarity, and if it took seeing a tool like Eridan to get that out of him, so be it. "Thanks for sniffing him out, 'Rezi, you did good."

"I know, I am the best, no need to thank me. Just doing my duty." She said with a smile.

The drive to the hotel was a bit of a pain, and although the Camaro could fit all of them comfortably, it was still good to get out and stretch their legs once they were at their destination. The hotel itself looked straight out at the ocean on one side, and over the PCH and the city on the other. It was enormous and lavish, and once they got to the garage, Dave took his own car out of his sylladex, and made sure it was parked beside his brother's. 

Terezi's room was joined by a set of doors to Dave and Karkat's, and Bro's room was across the hall, joined to Kanaya and Rose's. Dave walked out onto the balcony with a cigarette as he took in the ocean air, grinning up a storm. "God, it's been way too damn long since I've been here. Seriously, once we graduate, this is where I want to be." He'd always loved southern California, and all his long-term earth-bound plans centered around moving there as soon as he was able.

Karkat looked around the room as everyone dispersed, shaking his head some as once more they were put up in unnecessarily nice accommodations. He joined Dave outside on the balcony and propped his chin on his matesprit's shoulder as an arm slipped around his waist, his nose tucking into the spot just under Dave's ear.

"So what now?" He asked quietly, his hand coming to rest against Dave's hip. "Do you intend to stay in here and just look at it for a while or can we actually plan what we were going to do for the next week?"

Dave smiled and put his free arm over Karkat's, exhaling smoke through his nose. "We can do both at the same time like the fucking masters of multitasking that we are. What do _you_ wanna do, dude?" He turned around in Karkat's arms, putting his own over his matesprit's shoulders, careful not to get smoke into Karkat's eyes.

Karkat thought for a moment, then looked back over his shoulder at the beach and the smattering of spring break tourists playing in the waves or lounging around getting tans. "You see that sun out there? I'm pretty sure I haven't seen that much sun since I fucking left Alternia. I want some real sunlight for once, Strider."

"You haven't seen me with a tan, have you?" Dave said with a tilt of his head, stepping back to look at Karkat with a smile. "Bro's always got the darker complexion, but where he is right now? S'about how tan I can get before I start getting red as my eyes." He smiled faintly and kissed Karkat's nose. "Come on, then, let's get you out there." He took a last drag of his smoke before stubbing it out and stepping into the room, shedding his hoodie and pants to put on shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. It was nice enough weather that he couldn't bear to have on long pants.

He was halfway into his shorts when there was a knock on the door. The voice that filtered through was Kanaya's. "Karkat? Dave? I have some gifts for you."

Karkat smiled faintly to himself as he approached the door so that Dave could finish dressing. He leaned down to press his lips to Kanaya's cheek in greeting, then blinked when she held up a couple of folded pairs of board shorts. His head tilted as he looked them over without picking them up, then took them and held them against his chest. "You think of everything, don't you..."

"Of course. Did you really expect me not to have something at the ready for your vacation?" She smiled warmly at him, stepping back some as he looked down at her. She was dressed in a loose, gauzy shirt and a wrap around her waist, the sheer material just showing the bathing suit underneath. She looked like one of the women in fashion catalogs. Karkat thanked her quietly and looked back toward her room where Rose was likely waiting for her return, then eased the door closed between them.

"Hey Strider, guess what," he called as he strode back in, tossing over the pair that was very obviously made for him. Then he stopped by the bed and chewed at his lower lip as he unfolded the board shorts that Kanaya had made specifically for him. He knew they would fall below his knees, on par with cargo short length. He licked at his lip to check if it was bleeding, then braced himself and changed his clothes into the shorts, which actually felt good where they sat on his hips, and a tanktop that he could easily tuck into the waistband. He grabbed a bottle of sun lotion as well, intending to cover Dave in it to keep him from turning into a lobster.

"Agh, no," Dave protested, wrinkling his nose at the smell. "Dude, don't you even fucking dare." But he relented and sat down, scowling petulantly as he grabbed the bottle, himself. "Don't have to treat me like a child, fucker," he grumbled, squeezing some lotion out for himself so he could get his arms and face.

"You're going to end up being completely made up of fucking freckles otherwise you douchenozzle," Karkat snapped in returned, grabbing the bottle back and pouring some of the lotion into his hand then smearing it over the back of Dave's neck and down his shoulders and the backs of his arms where it was a little more difficult to reach.

"I'm already completely made up of freckles, it's fucking genetic, Jesus H." He sighed and tilted his head forward to give Karkat more room to work. "It's not sun damage, it's how I was made, okay?" He scowled again for a moment and then a smile crept over his face. Karkat would always win the caregiving fights; he never really argued anyway except to sass. "Thanks," his tone was quiet and gentle as he settled down, chewing at the corner of his lip.

"I'm glad you got to see Eridan again. I know you missed him. I may not like the utter doucheweasel, but I know how much you two cared about each other." He looked over his shoulder at Karkat with a smile.

Karkat blinked at that, then smiled faintly himself as he smoothed the lotion over the back of Dave's neck until he couldn't see the white streaks anymore. "You know I worried about him. Being some bigshot fucking corporate asshole's gotta be stressful." He dragged his fingers over his shirt to rid them of the last of the residue then combed them through Dave's hair, leaning over the top of his head and pressing his lips to the center of his matesprit's forehead. "If you see him again while we're here, try to be nice or something. Or at least less of a dick. I'm telling him the same thing."

"I can't promise that," Dave said with a little crinkle to his eyebrows. "If he starts up his stupid flirting shit, I might have to kick his ass. C'mon, let's get out there." He stood then, turning to give Karkat a kiss. "If he's a fuckin' douchebag to Terezi, though, it's over, man." He grinned as he grabbed his wallet and glasses, and started to the door, putting on his shades.

"If he says shit to any of the girls I'm burying him in the sand with only a fucking straw to breathe through," Karkat replied and shook his head, grabbing one of the oversized towels he'd thought to buy after he'd heard the plan for their spring break. He tossed it over his shoulder then slipped his hand into Dave's as they headed out.

Lacing his fingers with Karkat's, he smiled a little. "That's assuming they haven't gotten to him first. I'm pretty sure Rose would have a thing or two to say back to him." He shook his head at remembering what Terezi said, then, huffing half a chuckle. "I'm not worried, by the way. Even if that bitchass little prick got hot, he's still a bitchass little prick."

They made their way down to the walkway that ran from the rock outcropping that marked the north edge of the city to the bay on the south end, and started somewhere in the middle, Dave simply enjoying the peoplewatching experience. "I'm sure Bro's planning on getting us all together later for lunch or a barbecue or something. And I'm about eleven thousand percent certain he's planning a beach bonfire for tonight."

"Striders are strangely predictable," Karkat chuckled as he walked beside Dave, his fingers tangled loosely with his matesprit's. It was nice here; nobody looked at them funny, either too distracted by their own activities, or else they just didn't give a shit. It was good to feel the sun on his skin for a change as well. The wind blowing in off the ocean flapped his shorts gently against his knees and made him wrinkle his nose some at the smell of saltwater and fish. "I don't suppose swimming is out of the question...?"

Dave raised an eyebrow to that. "I thought you didn't know how?" He smiled as he stopped and turned to Karkat, walking backwards towards the beach and water. "I'm for it, but I'm not going to pull your dumb ass out if you start sinking like a stone."

Karkat rolled his eyes and bumped his shoulder against Dave's as they walked. "I meant for you, dipshit. You can swim and I know you actually want to get in the water. Why would I get in it when you know I can't tread water to save my fucking life."

Dave's expression brightened at that and he nodded, leading the way down the beach before picking out a pretty fairly mellow area to settle down. He took the towel off Karkat's shoulder and set it down, before he pulled out his sylladex from the pocket in his board shorts, releasing a bottle of water and his own towel. He took his wallet out of his other pocket, and took off his glasses, looking over at Karkat with a smirk. "Don't go anywhere." He walked off towards the water, and once he was about mid-thigh in and got adapted to the chilled mid-spring water, he dove in, and eventually opened his eyes under the water, spotting a couple seadwellers out past the breakers as well as several other swimmers.

Another one had just gotten out of his excruciatingly boring meeting, and had parked his car down at the lot, near the changing booths. He stripped out of his suit and pulled on his trunks, then walked out onto the beach after depositing his clothes in his car, his glasses transitioning into sunglasses as he strolled down the sand. He smirked when a child pointed at him and exclaimed in awe, 'the seadweller has so many pictures!' The boy's mother agreed quietly then whispered that it wasn't polite to point before nodding to Eridan, her eyes unable to help scanning over the seadweller's body, taking in the tattoos and myriad of opulent rings. She wandered toward a cart that had been set up further down the beach, halfway between where Eridan had chosen to park and where Karkat had finally harassed his towel out as straight as he could possibly get it, then doing the same for Dave's as his matesprit went to play in the ocean. He was smiling faintly when he spotted Dave coming up for air, recognizing him from that distance by the tattoo standing out vividly on his back. He was sprawled out on his stomach with his head on his arms, simply enjoying the heat of the sun on his back.

The deadly predator was stalking her prey. The delicious-smelling red-eyed human with his new markings was her target. She swam silently behind him, keeping out of his line of sight, and once he came up for air, he was yanked back under and tickled profusely! They both came up back to the surface laughing and Dave splashed Terezi with a pursed pout, before chuckling again, dodging her retaliatory splash. They came back out after a few more minutes of splashing, and she ran to get her own towel to bring over to where Karkat was sitting, then she put her arms around Karkat and grinned as she got him wet.

"He makes the funniest faces when he gets tickled," she cooed victoriously.

Dave settled down onto his towel and opened up his bottle of water, drinking about half of it. "That is some cheaty bullshit you pulled, 'Rezi. She lives up to being a fucking shark, by the way." 

Soon, Bro in his new trunks that Kanaya had given to him came down with two surfboards over one shoulder, another one under his other arm, and walked with Rose and Kanaya as they came down. He knew that soon, Sollux would be joining them, and that made him happier than just about everything else planned for the day. He propped the surfboards beside everyone's towels as the girls set theirs down - Rose with a picnic basket and sun umbrella - and then he dropped himself down in front of everyone else, looking out at the ocean.

Karkat pushed himself up to sit in the middle of them all, laughing quietly at Terezi's grin and winking at her as he reached over and covertly grabbed where he knew Dave was ticklish. There would be retribution later, but he was prepared for that, in a good mood and actually energetic now that he'd had a little time by himself in the sun. Dave let out an indignant yelp and scowled when he couldn't manage to retaliate by way of going for Karkat's grubscars, since Terezi had grabbed his hands to keep him from getting back. Karkat stuck out his tongue then wrapped an arm around Terezi's middle and promptly started critiquing her taste in swimwear. She looked sweet in her brightly-colored, obviously mismatched bikini, but giving her a hard time was proving infinitely amusing.

Down the beach, the thump of expensive bass made a couple of people look around then go right back to what they were doing, the long, lanky body of a yellow-blood climbing out and shielding his eyes. He'd ditched his usual glasses for the day in favor of a pair of sunglasses. He scanned the beach until he found the little gathering of his friends and jogged along the sand in his sandals, a pair of custom board shorts and a white tshirt, coming to a stop beside the boards stuck in the sand. He was carrying a decently-sized cooler, plunked down in the sand beside the umbrella Rose had set up and opened to reveal an assortment of drinks, from cans of beer to soda and even a few Caprisun pouches. "They were on thale," he explained when Karkat gave him a look for that.

Dave had finally sat back up, looking around at the familiar sounding bassline and then grinning when he saw who it was. He jumped a bit when Karkat gave a strangled yell at the sudden assault on his grubscars made by Terezi while he was distracted, and Karkat flopped over sideways, whining at the top of his voice at how cruel they all were, including Kanaya and Rose for not stopping them. Kanaya simply continued to laugh, dipping her hand into the cooler for a moment then laying it on Karkat's back, a piece of ice in her palm. He nearly jumped out of his skin and gave her the most scandalized look, prompting Terezi to fall over laughing.

"Of fucking course you listen to Combichrist," Dave said to Sollux with a lopsided smile when the other had stopped beside them, grabbing a soda. Rose looked up from her book and waved politely to Sollux as well. Bro grinned and nodded up to Sollux as he walked past.

"You ready to learn to use these monsters, dude?"

Eridan had been swimming for a little while, gone out past the breakers and keeping to himself, though he had a brief conversation with another royal blood about his tattoos, pleased to tell the other where he'd gotten them done and why, and left off to get some simple alone time out far past the beach. It took ten minutes to get back once he decided he needed to grab something to eat, and emerged from the ocean, his dark skin glistening with seawater as he walked past the group, towards a kebab vendor.

Sollux watched all of this for a moment, shaking his head at the obvious maturity of his friends then turning back to Bro. "Fuck yeth," he grinned and picked one of the boards, turning in place and nearly colliding with Eridan in the process. He bared his teeth, ready to snap at whoever hadn't been watching where the fuck they were going. At first, he had no idea who he was looking at; he'd always been a good deal taller than Eridan, but their heights were closer now than they'd ever been. He had to stare at the seadweller for a few seconds, blocking him from moving away using the surfboard.

"Fishdick," he hissed, his expression pulling into a wide, mean grin.

The look on Eridan's face was nothing short of absolutely scandalized. How _dare_ this peasantblood speak so rudely to him, after nearly fuckin' knocking him over with a stupid surfboard. Eridan's posture immediately straightened and he gave Sollux a haughty sneer. "I could sue you for assault, you fuckin' peasant." It only took another moment before he noticed who he'd nearly stepped on on his way to step back.

Dave smiled a tight lipped smile, waving his fingers. "Sup." He wasn't even remotely surprised that they'd run into him again.

Eridan huffed and set his jaw. "I cannot believe I can't get away from you complete assholes for a damn hour, and a _course_ you have to be with _this_ utter fuckin' piece a shit." He shoved his way around Sollux, trying to get back on course. "Get out a the way."

"You could have a little bit of common fucking dethenthy to say _excuthe me_ ," Sollux snarled back, his lip curling as his grip on his board tightened. Terezi had sat up to watch with rapt attention, her eyes darting back and forth between them.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to see you as well, Eridan," Kanaya said primly, somewhat offended at the generalized assessment. Karkat was just waiting now, his hand over his face, hoping like hell that the debacle wasn't being watched by anyone else.

Eridan turned to see Kanaya, his scowl softening with a bow of his head, "Except you, Kan," he amended, then gave a sharp glare to Sollux, "I don't think you fuckin' _deserve_ such propriety. I fuckin' know it's you who hacked into my company's mainframe and compromised our security last year. It had Sollux fuckin' Captor written all over it." And the only reason he hadn't said anything to the authorities was because he _knew_ the guy, and knew there was no way that Sollux would leave any trace of evidence that it was him. He'd get off scott-free and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars of the company's money just tying up court proceedings with technicalities. "If I wasn't such a goddamn gentleman, I'd say we settle this right fuckin' here."

Dave curled his arm around Terezi's waist with a grin as they watched the back and forth, equally in awe of what was going on. Bro kept his distance; he knew that this was between them, but he kept himself at the ready to break things up between them.

"Cogratulationth, do you want a fucking prithe, mithter big fucking corporate shill?" Sollux laughed in his face, finally putting the board back down in the sand and laying his hands on his hips as he leaned down to bring his nose an inch from Eridan's. "Big fucking gentleman with pretty little pictures just trying to show off when the rest of us know you're a goddamn _waste of space_."

Karkat looked up at that and stared at Sollux, fully expecting him to be laid out flat for that given Eridan's physical change, but more than that, the clarity of his words was borderline astonishing. He glanced over at Bro, mentally calculating the likelihood that he'd had something to do with it. He was tempted to try and break up the fight before it could get out of hand, but that wasn't a quadrant he wanted to enter, not with these two.

"Oh, now what's this? Just because you can talk real smooth don't mean you're _any_ less a fuckin' broke-brained, foul, useless drain on society. I should have had you eliminated when I confirmed my suspicions." Eridan was just as much in Sollux's space as the peasantblood was up in his grill. He curled his claws into his palm and tightened his hand into a fist as he spoke, and then landed an uppercut in Sollux's stomach, and that was the last blow landed to either of them before Bro was between them, holding them back by the shoulders, pushing his way between them.

"You two knock it off, before you're arrested for disturbin' the peace. You can hateflirt on your own fuckin' time." He looked over at Sollux first, giving him a firm 'calm the fuck down' expression, before whipping his head around to face Eridan. "You _really_ don't want to be fuckin' invitin' this sort of shit onto the rags, kid. Public brawls don't do your brand any good."

Sollux strained against Bro's grip for a couple of seconds before simply seething at Eridan, breathing shallowly through clenched teeth. He wanted to be able to swing one good punch into Eridan's pouty fucking mouth and bust out his front teeth. He spat sideways into the sand and stood back up, snatching his board back off the ground and starting toward the water. Karkat had fallen back into his side as soon as the fight was over, groaning at the world in general. That wasn't the platonic blackness Sollux had always claimed. That was a blooming kismesissitude that he wasn't about to try and get in the way of.

"Jesus nooksucking Christ..."

Bro let Sollux go and held Eridan back from charging in after him, and then leveled his gaze on the seadweller. "C'mon, lemme talk with you a bit." He led Eridan away from the group, towards the kebab vendor, talking to the guy in a hushed tone.

Dave flopped over onto his back on his towel, chuckling to himself. "That works. Let Bro do the auspistice thing. Probably'll keep them out of jail, at least." He gave Karkat a kiss before standing up, grabbing his own board, catching up to Sollux quickly. "Here, while Bro's busy, lemme teach you the basics." He smiled and started into explaining the things he could on land.

Rose shook her head at the entire thing. "What _are_ we going to do with you boys..."

Karkat stretched his arms up to the sky as he sprawled on his back. "This is my life. These are my friends. What the fuck," he said to himself then sat up to grab a can of soda. He looked at Bro having his stern talk with Eridan as they walked, then back at Sollux as he and Dave talked then started on their boards out to where they could wait for a decent enough wave to ride back in. Kanaya was smiling to herself as she propped her chin on her hand, the fingers of the other hand laying in Rose's. It was obvious she was thinking something along the same lines as Karkat's gripe, though she seemed a good deal more content about it. Rose smiled sweetly at Karkat's frustration and slipped away from Kanaya to strike up a conversation with him about what he was learning in school. She found philosophy fascinating, and while she chatted with him, Terezi went off to build a sandcastle.

Once Bro returned with Eridan, the seadweller seemed to be in a much better mood, laughing and speaking openly about his work partners, and how he had to deal with actual, literal morons. They dropped down and Eridan looked up to Karkat from his seat on the beach, closer to the ocean than the rest of the towels. "You wouldn't fuckin' believe how stupid they fuckin' are. When I got promoted, they asked if I needed an aquarium in my office to do business. Fuckin' humans, man."

At first Sollux was unsteady, unsure about his feet as they slipped a little on the wet surface of the board. But the more he learned to adjust his weight and maneuver through the water as the board was lifted by it, the easier it became. His muscles were growing rather tired from the new use of them but he wanted to ignore it for the time being and continue working with Dave and improving. Dave was glad for Sollux's nature of being quick to learn, because that meant they'd be able to catch more waves instead of dinking around in the shallows. They caught a couple larger waves for the speed at which Sollux caught on, and it made Dave laugh wholeheartedly at the thrill of it. Bro finally left the group after a few minutes of relaxing in the sun, and grabbed his board to join them. He paddled out to the two of them and then listened as Dave explained the more nuanced things that Bro himself had taught him. He smiled faintly, and added a couple points before he got in the line of a bigger wave to pop up and with far better control of himself than Dave had, he rode the wave until it petered out. Dave snorted, shaking his head. "Showoff."

Karkat looked up from his discussion with Rose on the implications of the historical evidence provided in his textbooks to smirk some at Eridan. "You should hear some of the stupid shit I get asked at school," he snorted, then started to regale them with the story of the last guy that had started asking him the same questions every other human seemed to when it came to kismesis. They all seemed to think it was the same thing, that it was nothing more that hate-fueled sex, that there was no depth to the relationship. It was maddening and he'd nearly just cussed the guy out and kicked him out of the way.

Eridan nodded to Karkat's story and rolled his eyes at the infinite idiocy of humans. "One at the office in Tampa is such a huge asshole about it. He doesn't ask shit about it, acts like he knows all about the quadrants, but he knows bulge-all about anyfuckin'thing. It's the most I can do to keep from throwin' him down and rippin' his throat out. It doesn't help he tries to make small talk about my lovelife. Nosy little shit."

"You have no fucking idea how often I get asked about Dave," Karkat muttered, jerking his thumb back out in the direction of the exhibitionists in the water. "'What's it like fucking someone that's not your own species?' 'I heard he was straight, does that mean he really just cares about your nook?' Yeah, like I'm really going to fucking answer that, go choke on a fucking dick." He rolled his eyes then glanced back at Kanaya. She probably had similar problems when it came to questions like that considering her relationship with Rose. She very politely declined to comment though, preferring to keep her private life just that. Rose huffed a tiny laugh with a shake of her head, but that was all she had to add to that as she went back to her book.

Eridan held his hand up. "I don't fuckin' know how you can even bother with humans, especially that one. I don't think I could ever get into a thing with one. They're pretty fuckin' ignorant a our cultures and needs." He grabbed a beer out of the cooler and popped it open with the side of one of his rings, taking a sip of it. "Tried foolin' around with one, an' she hadn't been with a troll before." He scoffed bitterly and left it at that.

Dave had come back to the group in time to hear the tail-end of the talk, pushing the board back into the sand before dropping down beside Karkat, sore and content. He pushed his glasses back on straight and grabbed a sandwich out of the picnic basket that Rose brought along.

"It wasn't something either of us intended to happen, believe me. But I'm pretty damn happy with how things turned out," Karkat replied. Smiling faintly, he leaned against Dave's damp side, sipping from his can of soda and shrugging some at Eridan, looking around for Bro and Sollux then sighing internally when he didn't see them anywhere. They were probably off bro-ing around or making out or a combination of the two, knowing them.

"It was a combination of good timing and weird circumstances," Dave explained to Eridan, "And I'm uniquely versed in understanding you chucklefucks personally. Between Rose and me, I think we're pretty fucking capable of understanding troll culture, right Rose?"

"Don't get me involved in your running of the mouth, Dave," she stated flatly.

Eridan rolled his eyes. "I'm so glad that Kar is in such capable fuckin' hands. You aren't most humans, Strider. Most a them don't spend three years immersed in troll culture, whether it be on a meteor or not. Most a them just assume that because we look vaguely the same, that we're the same, and not a far superior species to yours."

Karkat reached over and cuffed Eridan over the back of the head for that, wrinkling his nose at him. "Come on, we don't tolerate that hoofbeast shit from humans, I'm not going to double-standardize it just because you're my fucking friend," he growled. He draped his arm over Dave's shoulder with his hand resting against his matesprit's chest.

Eridan let out an indignant squawk and rubbed his head with a scowl. "I'm just speakin' the truth. Most humans I know are grade A flotsam." He stretched and popped his shoulders, closing his eyes with a smirk. "Most," he reiterated. "There's a couple that aren't completely worthless. An' I won't say another word about it." He opened his eyes and saw as the elder Strider and Sollux were returning. "I'm gonna go. I'd rather not have to incur the wrath of _that_ particular human if I start some shit with Sol." He stood and nudged Karkat's hip with his foot. "Gimme a call later." He waved as he walked off back to the water.

Dave shook his head with a chuckle. "Good thing he stopped being such a righteous douche. If he was still as shitty as he used to be, I'd have had to strangle him." He was smiling however, when Sollux and Bro returned.

"I'm jutht glad he got rid of that wavy shit," Sollux muttered as he flopped down onto the towel across from Karkat, grabbing for one of the juice pouches and, rather than poking it through with the straw, puncturing it with his teeth and sucking on the corner of it. Karkat watched Eridan leave then shook his head and leaned his chin against Dave's shoulder, reaching his foot over to kick Sollux in the leg. "Ow, hey, what the fuck, nubth?"

"If you're gonna start being prime asshole in public at least do it where the rest of us aren't around to be humiliated, would you?"

"Thayth the guy hanging all over hith fucking matethprit every fucking thecond," Sollux muttered then scooted a little further away to keep Karkat from hitting him again. He just sighed and finished off his soda then reached past Rose to grab a sandwich from the cooler for himself.

"I don't mind," Dave said with a joking shrug, "And at least we're not two seconds from throwing down and-slash-or making out at all times, dude. That was a pretty big spectacle. At least the two of you are entertaining."

Bro settled down in front of the group again, taking a large bite of a sandwich, staying out of the gossip. He personally thought the guy was all right, despite the blow-up at Sollux, which he knew was not a typical douchebag thing. He was quiet as he kept an eye on their surroundings, making sure all was well.

Rose had gone off to help Terezi with the sandcastle, having built little minions to guard the gates and people inside the courtyard. They returned and Terezi unceremoniously dropped herself between Karkat and Dave, leaning against them. "I'm getting too warm, and the water's too cool! Come bury me in the sand!" She tugged on Karkat's shirt, "C'mon, please? I will promise not to throw any sand at you. I swear."

"You... You are such a wriggler, oh my god. Come on, you little weirdo," Karkat sighed, dragging Dave along with him by the hand so that at least he didn't have to do the chore alone. "I don't even get why you'd want to be buried, you'll be shaking sand out of everyfuckingwhere when you come back out."

"Don't care," she sang then started to dig out a place in which to sit while they dug into the sand until they reached a cool place for her to lay.

As he watched Terezi drag Karkat, who in turn dragged Dave away, Bro shook his head with a smile. He turned to Sollux with a browarch. "He's really steamed that you managed to get into his company's servers, dude. He had only one person in mind when he made them upgrade, too." He had a knowing little smile about that. He knew for a fact that it was almost a personal challenge, a slap with a glove for Sollux, and he was pretty damn sure Eridan knew it. "I've never seen anyone more persistent in trying to get a rival."

"He'th fucking dethperate and I can take down hith pathetic therverth in a matter of minuteth." Rolling his eyes, Sollux leaned against Bro's arm and shook the sandwich at him. "Hith only thaving grathe now ith that he actually grew the fuck up."

"At least when he's desperate, he has good taste," Bro said with a smirk, snapping his teeth at the sandwich as it was being shook in his face. "And that's your opinion, man. He's a lot less of a douchebag than he seems on his interviews. Game face, you know." He sipped his beer and wrapped his arm around Sollux's waist loosely.

Rose smiled sweetly and tapped Bro on the shoulder. "I'll take the boards back to your car if you want. I'm going to go back in now. I'm starting to burn."

"Thanks, yeah, sounds good babygirl. I'll grab the basket 'n' shit when we're done here." He smiled back up to her and waved as she walked away with the boards.

"I'm aware there's a bias here but come on, Sollux you could actually stop and treat him like a person. Maybe he'd take the goddamn hint," Karkat yelled back over his shoulder at them, busy smoothing the mound of sand over Terezi's legs as she reclined with her hands behind her head, grinning widely and wiggling her toes a bit. Sollux simply rolled his eyes at that, sulking some as he finished his sandwich.

"Or, speaking strictly from an outsider perspective," Bro added quietly, "you could stop acting like this whole thing is a one-sided affair." He took an apple out of the picnic basket and took a bite of it. "You got somethin' for him that I can't quantify 'cause I don't think there's actually appropriate English words for stuff in the caliginous quadrant. But I'm not gonna be nosy. Up to you, bro."

Sollux grimaced and laid back on the towel instead, his hands laced together behind his head as his eyes closed behind his sunglasses. He wasn't going to argue and say that Bro didn't know anything; that was a big fucking lie and every one of them knew it. Nor did he feel like going into the multiple what-if's that had sprung up in his mind concerning his apparently growing number of filled quadrants. He just muttered some under his breath and peeled his slightly stiff tshirt off to wash when he went home, letting the sun onto his back and shoulders. There were marks here and there, scratches and a large hand-shaped bruise low on his side only partially covered by his trunks. That was one thing he didn't care if anyone noticed, at least. Bro wasn't embarrassed, either. He simply didn't give much attention to something that was clearly his handiwork, unless someone else decided to point it out. Which Terezi did as she looked up and backward from her place in the sand as Dave fashioned her a giant dick.

"Oh my god, I thought you two were just buds, _Bro_! Way to be a total liar!"

Bro shrugged and took another bite of his apple. "We are." There was an unspoken open end to that statement, though he didn't dare speak the words. Dave leaned back down to explain to Terezi in a hushed tone that Bro was reticent to strike up relationships outside of the strictly casual. She pouted at him and muttered about how they were so sweet on each other, then lifted her head and grinned down at the massive phallus Dave had sculpted for her out of sand, laughing loudly that all her wishes had finally been fulfilled and that she could die happy. Karkat sat back and shook his head at both of them then stood to fetch a sandwich for himself, dusting his hands off on his shorts. He glanced down at Sollux and reached into the cooler then squeezed a couple of ice cubes together over the other's back. He tensed and yelled and Karkat had to run away with his lunch in hand before Sollux could grab him and probably put sand in his food. Bro chuckled at the two of them, telling them to calm the fuck down over a bite of his sandwich. He looked down and nodded his approval of Terezi's sand cock when she asked his opinion of her giant dong, assuring her that she was going to get _all_ the ladies with that thing.

The day wore on, and soon, the sun was sinking far off on the water, and Bro brought out the firewood. He set up the bonfire in a metal ring that he mostly buried in the sand, and surrounded it with rocks from the embankment to the north. Once it was lit and burning for a while, he started cooking a dinner of hot dogs and burgers for his wards, while Dave dragged Terezi, Karkat and Sollux over to play a game of volleyball with a group of others that had been on the beach most of the day as well. Once the sun dipped down past the horizon, Rose and Kanaya returned, Kanaya lighting up their claimed area of beach as Bro broke out the harder liquor. Karkat had somehow succeeded in getting a sunburn that promised to freckle his face and shoulders much like Dave's, Terezi pointing out as soon as they'd sat down that in spite of it being nearly impossible for trolls to sunburn, Karkat had managed it.

"Way to go, Karkles."

"Oh shut up and hand me a fucking hot dog," he snapped, grumbling a little as Kanaya uncapped a bottle of aloe that had been brought along initially for Rose and the Striders. Dave handed over a hot dog and shared the aloe with Kanaya to help rub it gently into Karkat's shoulders, neck, and back. He'd managed only to tan most everywhere the sun had hit, save for the bridge of his nose and peaks of his cheeks, and his shoulders, which had gotten just a little red. "Freckles look good on you," Dave assured quietly as he worked the aloe in with his fingertips.

Bro shook his head at Kanaya fussing over Karkat, smiling when she reached over Karkat to rub some aloe into Dave's cheeks and nose, sassing him gently that he should be more careful, too. He turned to Sollux and offered a burger. "She's the Wendy to you Lost Boys, huh?"

Karkat rolled his eyes as they fussed him, then turned to help Kanaya do the same to Dave. Bro wasn't sunburned. No surprise. He was apparently impervious to mere ultraviolet rays. Sollux was reclining against the cooler with a beer in hand, his sunglasses swapped out for his regular 3Ds that were slipping some down the bridge of his nose. "Don't even lie, you guyth are preciouth and you know it," he chuckled, dodging a piece of hotdog as it flew in his direction. One of Dave's crows waddled onto the beach and snapped up the gritty morsel then flew back out of the way again, giving a muffled, triumphant croak.

Terezi finally piped up with, "Why do crows follow you everywhere, coolkid? Is it some magic spooky Strider Juju?" She said, waggling her fingers mysteriously.

Dave simply shrugged. "Iunno. They just claimed me as one of their own or some shit. Bro here gets seagulls sometimes." He pointed at Bro, who didn't deny it, and handed a burger to Terezi, and another to Rose, who turned it down in favor of some salad, hummus and french bread that she'd brought along for herself. Bro mentally filed that away - it was the third time she turned down meat. He silently decided that he'd make sure to get food which catered to her next time.

Dave sat there waiting for Kanaya and Karkat to stop fussing over him before grabbing for a hot dog and a bottle of hard lemonade. "Tomorrow, I'm planning on going up to the walk of fame, anyone wanna come with?"

"I don't really see the point," Karkat shrugged as he chewed a bite of his hotdog. "They're names on the ground of people we've seen on tv. There's not really much that's special about it." He would still end up going though just because it would make Dave happy. Kanaya was sharing Rose's food, mostly because she actually enjoyed it on top of what she normally ate, which was...honestly, very little. Karkat eyed the hummus then decided against it, having never found any storebought that he could stand. He had a soda tucked between his legs as he ate with one hand leaned back on his towel, soaking up the fragrant warmth of the fire.

"It's more than that," Dave said with a rub of his forehead, trying to figure out how to make it make sense outside of his own mind. "It's a memorial, a sort of shrine to those who made waves in the industry, who fundamentally changed the face of media. Every name on the walk is someone who sculpted the world with their talent. And the more recent they are, the harder that gets, because what can someone do to make a change in an already impressive industry like that? Something incredible." He smiled faintly. "It's honoring those before me."

Karkat listened, pressing his lips together and nodding some when Dave finished speaking. "Alright, I give. Maybe we'll see your name there one day," he said thoughtfully then smiled faintly and nudged his forehead against the side of Dave's.

"Or yours," Kanaya suggested with a soft smile of her own, looking back at Karkat with drink in hand, her legs tucked to one side.

"What? Why me?"

"Your part in the film," she explained. "It is likely you could receive attention for it."

Dave nodded to Kanaya's assessment. "Yeah dude, it's more likely for an actor to receive recognition than a director of cinematography. I mean, unless that director is _really_ influential, there's not many who make it there. And not to mention, dude, you're kind of a fuckin' crazy good actor." 

Bro settled down near Sollux and took a video shot of them from his phone, smiling deviously. He just wanted to immortalize the moment. He was sure the rest of them would want to have some memories to go with the day.

"You guys are braindead," Karkat snorted, shaking his head and finishing off his hotdog in a couple more bites then washing it down with the rest of his soda. "I have about as much chance of winning anything for that as Sollux does of voluntarily doing audio books." He grinned when Sollux laughed and agreed, at least on the probability of him doing voice recordings. Bro couldn't help but smile a bit, murmuring to him quietly enough where nobody else could hear, "You're better in video anyway."

Kanaya shook her head at them both, turning back to Karkat with her head at a tilt. "I don't know about that. Your pessimism won't stop the world from seeing you."

Dave ran his hand over the small of Karkat's back, shaking his head. "I'm with Kanaya on this one, dude. You're not going to convince the entire world of your perceived mediocrity. You're fuckin' incredible, bro, you can't squirm out of that or hide from it. Just own it." He stood and stretched, to go grab himself another hot dog.

Sollux smirked and leaned his shoulder against Bro's, finishing off his first beer and popping open a second, grabbing another hotdog for himself as well to keep something on his stomach while he drank. Karkat continued to argue tiredly with Kanaya about his suitability for film, reminding them that even if, ok, maybe he was alright at delivering lines, being on camera really wasn't something he wanted to do with his life. What he wanted to really do, he didn't seem to know, but cinema wasn't it.

Dave shrugged at that. "So don't do it. You don't have to do anything you aren't into, man, but you can't deny that you're a natural actor when you've got both me - a person who doesn't fuckin' flatter people - and Kanaya, and I guess those two assholes over there backing us up, all saying that you are." He shook his head. "it's not a matter of you becoming an actor or not, it's a matter of conceding that you've got talent." 

Bro leaned down to murmur something into Sollux's ear that the rest of the group couldn't hear, and then nudged him lightly, grabbing the bottle that'd he'd turned from straight vodka into screwdrivers about an hour ago, and walking off down the beach, clearly slow enough for Sollux to follow behind. Sollux glanced at the rest of them then followed after Bro, taking his drink with him and leaving the others to their discussion.

Dave didn't pay attention to where Bro was going, or indeed that he was even breaking off from the group. Rose noticed, but figured it was just a Bro thing. She sipped her soda and shook her head. "Public speaking. You're passionate enough for it."

"Public speaking or debate would be much more your speed," Kanaya agreed, starting on a hard lemonade as soon as she'd finished eating. "Of course, that also depends on your ability to censor yourself. While you may make good points, it would be somewhat unlikely to be taken seriously if every other word was an insult."

Dave chuckled, "I dunno, maybe the world _needs_ somebody to call the system a bulgelicking cocksnake, this generation around." He sprawled out on the towel and murmured as his sore muscles protested. He noticed that Terezi had since curled up and dozed off near the warmth of the fire. "I should get her back up to her room. Let's get everything cleaned up, guys. It's getting late."

Karkat helped the girls packing up and gave each of them a goodnight kiss on the cheek before finally returning to Dave's side and walking with him slowly to take in the night air and the sounds of people still occupying the beach, or else flitting between the bars and laughing loudly with their own parties. He reached into the bundle of his towel to retrieve his phone and sent off a quick text to Eridan, telling him that if he was free tomorrow that lunch was in order to "catch up on whatever the fuck this is you've been doing with your life." He dropped it back into hiding and laced his hands together behind his head, walking with his eyes half-closed.

When they finally got back to the hotel and Terezi had been stashed in her room, Karkat stepped into the bathroom and let a low whistle, shaking his head at the fancy fixtures and wall molds and how spacious it was. The bathtub could easily hold both him and Dave, and probably Terezi if she really wanted to invade. He left the door open as he stripped down to shower off the sand and the salt from the seawater that he'd been splashed with more than once, leaving his phone on the counter by the sink. Dave had considered taking a shower but ultimately considered bed to be his current destination. He stripped down and sprawled out under the covers before turning on the TV. He channel surfed while Karkat took a shower. He wasn't too gritty; he'd visited the rinse station somewhere between surfing and dinner. He burrowed comfortably into his spot on the bed, closer to the door than the patio, and drifted off, happy about how the day went.

Eridan had also found his way to his hotel room in the process of the day. Negotiations were the name of the game this week, and being stuck in LA had been a thing he was hoping that he wouldn't have to do. However, meeting up with the group of old friends _did_ make some difference in Eridan's mind. After all, not _all_ of them pissed him off to such a degree that he wanted to discreetly hire a hitman and have them all done away with. It was a lifetime ago, he felt, and this was his new fuckin' lease on life, free from the burdens of having to carry with him his childhood idiocies and naivete. How foolish, to think that he could destroy all land dwellers, when it was obvious that the better option was to make them kneel before his great power and own them all, his means being through commerce. He was one of the heads of a multicorp which settled into each facet of every person's life, manufacturing everything from tissue paper to heavy sedatives. He had just finished dinner at the hotel's upscale restaurant when he got Karkat's text, and was walking to the elevator up to his suite as he replied, **lunch sounds good though what ive been doin is not really fuckin interestin** and he was being truthful. To Karkat, it would be the most boring shit on the planet. Corporate mergers, stock market investments, driving towards a common goal of being the number one corporation in the world for everyone's personal health needs. Shit, it was dumb and boring as fuck when he boiled it down into civilian terms.

Karkat sent back a message when he got out letting Eridan pick the restaurant, given he himself knew fuck-all about the area, then dried off and crawled into bed beside Dave to drift off just as quickly. They would be able to sleep in and the thought was a sweet one. Dave would be up as his personal schedule schedule demanded, but if that happened he knew his matesprit was capable of keeping himself entertained for a while.

When the sun came up, Karkat had burrowed into the blankets, his face pressed into Dave's chest and their legs tangled together, snoring quietly. His phone was sitting on the edge of the bed behind his head, left there after the last text had been sent. Dave woke up with mildly aching legs and back and a tired smile as he remembered just where he was, and that he was with his favorite people on the planet. He looked over at Karkat's phone and noticed how many battery bars he _didn't_ have. He remembered to pack the chargers, at least, and he slipped away silently and carefully from his matesprit to plug the phone in. He noticed that Eridan had sent another message overnight - obviously a time that they could get together and where to meet for lunch. Dave smiled at that and shook his head. He knew that no matter how much he disliked the fishman, he would never sway Karkat into that opinion. They were friends, and that was that. It was the same way with himself and Cass. Karkat tolerated his existence because Cass was a good friend.

Dave showered off and got dressed, wearing a somewhat obscene shirt and khaki shorts when he came out of the bathroom. Karkat had yet to wake up, so he went down to the restaurant to grab them both something to eat.

Terezi slipped into their room through the connecting door shortly after Dave had left, expecting to find both boys asleep, but only finding one. Oh well. She slipped under the covers and buried her head up against Karkat's chest, pouting heavily. Her room didn't have a cocoon, so her nightmares were fairly substantial. She needed the familiar scent to calm her down. Karkat stirred some at the unfamiliar movement in the bed, one eye cracking open and scanning around the room from under the blanket lifted up by his free arm. He couldn't see or hear Dave and assumed correctly that he'd woken up and gone for food. He glanced down at the black tuft of hair instead and sighed quietly, letting the blanket back down and wrapping his arm around her. He buried his nose against he top of her head and dozed back off for a little while, glad he wouldn't have to get up or do anything just yet.

Terezi buried her head against his chest more firmly again and dozed off once more, only to be woken up by Dave returning with food for the three of them, about to knock on the connecting door when he when it was ajar. He turned to look at the bed and smiled lopsidedly. "Hey now, step offa my kool-aid girl, you don't know what flavor it is."

"Cherry," Terezi chirped sleepily. "I know exactly what flavor it is. What's for breakfast?"

"I got you a fruit salad and some belgian waffles." Dave settled down on the foot of the bed. "And for Karkat, I got pancakes and bacon, with some eggs on the side. And he'd better wake up and get to it before it gets cold or I eat it."

"Oh my god you assmongering dunderfucks why are you comparing me to shitty juice drinks?" Karkat groaned then poked his head out from under the blankets, squinting at Dave then at the food in his hands. He sat up slowly with Terezi still holding onto him, his arm wrapped around her shoulders with the other hand planted against the mattress to hold him upright. "You do realize sleeping in is a thing right? A thing you _can_ do. You should do it some time this week."

"My brain refuses to do the thing where it relaxes," Dave pointed out. "It's either get up and do something, or lay around in bed staring at you sleeping, all creepy freaky for two hours," he pointed out as he handed the breakfasts off to Terezi and Karkat. "Your shit was about to go dead, so I plugged it in," he pointed to Karkat's phone. "Cockbag sent you a text."

Terezi dug in, still sleepy, and rubbed her eye with her free hand. "Sooodaaaa," she lamented, and Dave smiled, going to get them all drinks before he tucked in, himself. Karkat muttered a thanks around a mouthful of bacon and went to check the phone, knowing exactly which cockbag Dave was referring to. He yawned as he compared the time in the message to that in the corner of his phone and saw that he still had another three hours before he would be meeting up with Eridan. He sat down on the floor by his phone and finished his breakfast slowly, enjoying the atmosphere of the trees rustling outside and the white noise of the ocean. It was a huge difference from his usual mornings, that much was certain.

"Tell me again why you're going to voluntarily hang out with that bag of dicks?" Terezi yawned around a mouthful of her breakfast, giving Karkat a look that said very clearly what she thought of the idea of Karkat ditching them in favor of spending time with said bag of dicks. Karkat just rolled his eyes at her then stuck his tongue out.

"Because he deserves to know he has at least one fucking friend left in the universe."

Dave shrugged. "I'm cool with it. We don't have to be attached at the hip, y'know." He smiled to Terezi and leaned over to rumple her hair. "You and I can go off and ride some roller coasters or something while he has _serious important friendly time_ with our resident bulgelicking businessman."

She bounced at the idea and perked up a little. "There's a roller coaster somewhere around here?"

"Yeah, down on the Santa Monica pier. It's like the place in Galveston, only better and crazier." Dave explained. "And way too crowded for Karkat, so it'll be a good compromise." He looked up at his matesprit with a fond smile. "If it wasn't spring break, I'd say it'd be okay, but dude, you'd probably punch five people before we even got in line for a ride."

Karkat gave him a grateful smile and finished his breakfast then stood and stretched, still more or less unaware or just uncaring that he was completely naked. Terezi had seem him naked before, and Dave obviously knew everything there was to know about his body. There wasn't really anything new. He put his plate aside and started to dig in his suitcase for something to put on, a pair of skinny jeans and a graphic tee picked up months ago on a whim. He ran his fingers through his hair then shook it back out into its usual not-quite-style. "So, you think I'll embarass him enough in this?" He grinned and pushed his hands into his pockets.

Dave looked up when Karkat asked, then nearly choked on his drink. "Shit yeah, you will. Then again, unless you're wearing business casual and a five hundred dollar watch, you'll embarrass him. Fucking ostentatious dude that he is." He went back to eating and nudged Terezi, who had finished her plate of food. "Go get dressed, babe." 

"Okeedoke!" She said, pressing a kiss to Dave's cheek before bouncing over and kissing Karkat's cheek as well then going to get ready for the day. Once she left them alone, Dave finished his plate of food and stood to slip behind Karkat, wrapping his arms around him. "If you need a ride from wherever you are, just let me know. I'm sure he's going to be chewing your ear off like some demented boxer for a few hours."

"I don't have to leave for a couple of hours yet," Karkat murmured and leaned his head against Dave's, smiling faintly as he laid his hands over Dave's arms, thumbs stroking over his wrists. He craned his neck to press his lips to the other's cheek before finally pulling away after a few more moments and checking his phone's battery. It was nearly halfway done charging and by the time he left it would be done, he was certain. Dave grinned and nodded, starting on his way there. By the time Karkat was supposed to meet Eridan for lunch, Terezi had already taken over the front seat of Dave's car and sat there grinning at Karkat until he rolled his eyes and climbed into the back. He held his phone up so that Dave knew where he was going then sent off a text to Eridan to let him know he was on his way.

"Y'know, I thought Vriska would've shown up by now," Dave mentioned with a lopsided frown. "She must have copped out." He wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, he was hoping to get her out of Save the World mode and back to down to earth just to have some fun, but on the other hand, holy shit did he hate hanging out with her for any extended period of time.

Terezi pouted as well, though more sincerely. "I know, she should be here. I wanted to compare notes about...things." She went a bit green as she kept herself from finishing that thought. "Important sister things."

"You wanted to gossip about Bro," Dave filled in, making her blush even more. "Dude, I'm _pretty_ sure? That's one of his superpowers. He makes basically everybody want him. It's fucked up."

"Take comfort in the fact that I really don't give two fucks about your brother as long as he's not walking around naked in our living room," Karkat muttered and glanced around, groaning quietly. They were passing nice restaurants. Nice ones. Like stupidly nice. Of course Eridan would pick something like this. He looked down at the name on his phone and grimaced when he spotted the sign up ahead. This was going to suck, he could already tell. Dave pulled up at the restaurant and whistled, impressed. "Well, good luck to you, dude," he said as he turned around in his seat to face Karkat. "I have a feeling you're gonna need it." He left a kiss on Karkat's cheek before his matesprit could slip out.

Eridan was waiting inside at the table, where he sipped his water and cringed. He sent it back and asked for _real_ water, none of the tap bullshit, and went back to the menu to figure out what he could _possibly_ want to eat in this dump.

Karkat whined quietly, lifting his hand as the car pulled away, self-consciously running his hands through his hair a few times before stepping in and promptly flinching when the hostess cleared her throat, her eyebrow arching up at him. Suddenly he was regretting his choice of dress. "Uh...I've got a reservation? I think. I'm here with Ampora," he said and tucked his hands under his arms, glancing around until he spotted Eridan sitting off near a window, making a face at him and mentally swearing every last insult he could think at the stuck-up bastard for putting him through this. When the reservation was confirmed he darted in past the woman and took a seat at the table, gripping the edge of it hard enough to iron seams into the tablecloth.

"When I said 'lunch' I meant something that the price tag _wouldn't roughly equate to my college fucking tuition_ ," he hissed, staring around at the thankfully sparse crowd of diners neatly tucking into their meals and having quiet conversations.

"Well pardon _my_ ass for havin' some taste," Eridan said flatly, clearly giving absolutely zero fucks about how his friend was dressed, nor how terribly unnerved he was. "Although they've already made me question comin' here, gave me tap water." He shook his head and set his menu down. "Settle down Kar, you're makin' a scene." His tone sounded very much like sheer boredom.

Karkat was already turning red around the ears. Settle down? _Settle down?_ "Oh my Jesus fucking christ I knew I should have expected this... Eridan, whatever they serve here, I'm pretty fucking sure I could make it myself for a quarter of the price and eat it at home in my fucking pajamas." He sat back and huffed quietly, picking up his own menu as he tried very hard not to feel as if every single eye in the room was on him.

Eridan couldn't hold back an infantile eyeroll that accompanied his scoffing. "Unless you are a world-renowned 5-star chef, I highly fuckin' doubt that." He looked over at Karkat with a smile, however. "So what _do_ you do, now, anyhow, other than complain about fine dinin' an' hang out with a shitload of old friends? You mentioned college, but I've been wrackin' my brain, tryin' to even think about what you'd be doin' there."

Now it was Karkat's turn to roll his eyes. "What, is it so inconceivable that I would actually be going to school?" He snorted, crossing his arms as he leaned back against his chair and crossed his legs at the knees. "I'm majoring in general philosophy. And don't fucking start about it being impractical, I already know that much."

"I'm not sayin' it's bizarre you're goin' to school, I'm sayin' I couldn't think a what you'd be doin' in one," argued Eridan, who took a sip from his fresh water, sighing heavily and rolling his eyes at the waitress. "Bottled water? Seriously. Look at me, do I look like a fuckin' human yuppie scumbag? I want seawater, you incompetent twit." He set the glass back aside and she scurried off with it to get him what he wanted. "Philosophy seems right up your alley," he continued, going from sass to casual conversation in a split second. "I dunno why you'd think it's impractical; all the good parts of history have a fuckin' righteous philospher in 'em."

"You know, you could drop being a douche for a second and actually treat your server like, I don't know, she's gonna be the one handling your food? On the off-chance that she won't spit in it now." Karkat's lip curled as he said it, having come across his fair share of people at the coffee shop that pulled this kind of thing on him and Dave. "Dave would do worse. Hell, I would do worse."

It didn't even seem like Eridan had noticed how he'd been talking to her, so Karkat's tantrum was a bit of a shock. He ran back what he'd said in his mind momentarily and raised his eyebrows. "Oh shit, I _was_ bein' kind of a tool." He decided to settle that once she came back. "But yeah, you got a real noble pursuit, no matter how much you think it isn't one. The world needs more fuckin' people who sit an' think, I think." Once the waitress returned, he put his hand on hers and smiled faintly. "Sorry I was bein' rough on you, sweetie. We can order now, I think."

She looked very soundly disconcerted at that and Karkat dropped his head into his hand, raising the other one and giving her both his drink and food order as clearly as he could without sounding condescending then turning back to Eridan with a slight scowl. He lifted a hand and gestured with his fingers for Eridan to come a little closer to him, his lips pressed into a thin line. Eridan ordered as well, attempting to be just as fucking nice as he possibly could, and once the waitress was on her way away from them, he turned to Karkat with a deadpan stare, as if to say, 'there, happy?' He leaned close however, and raised an eyebrow. He was greeted by a sharp slap to the side of the head that sent part of his hair flying up out of its perfect wavy combing.

"I hope you realize how many goddamn waitresses you've probably made cry."

Eridan let out a hiss and a quiet growl as he combed his hair back into place, glaring at Karkat. "Not that it fuckin' matters, but _no_ , I don't really _think_ about that sort a thing." He sat back up and adjusted his tie, chin up and eyes closed, pulling together his decorum. "Just so happens they probably go home an' just whine about it at their moirails, do whatever it is they do. I'm not the first tough customer they've dealt with." Though now that Karkat said something, Eridan was starting to wonder, and then a subtle frown came to his face. Shit, the little asshole had a point. "Look, it isn't like I don't give a damn or anyfin' like that," the pun was natural as breathing - he still hadn't quite scrubbed his life clean of those after Fef. "It's just...they aren't my problem."

"Right now, they are your problem," Karkat sighed, sitting back again and rubbing his hand across his face. "Look, do you know what people do? People talk. And people remember people like you. And do you know what people like her and I do? We warn other people like us about people like you. We don't _like_ people like you, Eridan. Which is very bad when you're dealing with _the people handling your goddamn food_. Being in food service isn't exactly rainbows and fucking flowers. Now, when we leave today, I want you to leave her a big fucking tip, you understand me? Because she probably works minimum wage and only has those tips to put in some fucking jar to save, or to feed herself, or pay for school." After his diatribe Karkat fell silent, his eyes darting around the room when he noticed that everyone in there had fallen silent. He swallowed hard and started to shrink, until a couple of people started to applaud from the other side of the room; they looked like other college students that had chosen to splurge for lunch on their own spring break. His ears turned red as he sank down some in his chair and looked pointedly at the tablecloth. "So uh. Yeah."

Eridan wouldn't have listened to this sort of outrageous bullshit from anyone else. Frankly, he was beside himself that he was listening to _Karkat_ take him to task. But his friend had points that were valid as hell. He wouldn't treat Karkat like this, and he knew better than to treat Dave like this, so why the absolute fuck was he treating some little lowblood girl he'd never met like this? His cheeks went purple and he looked down at the silverware, suddenly feeling very much like he'd been lectured by his lusus. "You gonna do an encore?" He teased Karkat, looking back up at his friend with a sheepish smile.

Karkat bristled at that, ready to ream him again, until the waitress came back, looking scared stiff as she put down both of their plates. Karkat glanced down at his burger and smiled back at her. "Thanks," he said quietly then watched her scuttle away to check one of the other tables before Eridan could say anything to her. He sighed as he laid the lettuce, tomato and onion slices onto it and pressed it down a bit, then picked up one of the seasoned fries he'd chosen as his side, taking a bite out of it and shrugging internally. It wasn't bad, but it was also something he could easily make at home.

As for Eridan's meal, it was a far fancier lunch of a slow-cooked roasted branzino, and was plated so beautifully, it'd make some lesser people cry from the sheer elegance of it. He tucked into it with the table manners befitting royalty, silent and contemplative. It was a few minutes before he spoke, quiet and sincere. "I'll try to keep from bein' such a dick to people today. Can't promise it'll last longer than that, but if it doesn't make you comfortable, I'd do what I fuckin' can to crank it down."

Karkat slowed down some in his chewing, his fingers pressing into the bun of his burger until the outer brown had broken and the meat had started to drip a little bit from how hard he'd squeezed it. He knew he couldn't really ask for any more though; he'd already made a public spectacle of himself once that day and that was all he felt he could handle. "If we do this again can I at least pick the place? I'm pretty sure my head's about to cave in from the sheer amount of pomp radiating from the atmosphere."

With a quiet nod, Eridan relented. "Could have chosen somethin' a bit less pedestrian than a burger here. But it's what you like, so yeah, next time you pick the place." He still had traces of purple in his cheeks, still mortified and quietly thinking about what Karkat had said.

Once the meal was finished, he paid the bill with a hundred percent tip, and caught the waitress again, looking into her eyes as he apologized sincerely, before adding, "You gotta be tough on guys like me, okay? Just because I'm royalty doesn't make how I operate carte blanche." He paused, then stood up and slipped away from the table to walk out of the restaurant and get some fresh air. Karkat stayed in his seat for a couple of seconds, then stood and followed Eridan out, leaving a tip behind as well, though not quite so generous as he had no idea how much the other's meal had actually cost. He caught up at the door and waited for Eridan to step out onto the sidewalk before joining him with his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

"Look," he muttered after a couple of steps, "I don't want you to just _change_. But...could you at least think about the shit you say before you say it? You said it yourself, the world needs more people that actually sit and think."

"I get that," Eridan replied, one hand tucked into his suit pocket as he strolled casually to his car. "I really fuckin' do, Kar. An' let me let you in on somethin'. It takes fuckin' ages to unlearn the bullshit I fuckin' convinced myself of back when we were kids. A commander is only as good as his army. An' armies are made up a people just like you, just like that girl in there. The world doesn't fuckin' run on royalty alone. Shit doesn't get done just because I snap my fingers an' say so." He leaned against his Veyron and crossed his arms. "Point I'm tryin' to get to here is I need to keep remindin' myself a that. That the world rests heavy on the shoulders of the peasantbloods."

"Eridan, I am very, very close to dragging you back to the hotel by your fucking nose and subjecting you to Bro," Karkat muttered, rubbing his fingers into his eyes. He was trying to let go of the 'peasantblood' comment in favor of the idea that maybe he'd made some progress. "Is this how you run your company? By making everyone under you feel like if they come within twenty feet of you that you're going to bite them in half when you haven't even made yourself clear? Not everyone is Vriska and able to read minds. You can't just expect someone that knows absolutely jack fucking nothing about you to know you can't drink tap water. Especially if you're dealing with someone that's not another seadweller."

"It's common fuckin' knowledge," Eridan argued, though his jaw jutted at the fact that Karkat was right. Again. "I run a very efficient office, thank you. I tell them exactly what they need to do and they do it." He shook his head. "Don't, okay? I know I'm in the wrong here, you don't gotta drag me through this shit like I'm some fuckin' grub still." He looked over at Karkat after keeping his eyes averted for the prior couple minutes. "Can we just move the fuck on from this hoofbeast shit? It's really puttin' a crimp in catchin' up with you."

Karkat wrinkled his nose and conceded, his posture slouching some as his hand dipped back into his pocket. "Do you have something you want to do then? Dave and Terezi are occupied at the pier and Sollux is off with Bro doing who-fucking-knows-what."

"Okay, what the fuck is up with those two?" Eridan immediately said. "I can't fuckin' tell what the hell is goin' on with them. All I know is Strider the Large is flushed as shit for that bulgebitin' scandalous little prick." He couldn't help it. Slipping back into gossip was as easy as breath for him. He motioned for Karkat to get into the car before he opened his door and slipped in.

Karkat settled into the passenger seat, momentarily floundering at how far he sank into it and having to push himself back up and adjust it, then waved his hands some as he started to explain what he actually knew about the situation, and then started into speculation on the nature of their quadrants. It was almost second nature for him to do it even after this long without Eridan anywhere near his sphere of existence.

"Now all I know is that they're a thing but they're not really a thing and they're completely fucking shameless about whatever they do when they're alone. Did you even _see_ the marks on Bro's neck? It looks like he got in a fight with his fucking shop vac!"

"Holy shit," Eridan said with a chuckle. "Sol put those on him? I thought he got attacked by a giant fuckin' leech." He pulled out of the parking garage, tossing the money owed into the little slot before driving off. He'd decided while they were still in the restaurant that Karkat needed to be aware of the existence of one particular thing in the city, and was on his way there. "Not too far off from the truth... So what's he doin' tryin' to auspisticize between Sol an' me? That's some weird shit right there. Never have I seen a human actually do that, and do it with clear fuckin' intent to be ashen." Actually, it was impressive just how well Bro managed to diffuse the situation, while still being mindful and levelheaded about the budding kismesis. The blacker quadrants were something most humans didn't even _begin_ to understand.

Karkat worried at his lip as he tried to find a way to explain that wouldn't upset the balance of things as they were, but then he reminded himself that Eridan likely knew a lot more than he let on.

"Bro's been around for a long time, Eridan. And he knows things. He knows every fucking thing about this world and what we're doing in it. He was there when I died and when I came back as an actual Knight of Blood."

Eridan mulled that over and then shrugged. He didn't know or even _care_ to know how far down the rabbit hole went. "That's what Guardians do, I guess," he said with a shrug. He'd seen Guardians before - they seemed distinct to him, like pillars of white keeping shit aloft so everybody under them could live without fear of the whole thing collapsing...even if he didn't quite know what it was they were doing or why. "Kinda fuckin' weird how Dave's Bro knows everythin' and Dave's..." Well. He rolled his hand. "Dave."

Karkat made a face and laid his head back against the seat, his hands laying in his lap. "It's all Strider bullshit to me, man. I just try and make the best of what I can. I still have a paper to finish after spring break and Dave's film thing should be premiering after that. That should be...interesting."

"Film?" Eridan had heard mention of it from Bro during their chat the day before, but nobody really clued him in to what was going on. But before Karkat could really tell him much, they arrived at their destination. Eridan pulled into the parking lot under a uniquely shaped building. "Welcome to the PRS," he said once Karkat joined him outside the car. "This is the Philosophical Research Society. Normally I wouldn't give a shit about this place, but a friend a mine from work spends shittons of money donatin' to this place and won't shut up about it." He shrugged a shoulder. "They're an unbiased repository of all the fuckin' wisdoms of the world that they can grab."

Karkat's mouth fell open as he stared up at the building. He'd read about the place and its founder several times throughout the school year, in awe of his goals and accomplishments and just how much he'd amassed and was still being compiled by subsequent presidents of the society. His mind was simultaneously racing and completely frozen. He flapped a hand weakly at Eridan. "Can you just. Tell Dave I died or something? I'm going to live here now thank you."

"You're fuckin' welcome," Eridan said, tapping on the roof of his car as he watched Karkat inwardly flip his shit. "I'll get you a membership, but then I gotta fuckin' go to this borin' ass merger meetin'."

Karkat turned on the spot and grabbed the lapels of Eridan's suit, shaking him a little as he made a strange, high-pitched little noise, looking as if he'd been handed the keys to Shangri-La. He put his hands over Karkat's and gently released them from his lapels, setting them down before papping Karkat's face. "You going to stand in the parking lot all day, or are you going to let me go in and get you a membership?"

The pap seemed to reset him and Karkat straightened up, clearing his throat then gesturing into the building, though inside he was still flipping every last shit. He stuck close to Eridan's side and peeled layers of skin from his lip as he stared around the place as if trying to look at everything at once. He fully intended to bring Dave here at some point; at the very least he would find something of interest in the campus bookstore.

Eridan strolled in and walked to the desk near the front entrance, and asked how much a full access - or as close to full access as anyone could get - membership would be without enrolling in the school itself. The man smiled kindly to him and handed off some paperwork, which Eridan handed off to Karkat to fill out before paying the full year's price up front. He explained to him that it had been years since he'd given his friend a decent gift, small-talking it up while he waited for Karkat to be done with the papers. The man gave Karkat a temporary day pass, explaining that the membership card would be in the mail and arrive within six weeks.

Eridan looked around and tucked his hand into his pocket. "Look, I'd love to stay and keep you an' all these books company, but I got a job to get to. You got a ride back from here?"

Karkat had regained the majority of his composure by then and he nodded as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, looking back at Eridan with an expression akin to that of his 4-sweep-old self being informed that he was, in fact, loved. He nodded just slightly, then threw his arms around the other's neck and squeezed tight for a few seconds before pulling away again and shoving Eridan back toward his car. Eridan chuckled and hugged back, albeit in a gingerly way so as not to wrinkle his shirt, then nudged Karkat back towards the building, waving him off with an amused huff. "Ok you go now you do your thing go make millions of dollars or whatever the fuck you're doing ok bye!" He darted back into the building with his phone held up in front of his face, texting Dave as fast as he could manage while still keeping at least his spelling intact then more or less flustering himself into silence as he started toward the library.

It was a couple hours before Dave came in, having dropped Terezi off with the other girls, and asked the man where to find Karkat. He was pointed in the direction of the vast library. He quietly walked in, immediately feeling like he was being judged for being so fucking ignorant of literally everything that these walls held, and made his way to Karkat once he saw him. He settled down in a chair beside his matesprit and silently watched as he read, chewing the corner of his lip with a smile. He didn't want to disturb Karkat, not as happy as he seemed to be in the text that he'd received.

Karkat was absorbed in one of the larger books, his cheek leaned against his arm, which was propped on a small stack of other books. There were another two books open around the first and one of his hands was resting lightly on the pages of one to his left, marking a place apparently relevant to the others. He was about to turn to look back at the marked book when he finally noticed Dave in his peripheral, jumping some and staring at Dave as if he'd just suddenly appeared there out of thin air.

"Uh. Hi."

Dave smiled and nodded, "Sup." His head was tilted just so, completely enamored of the sight. "The others are wondering if you'd gotten swallowed by the city or what. I actually had to ask Bro what the hell a PRS was before I knew where to come find you. We're all going to be getting an early dinner if you want." He looked around and then to the nametag that served as Karkat's day pass. "Wow. Good job, Eridan," he murmured. "Can't compete with this."

Karkat nearly whined again at the prospect of having to leave, looking around at the books then the room itself before looking back to Dave, his eyes wide and slightly shiny. If he left now, it meant that the next time he'd be able to come would be at the absolute soonest six weeks from then, if he didn't get the chance to come back before the end of spring break. He comforted himself with the potential to visit the bookstore though and mentioned it casually (he hoped) as he looked back to the book in front of him, loathe to leave it but unwilling to take it with him, as it and several others around him were irreplaceable.

Dave smiled and ran his hand over Karkat's hand. "We'll be back as soon as possible. We can go to the store, I'll get you whatever you want." He picked up Karkat's hand and pressed a kiss to it. "Come on." He stood and offered a hand up. "I'm sure they'll let you back in tomorrow if you want. That says temporary year pass on it," he said, pointing to the nametag. Karkat got up and kissed Dave's cheek then closed the books carefully, stacking them back up and taking them to the sections out of which he'd gotten them. He very carefully re-shelved them all before going right back to Dave's side.

"Dinner would be nice. Eridan's froofy restaurant shit barely qualified as filling."

Dave huffed a chuckle and wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist as they walked out. "Yet another reason I completely despise fancy restaurants. We're gonna all get pizza delivered and watch a movie in the girls' room, since we measured and they have the biggest TV out of all of us."

Once back at the hotel, there was the aforementioned pizza and everyone piled on the bed and in the chairs. Dave took a plate of three slices of pizza and a cola, dropping himself on the floor in front of the bed, getting his head scratched by Terezi, who then hopped off the bed to give Karkat a tight hug, asking where the heck he'd been. Karkat stumbled and returned the hug a little more gently as he explained that he'd just been dropped off at the one place that could be called his personal Disneyland and left to his own devices. He grinned and pecked her cheek when she finally let go, grabbing a couple of slices for himself and settling onto the floor beside Dave. "So what are we watching anyway?"

"Knocked Up," Bro said with a shrug. "We drew out of a hat," he explained, showing his hat still on the table with little slips of paper in it, and then went back to watching it. It was about five minutes in, so not much had happened. It was pretty good, and actually something that nobody had any objections to - none of the movie choices were vetoed before tossed into the hat - so it was a good choice all around.

Dave shrugged. He'd become steeled against romcoms over the past several months. And as far as romcoms went, this one wasn't awful. Before long Karkat was horizontal with his head in Dave's lap chewing on a pizza crust as they all watched the movie in mostly silence between chuckles and quiet comments. He even decided not to shush them when they happened.

When the movie was over he sat back up and stretched glancing over at Sollux and Bro, the former having dozed off some time in the last couple of hours. Bro had his hand in Sollux's hair, but it had long since stopped toying with the ends, as he was also out cold. Movies bored him more often than not, and this had been no exception. Karkat shook his head and put his chin on Dave's shoulder. "Any more ideas for the evening?" He asked, smiling faintly as he felt Terezi settling in behind him and leaning against his back, her chin hooked over his shoulder as she looked at Dave as well.

"Yeah coolkid, you have anything awesome planned?"

With a browarch, Dave huffed, "Me? Nah man, I'm all sorts of out of fuckin' ideas for the day. I mean, unless you want to egg the scientologists."

Bro muttered, clearly not as asleep as he looked, "That's a felony," before he fell back to unconsciousness.

"Okay, the mighty godhand has spoken. I dunno. Night swimming? Maybe we can find a nightclub that isn't fucking crowded." He shrugged. He wasn't in the mood to go clubbing, but it was an idea.

"Night swimming does sound quite nice," Kanaya spoke up, still chuckling quietly. Terezi nodded and picked herself up off the floor, sitting down on the foot of the bed instead.

"Yeah and since we have Mistress Nightlight here we should be fine," she added, grinning at Kanaya then looking back down at Dave. "So? Night swimming? Potential skinny dipping?" she spoke up, glancing over at Sollux and Bro again.

Bro's eyebrow arched at that comment and then he peeled his eyes open. "Don't go past the breakers, keep your shit covered up, come back in before midnight," he said, before he leaned closer to Sollux and tried to get back to sleep.

Dave nodded with a grin and started for the door, "That's the plan, then. Dude, Bro, get the fuck up, you're in the gir- where the fuck did he go." Before Dave could finish his sentence, Bro and Sollux were both gone in a flashstep disappearing act back to Bro's room.

"He does realize we're all adults, right?" Karkat muttered, then shook his head after Bro and followed Dave back to their room, leaving the girls to negotiate dressing back down themselves.

"He might realize it, but he's used to me, so," Dave explained. All of Bro's guidelines were, at one point, something Dave had wound up doing the opposite of and getting into serious shit for.

It was a matter of minutes before they were all on their ways toward the beach, laughing and talking quietly as they made their ways down a mostly deserted beach. Far up the sand there was a campfire and music with a group of people larger than their own having their own party, but down at this end, they were alone, and that suited them just fine. The water was cold, but the sand was still warm and Karkat settled down just up above the water line to watch the others swim in Kanaya's light.

The night was overcast but still comfortable as they played in the water. Dave slipped away from the girls after a little while to wrap his arms around Karkat, kissing his shoulder. "I meant what I said," he quietly started as he watched Kanaya's light reflect in and above the water, giving off an eerie effect. "I want to move here when I graduate. And I dunno, man, if we're still together, which I'm pretty sure we will be..." He cleared his throat and tried to stop the heat rising up in his ears and cheeks. "I want you to come with. It's warm here, you wouldn't be bitching about winter. And that philosophical society's right here, and..." He trailed off. It was an uncommonly heavy conversation for Dave to strike up, but he felt it was important.

That 'if we're still together' made Karkat tense up slightly, his mind immediately turning to the worst possible scenarios until he heard the rest of it. He stared at the water for a few long moments, turning it over in his mind carefully then finally turning back to Dave, nudging his forehead against his matesprit's.

"One: It's not really a matter of if. I can't see a reason that we'd ever..." he trailed off, huffing quietly then continuing, "Two: we still have at least another year or two before you graduate. We just have to see if the world's been destroyed by then. And I would love to come with you," he said quietly, his hand coming up to rest against Dave's cheek, his lips pressing to the other's in a long, soft kiss. He smiled into it then laid his head back down against Dave's. "If you graduate before I finish my degree I think I can transfer my credits to UPR. I know what degree I want to go for now."

The way Karkat alleviated his worries about anything happening to them was just as needed as his answer to the question he hadn't really quite finished. He sighed out a breath he didn't realize he'd been in relief, and returned the kiss with a subtle smile. "That's great," he whispered, and leaned his head back up to give Karkat another kiss. "What do you want to do?" 

Terezi looked over at the boys and pointed them out to the other girls, going, "Awwww~" and bobbing in the water with a grin. "They are the grossest abuse of cuteness I have ever seen." That made Rose laugh and then splash Terezi. "Be nice."

Karkat caught part of that at least and rolled his eyes at them, then nudged his nose against Dave's. "They offer a Master's Degree program at the college that runs the research society. I want to try for my Master's in transformational psychology. It's like...how people change because of their abstract thought. Religious influence, personal dogma, cultural influences. It's one of those things that you can never really stop learning new things about, you know?"

Dave laughed quietly at Terezi when she squelched and yanked Rose under the water for splashing her, and then turned back to his matesprit, running his fingers through Karkat's hair. "That's way deeper than I ever fucking think, dude, but it works just right for you. You're kind of the brains of this scenario." He had a lot of respect for Karkat's choice, although he personally didn't ascribe to any particular dogma, and generally had an outwardly very shallow, pointedly negative view of belief systems in general. He knew how much the pursuit of wisdom meant to Karkat, and although they had spent countless hours debating between themselves, it was something Dave had always shown an interest in, though he sat on just the other side of the fence in most things Karkat liked to bring up.

"I could definitely groove to that situation," he said with a grin. "Just as long as you're with me."

"The world needs more people that just sit and think," Karkat said quietly, thinking back to what Eridan had said. He smiled faintly and pecked at his lips again, turning some on the spot and laying his hand against Dave's neck and scratching up into his hair tenderly. "Are you going to go back out and swim or just sit here being a lump with me?"

Dave smiled into Karkat's lips at that, and then chuckled, "I wouldn't knock the positive aspects of lumptitude. Or we could get dressed and we could walk back up," he said with a tiny smile. "Leave the girls to their thing. Get some coffee and warm up."

Karkat nodded at that and took hold of Dave's hand, standing and brushing the sand off the seat of his shorts, glancing out at the girls still swimming. He waved some when Kanaya looked around at them, letting her know that they were going to go back inside but that the rest of them could have fun without them.

Coffee was a relatively simple affair and getting back to the room finally afforded them real time to be alone. They couldn't hear anything from Bro and Sollux's room, but that didn't mean much. It was easier not thinking about that and settling down with the pay-per-view instead (which Bro was very graciously paying for) and talk over their coffee and enjoy one-another's company. Karkat received a text before they decided to go to bed from Eridan asking if he might want to meet for a drink, promising that he would be able to pick the place rather than be made uncomfortable again, hoping that they could spend real time talking again rather than arguing over conduct. Karkat agreed after mentioning it to Dave then put his phone on its charger, taking his time before crawling into bed and nuzzling into the side of Dave's neck, passively attempting to rile him up enough to tire them out and sleep soundly through the night. The way Terezi had woken up and invaded had made him somewhat nervous about falling asleep that night.

In the morning he was up right when Dave was, aching in pleasant ways as he dozed on top of Dave's chest. He had pulled the blankets up over his head to block out the bright sunlight coming through the beach-facing windows and refused to move. Dave was out cold for a full fifteen minutes later than usual, and when he woke up, he wrapped his arms around Karkat and tucked his own head under the blanket as well, kissing his neck. "Stupid day, being all bright and shit," he grumbled, though it was with a smile against Karkat's shoulder. "I had a good idea before going to sleep," he murmured, tangling their legs together. "If you want to go back to the PRS today, I can use that time to take the girls on the Universal tour?" He figured it'd be something that Karkat wasn't necessarily into. "Come back tonight, soak in that stupidly large tub?"

Karkat smiled faintly at that, his face pressing into Dave's chest as he grunted his approval then let a soft sigh against his stomach. "I like this idea," he murmured, wrapping his arms around Dave's middle and lingering there until either of them decided they should probably move. "I should have brought my computer...could have finished three papers while I was here and blown everyone the fuck away with my sources..."

With his lips on top of Karkat's head, he smirked. "You would've gotten some pretty incredulous looks from your professors. And me, for that matter. Who the hell even does homework on vacation." He bowed his head and kissed Karkat's ear, before he murmured, "Shower. I should go shower." He clearly was in _such_ a rush to do that, that he forgot to move. He ran his fingers down Karkat's side.

Karkat squirmed ticklishly at the touch but let Dave do as he wish, withdrawing his arm to curl it between the two of them, freeing Dave to shower if he really wanted to but not actively endorsing the notion. He'd never admit it, but he liked how Dave's skin smelled after a night of sweating together. "I would just because at least that would be making good use of the information I'm finding."

"There's no shame in learning just to learn," Dave murmured sleepily, pressing a light kiss to Karkat's cheek. He slid his hand down to Karkat's hip and then back around to his ass when he heard the connecting door open and he peeked out of the blanket to see Terezi shuffling over to their bed. Dammit, just when he was on his way to getting some morning ass. He was concerned however and moved over as she tumbled into the bed with them. "Nightmares again?" He asked, turning to her. She nodded groggily and curled into a ball.

"Don't mind me," she murmured, "Go back to being cute or whatever it was you were doing."

Karkat turned over to wrap an arm around her middle and press his cheek against the side of her neck, knowing if that didn't make it better that very little else would. "Remind me later and I'll pick up something to help you sleep while you guys are out," he murmured, nuzzling into the space behind her ear. She made a quiet sound and smiled at that, keeping her eyes closed.

"You guys smell like sex," she muttered then giggled quietly when she felt Karkat's cheeks heat up.

"Kind of the aftereffects of sex, believe it or not," Dave murmured, ducking as she reached behind herself to try and swat him from over Karkat. She sighed and buried herself against Karkat again and tucked herself tight up against his chest, muttering about how this was a lot harder to do when he was still shrimpy like her. Dave sighed and smiled, leaning down over Karkat to give her a kiss on the cheek. "Get some more sleep, babe." He then leaned to kiss Karkat again, and then attempted to slip out of bed before she scolded him that he wasn't going anywhere.

"It's a conspiracy," he grumbled in amusement as he laid back down to wrap his arm around Karkat and put his hand through Terezi's hair. Karkat chuckled quietly at that, smiling warmly against the side of Terezi's neck as he heard and felt her purr quietly against him, more of a deep, rumbling, almost growling sound compared to his quiet chirp. He tangled his legs between Dave's and nearly dozed back off wedged between them as he was.

Dave thought both of them were fucking adorable with their purrs, though he didn't ever say as much. He drifted back off for a few minutes, until there was a gentle knock on the door and he slipped away - much to Terezi's protest - and pulled on his boxers as he walked to see who it was. He opened the door to Kanaya, who wanted to see if they were up. "Well, I am," Dave muttered, rubbing his bare face as she smiled a little at him. "The midget and ex-midget are still in bed. Tell Rose we're going to Universal today, okay?" He smiled as she nodded, as that was sort of why she came to see how awake they were. Dave pressed a kiss to her cheek and excused himself to go get a shower in, and once the door was closed, he shuffled off to the bathroom.

By the time he reappeared, Karkat was on the ground after having been very soundly harassed, the blankets half tossed over him as if he'd fallen off the edge of the bed. As he grumbled, it was confirmed that he had, in fact, fallen over the edge of the bed. Terezi was poised over him with a big, smug-looking smile, pleased as shit that she'd been able to turn over and covertly tickle him into a full-on spazz attack that had sent him squirming, flailing and eventually tumbling over the side of the bed. He pouted up at her and soundly ignored Dave, trying to look as if being naked, on the floor with his legs still up and tangled in a blanket with bedhead and blush from his ears down was the most dignified position he could have possibly been in.

Dave had only a towel wrapped around his waist when he came out, and looked over at the two of them. "I swear the average mental age drops a decade when you're in the room, 'Rezi," he teased quietly as he walked to his bags, grabbing out a shirt and pair of boxers, only to get his towel swiped off his hips and snapped at his ass, at which he yelped and spun around, scowling.

"I can't help that the two of you are so easy to aggrieve!" giggled Terezi, who then bounced up towards the head of the bed when Dave came towards her, trying to steal his towel back. "Ha! The naked boys cannot do a thing!" She laughed victoriously before jumping off the bed and ran like hell to her own room.

Karkat made a strangling gesture in her direction as the door swung shut between their rooms, growling quietly then settling back with a dramatic sigh with his arms spread on either side of his head. "Dave. If I die of an ulcer, can you have them legally put the cause of death as Pyrope?"

"Likewise," Dave said with a shake of his head, before getting dressed, keeping one eye on the door. "But she knows we need her, so we'll never be rid of her." He pulled on his socks and looked over at Karkat with a grin. "So when are you going to be off to hang with Grim Archduke Douchepants III? If we get out of Universal early, I'll have to find something for us to do if you're too busy." He wasn't even sure if Bro and Sollux would be coming along, or if he even _wanted_ them to come along, the way they seemed to be hellbent on fucking in every exotic location they could find.

"Not for a few more hours," Karkat yawned as he disentangled himself from the blankets and tossed them back up onto the bed, mentally apologizing to whoever had to come and change the bedding when they finally left. He was even more sorry for the ones that would have to deal with Sollux' and Bro's bedding. He stepped into the bathroom himself to get in a cursory scrubdown, making sure he wouldn't smell like anything that Eridan could potentially pick on him for. He came back with his towel over his head like a shroud and started rummaging through his belongings, coming up with one of Dave's flannels that had crept into his things somewhere between packing and departure. He tossed it onto the bed and grabbed a tshirt to go with it, this one a little less hilarious than yesterday's at least in his opinion. He pulled on a pair of looser, distressed jeans, apparently trying to look as grungy as possible while still being clean enough for Eridan not to roll his eyes. He wandered into Terezi's room to check on her, sticking his tongue out when she gave a high-pitched shriek about being naked and yelling that he could see her bulge even though all he'd actually caught was her back and half an asscheek. She was giggling maniacally, obviously just as amused as he was as she dressed.

Once everybody was awake and dressed - Sollux and Bro were conspicuously absent, the only text sent to Dave saying that they were up in the valley, and planned to get actual work done in that time - it was up to Dave to cart the girls around wherever they wanted. The first place Dave took everyone was to the PRS, to drop Karkat off after making sure he had enough money for cab fare if Eridan was going to stiff him on getting a ride to wherever, and then they all went off to enjoy the day walking around soundsets and studio lots.

Eridan had spent the better part of the day after dropping Karkat off and sitting in a meeting going through the rigamarole of finalizing the deal on a house. He was in the area often enough that spending time and money on hotels was getting to be an expense that he just didn't feel was viable for the company, and furthermore, it was close to the beach and close to... other substantially interesting things that he decided were of importance. He texted Karkat once he was out of the office, asking where he'd have to come pick him up. He loosened the cuffs on his suit and shirt, rolling them up as he walked to his car. It was a little warmer than he cared for that day, and mentally reminded himself to bring the lighter suits next trip out. The answer that he got back was obvious, at least to Karkat, telling him exactly where he'd spent the last few hours, somehow managing to seem distracted even in a single text.

He was still sitting inside with his slowly growing stack of reading material, a list off to the side on a borrowed legal pad with scribbles of numbers and apparently a code of what information he was finding where, what it connected to, where he was cross-referencing, several paths he was following that terminated at little jagged question marks by the time Eridan drove up. He looked more like a student doing his homework than a great thinker, but there was a little spark in his eyes akin to that that Dave would get if his muse had just lit up and sent him on a new project.

Slipping into the library quietly with only the sound of his designer shoes lightly gracing the floor, Eridan moved to look over Karkat's shoulder, holding the back of the chair. He tapped his nails on the wooden backing and smiled coolly. "It's hard not to see a young, modern Troll Plato hard at work when I look at you, Kar." He walked around to a chair and had a seat. "You ready to get a drink an' maybe some lunch? I don't know about you, but I'm fuckin' starvin'." He was slightly less dressed up than he had been the day before, presumably because he didn't have any other meetings to go to that day. He'd freed himself from his tie and rolled up his sleeves, the barest amount of his tattoos showing from his elbows down.

Karkat looked up from his reading, his eyes unfocused for a second until he realized that Eridan was sitting in front of him. He pressed his lips together and tried to ignore the heat creeping into his face at the comment. He cleared his throat and made another couple of notes before closing the books, nodding some. "Yeah. Haven't actually eaten all morning now that I think about it. Dave's out with the girls showing them around Universal so it's just me fending for myself here."

"Fendin' well, however," Eridan said, eying the large stack of books. Personally, he was just at home with books as his friend, and felt just as at ease in the library as Karkat seemed to be, though his interest was in the more solid, important parts of history, and in battles and the tactics used to win them. He picked one book up and leafed through it, smiling some before setting it back on the pile. "I'm sure they won't mind if you stepped out for a while and left these here for a couple hours." He drummed the top of the stack of books with his nails before standing again. 

"So, what absolutely droll establishment have you picked out for us?" He had to tease, if only briefly and lightly. Yesterday's clusterfuck luncheon was still weighing heavily on his mind.

"It's an open-air sandwich place you probably wouldn't be caught dead in by yourself," Karkat snorted as he laid the notepad aside, shaking his head and taking the books back to their shelves, making a few trips back and forth as he did rather than asking Eridan for help. Eridan helped anyway. He respected a good book and a fine library as much as any other scholar, after all. He made note of the code on the spine of the book and then walked them back to their places, setting them down gently on the shelves.

"I know I can come back tomorrow if I don't make it back before Dave gets too bored to live this evening."

"Most people wouldn't consider that much of a vacation," Eridan pointed out as if Karkat didn't already know, "But we both know it's far fuckin' better to stick to what we enjoy than what we find morally abhorrent or simply borin'." He looked back up to the clock on the wall and realized that there was no time limit here. He could faff the fuck off with Kar all day if he wanted. "Come on an' lead the way," he said, tucking his hands in his trouser pockets as he went up the stairs.

Karkat followed him back out to the car, raising a hand to the desk man as they passed. He'd spent some time asking about their degree programs that day and gathering information on payment plans for potential enrollment. There was no means for financial aid and scholarships were few and far between. He would have to pay his tuition out of pocket, but the longer he spent in the place, the more worth it it felt. He would just have to start saving every last cent he had after he paid off his loans. He talked about all of this offhand as he settled into the passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt over his shoulder, sitting back comfortably. He gave Eridan the directions he'd found on his phone then settled in for the short drive, fidgeting some in his seat. He wanted badly to talk about the things he'd been learning about, but the only one out of all of them that was likely to take any interest in his pursuit on an intellectual level was Rose. Bringing her along would have to be a thing he did before they left, for certain.

"I don't understand why they bother fleecin' young people for knowledge. Didn't work that way on Alternia. Fuckin' humans are weird as shit, you ever notice that?"

He wasn't in the habit of eating sandwiches, and was hoping, at least, that they had some sort of fish sandwich. Red meat upset his stomach awfully. "A course there's some strings I could ostensibly pull to help you get a better deal, don't gotta run yourself into the red like you really might if you got to keep payin' off loans like you been doin'." Ugh, what a miserable con that was, Eridan thought. He had colleagues that were still paying off their college loans, when he himself was practically _handed_ the job due to caste and raw skill. It felt like cheating, and he couldn't care less that it most likely was. But seeing his friend get shafted was not on, either.

"Eridan, they're a non-profit organization. They don't take donations from political affiliates or religious organizations, that way they can keep the knowledge inside completely unbiased. They have everything from unique copies of the Quran to the Satanic Bible. Things that a lot of bulgesucks would rather censor than let exist. It takes a hell of a lot of effort and money to keep that building cool and dry and un-damaging to the books and the people that work there do so in a mostly volunteer basis. I think they can afford to charge a little more and frankly, I don't want any strings pulled for me. I'll get the scholarships. I'm on scholarships right now. I'll be ok. Besides, after I ascended I started getting some big fucking tips at the cafe." He smiled faintly at that, still fairly embarrassed at how people were reacting to him now that he was taller and more adult-looking.

"Fuckin' touchy, Jesus. I meant schools in general, like the one you're already goin' to, first off, and second, a course your fuckin' pride gets in the way. I ain't givin' you shit, Kar, I can get your bank to ease the fuck off your bulge an' make a better payment arrangement instead a you gettin' turned destitute by doin' what you want. What the hell's the point of power if I can't fuckin' swing my weight around sometimes an' do some shit for my friends?" He shook his head and tapped his fingers petulantly at the steering wheel. "Anyway, you don't even live here, do you? You're on vacation. How the hell do you suppose you're going to get by if you're movin'? It ain't like they got dorms on campus at this place, an' with the exception of a few places on the east coast, it's one a the most expensive places in the States you can live." He shook his head. "Findin' a job here ain't so easy, either, from what I hear. I mean I'm not tryin' to get you down on the idea, but I'm statin' facts." 

He parked his car in the dinky parking lot of the sandwich shop and looked over at Karkat. "You got a lot a lofty goals, and I respect the shit outta that. But you got to think in terms of reality." Such as it was. "Huge savin's or not, Kar, this city will eat you alive if you let it. It's why I don't live here."

Karkat made a face, nodding at all of that. "I know. I know what I want out of life isn't exactly all that fucking realistic. And I know having bussing and barista work on my resume aren't going to get me very far where it comes to being able to support myself. The fact that I don't want any of you fuckers helping me with it doesn't really help me either but I still don't want any of you going out of your way just to help me get my completely impractical degree. Besides, Dave and I are staying in Colorado. We both still have school to finish there. His degree will be finished before mine is, but not for another couple of years at least. I have time, Eridan." He sighed quietly and looked down at his palms, rubbing his thumbs against his fingers as he'd seen Dave do as a nervous tic every so often.

There it was again: the crushing self-loathing, the doubt making him feel as if he'd never be good enough, never be anything that would matter to anyone. It was a familiar discomfort that he hadn't even noticed was fading away until those moments it came back with a vengeance like this.

Eridan watched as Karkat nervously rubbed his fingers together, and then looked up at his face. "So what's a practical Master's degree, then? Fuckin' business? I didn't need one, here _I_ am. Some fuckin' doctor shit? Not for a guy who fuckin' faints at a sight of blood." His smile went tilted. "What you're doin' is fuckin' practical, even if it ain't all fuckin' self-sacrificin'. Who the fuck teaches the world, Kar? Who remembers when others strive to forget? What you're doin' is a fuckin' noble as hell job. Philosophy fuckin' lasts when history crumbles and gets forgotten or misconstrued." He patted his friend on the shoulder. "An' as your _friend_ , I want nothin' fuckin' more than to see you succeed in that fuckin' life you got planned out for yourself. Even if you are a fuckin' self-loathin' little douchebag who doesn't know his chute from a hole in the ground." He opened his door, the chime of the car going off. "C'mon, let's get fed before you start gettin' even worse off."

Coming from Eridan, all of that had sounded like he'd very tactfully been called a tool, but it was comforting at the same time. Karkat rolled his eye as he climbed out of the car before the dinging could get irritating and started into the shop. The inside was nice, open and cozy and smelled of baking bread and a variety of spices, cheeses, everything very fresh-looking and cheerful. The wide windows letting in the sunlight only completed it, as did the people sitting around in their colorful clothes, casual and occasionally interspersed with girls in their bathing suit tops and wraps or jeans or shorts. Now, it was Eridan that looked out of place.

Once in the shop, Eridan managed to keep from letting on how much he felt like he was above absolutely everybody there. But he did seem a bit out of place, in his perfectly tailored suit and his primped and perfect hair. Karkat approached the counter somewhat cautiously, looking up at the menus overhead, specials hand-written on a chalkboard at one end and the standard menu laid out down the rest of it. He pointed up and looked back at Eridan to see if that might suit his tastes, then settled on a panini for himself. Eridan looked over the menu in back of the counter and found only one fish option, and it was cod. His lip curled a little at that, but he ordered it anyway with some seawater and chips, and paid without incident, stepping away from the counter to wait for their order to be made. It hadn't gone past the seadweller's notice that they were being eyed by a pair of humans on one side of the seating area, and not in a pleasant way. He'd gotten used to casual disdain from humans, and more than matched it in turn, but this... This was much more than that. He felt like their stares were boring holes into himself and his friend. He tried to ignore it.

Karkat tried very hard to pretend as if he hadn't even noticed the looks, his lips pressing into a thin line as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, hands tucked under them. He took a breath of the scent of his sandwich as it was grilled, his mouth starting to water some. He'd never been here before and hadn't realized that there would be fuck all for seadwellers on the menu, intending to bring it up when he went back to the hotel that night. He would have thought that being this close to the ocean, someone would have thought about the slightly higher concentration of them. He muttered as much to Eridan when the little bell on the counter was sounded for their attention. Karkat smiled faintly and headed toward the back of the shop that opened up onto a shaded patio that had a few more people and a light breeze rolling in from the direction of a large bed of exotic flowers a few buildings down.

Eridan gave a little sneer of a smile at Karkat's comment, and followed after picking up his own sandwich and water, taking a seat. It was a pleasant enough location, all things considered. He wouldn't have even considered coming here in his usual routine, but he kept an open mind; most people lived like this. He was grateful that he didn't have to. He took a bite of his sandwich, prepared to be entirely underwhelmed, and found that at least his expectations were exceeded in that regard. "So you actually work at a cafe? That's got to be borin'," he said after taking a sip of his water.

"Yeah, one of the closer ones to a college full of snobs. It's a little more _exciting_ than people would think," Karkat muttered, taking a bite of his own sandwich, making a pleased little sound at the still rather crisp vegetables as they crunched with the grilled bread. He started talking some around the food without caring that he was doing so with his mouth full, going to detail on some of the people he'd dealt with. The people that gave him and Dave the best tips, the shameless flirts both male and female, human and troll, high and lowbloods alike. He spoke with particular amusement about his first day sitting in on one of Dave's shifts and the fly in the latte foam under its fancy leaf, about Dave accidentally messing up and spilling foam over the edge of a cup then just drawing it into a Persistence of Memory homage. He talked about the half-caf-soy-mocha-hint-of-mint-don't-forget-extra-foam-pinch-of-nutmeg-did-I-mention-I'm-allergic-to-gluten people that he saw daily. He got up after a moment to slip a dollar into the soda machine sitting back against the wall, grabbing his bottle of sprite and sitting back down as he unscrewed the cap. "Probably pedestrian as fuck to you, but it keeps us on our toes."

Listening intently wasn't usually something that Eridan did, but he did his damnedest to keep from tuning Karkat out. He wrinkled his nose at Dave's antics, thinking about how goddamn vulgar the human could be, but still managed to be admirable in his constant pursuit to fuck with everyone who crossed him. He shook his head when Karkat said it was pedestrian. "No, on the contrary," Eridan said, after finishing his sandwich and tossing the wrapper away in a nearby garbage can. "That shit's hilarious. Way more entertainment than you'd see in my fuckin' office on a daily basis. All we have is gossip to get us by." He looked back towards the exit of the shop and noticed that the two guys who were there had three more friends, and they were all still taking glances at them. "I think we're going to have to leave," he said firmly once he turned back to Karkat. He'd seen the shirt on one of them and it sent a nervous chill down his spine. 'Human Pride Organization'. It made his stomach clench up with sheer animosity and disgust. If he still had kept hit lists, that entire organization would have topped them all.

Karkat glanced back in the direction of the group, swallowing hard as he kept his soda up at his lips, muttering that yeah, he was ready to go. He put a hand on Eridan's wrist as he stood, then took his hand in a strong grip and led him down the steps that led down from the patio area to the street behind the restaurant that ended up winding down behind the rest of the shops in the direction of the beach. If they were lucky - very lucky - maybe they could avoid an incident.

Two of the figures followed them at a distance while the other three seemed to have disappeared, no doubt making their way the long way around in case the trolls ran. Eridan walked swiftly to catch up with Karkat's speed and managed to walk beside him, slipping his hand away as he kept his eyes peeled for any ambush. He noticed the alleyway coming up on their left, and clenched his fist, ready to be first to the punch, when instead, they were surrounded. There were eight men total, with two approaching on each side of them once they reached the alley, and, with no other recourse, they were practically herded into the slim side-street.

"Nice rings, slimeball," one said as he pushed Eridan towards a wall. "What are ya? Some sorta nancy-boy beast? Lemmie see those teeth. Y'all fuckin' monsters got some sharp teeth and we know you like to show 'em." As that one was occupied, another two cornered Karkat, chuckling at the first's commentary. "This one sure has 'em, look at it."

Eridan's stomach churned again as he ran his thumb over his forefinger's ring, and then he let out a nearly-feral, clearly inhuman sound when one of the guys pulled a knife on Karkat. His pupils narrowed into sharp slits as he glared, and felt the energy gathering in his hand that he'd always called his white science.

Karkat's breath hissed in as he clenched his teeth, baring his teeth on reflex and only making the ones in front of him chuckle to themselves. They were just waiting for a retaliation from either one of them. He made the mistake of looking back at Eridan with the intent of telling him not to do anything, that he would figure something out, earning himself a fist in the stomach and then the knife-wielding one slashed upward and managed to nick his cheek.

"Would ya look at that, this one bleeds a real pretty red," he laughed as Karkat slapped his hands over his face and turned away, hissing between his teeth then rounding on him and jerking one of his hands, the man screaming and toppling to the ground as all of the feeling went out of one of his legs.

As Karkat was slashed, two of the men got blown away clear across the alley as Eridan made a wide movement with his hand, holding them up against the wall, glaring with his teeth bared, his hand still up as they gasped for air. As three of the men were left incapacitated, two backed off and ran out of the alley, while three more stood in stunned silence. Eridan kept the men against the wall until they were choked out, and then pulled another man who was coming towards Karkat with intent to either kick or beat him, and he flung him clear through the alley, only to get punched in the side of the head by the last man standing, the ring on one of the man's fingers tearing through his delicate earfin.

It had only taken a few seconds when it came right down to it, but when just the one man was left standing, Karkat recovered in time to see the blow and the drip of blood running from the torn membrane down the side of Eridan's neck. Karkat bared his teeth again and leveled a hand at the man about to kick Eridan in the stomach while he was off-balance and slowly, he stiffened and fell to his knees, his eyes bulging out of his head slightly as the pressure on his lungs began to increase and slowly suffocate him. He was clutching at his throat as if there was something there to claw away. Karkat was behind him in a stance that Bro had taught him when they'd started his tai chi sessions, but his hands were hooked into straining, vicious claws that were tightening down the redder the human's face became.

Eridan stood and knocked Karkat's hand away, before swatting him upside the head, "Enough," he hissed, "Don't kill him. You want to get put in prison for this fuckin' simian?" He glared down at the man and then pushed Karkat towards the end of the alley. He put his hand up against his ear and hissed again, wincing away from the tear. "Fuckin' panless apes," he growled as he kicked the leg of one of the men he'd choked out on the way past.

Once back at the car, he pulled Karkat over to inspect the damage of the wound. "A least it's shallow," he muttered quietly, brow furrowed enough where the brim of his glasses obfuscated them.

Karkat wrinkled his nose, embarrassed that he'd let himself get that out of control. He swallowed sickly at the sticky rivulet of purple down Eridan's skin and lifted a hand, tightening down the blood vessels to stop the bleeding around the area then looking around for the glove compartment to try and find something to clean up the mess with before it could stain the collar of the other's shirt any worse.

"They wouldn't have been able to prove it was me. The only people that know I can do it are you and the others and there's no way in hell the rest of them saw it. What the hell's the other guy gonna tell anyone, huh? Mutants aren't supposed to have powers."

With a quick breath at the strange sensation of his blood vessels being messed with by an outside force, Eridan smirked. "Unless they go godtier. Good job, Kar, you got a useful power." He clearly was less worried about his shirt than he usually let on. There were drycleaners who could clean up the blood stain, no matter how dark. "I've had worse. Come on, let's get out a this part a town." He slid down into his seat and took a deep breath before buckling in. He very nearly killed the two men who he'd merely choked out. It would've served them right to fuck with him. But he attempted to play by law, no matter how unfuckingjustified it was and how lopsided the actual enforcement of them was. He waited for Karkat to buckle in before leaving the parking lot.

"So I told you I don't live here," Eridan said after a few minutes of silent driving, still ignoring the dangling bit of membrane that hit the bottom ray of his fin. "But I got a place. Just closed on it yesterday, actually." He looked over at Karkat briefly as he continued to drive north on the highway, passing the hotel and only turning off the highway once it started veering west, up into the hills. Karkat looked around at the hotel as they passed by it, then up in the direction they were going, immediately getting the gist.

"It doesn't really surprise me that you'd get a place to stay out here. Traveling as much as you probably do with whatever it is you actually do." He leaned against the door, trying not to move his face much as every subtle expression renewed the stinging in his cheek. He'd long since stopped the bleeding, but without a decent mirror he couldn't do much about the redness or bruising. He kept an eye out for something that he knew was going to end up being obscenely lavish, and wasn't disappointed when the car started to slow down up the driveway to the sprawling place. Who the fuck even needed all of that space? Unless of course there were going to be parties held, which was likely considering who he was dealing with.

"I'm the youngest of three executive vice presidents for Abbot Labs," Eridan explained, "Fuckin' great work if you can get it. They send me around an' get me to talk with other heads of companies that we intend to work with or buy out. They say it's because I got a disarmin' way about me. My only boss is the CEO, an' he's a piece a work." He got out of his car and pulled out his phone to grab the security code off of it, to disarm the system and unlock the door. Once he opened the door, he motioned for Karkat to go in. "Probably won't be comin' here except on business, but since my division's gettin' moved out here in a year, I decided to snap this up. Fuckin' gorgeous, right?" He breezed through to the kitchen to get some water and a washcloth to daub out the blood from his shirt collar.

Karkat wandered around the place, disconcerted as he always was about such lavish things. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket when it started to buzz, blinking then grimacing at the message. He sent a text back to Dave, keeping the phone in hand as he walked through and looked out of the windows, pausing to examine the view. While the house itself was way too much for him, the hills that gently rolled their way down to the coast was one of the nicest views he could think of. He received a couple more messages in quick succession and pulled a face, replying to them as well, knowing he was going to catch shit when he went back to the hotel. He joined Eridan in the kitchen after shoving his phone back out of the way in his pocket, leaning his hip against the counter with his hands stuffed under his arms, his eyes on the dangling little bit of flesh still attached to Eridan's earfin. "Uh...I can try to fix that if you like?"

Eridan raised an eyebrow to that, having unbuttoned his shirt a couple buttons down to get to the stain a bit better. He knew it was probably just going to be easier to get a new shirt. "Hn? Oh. Nah, I've had worse than that." He turned to show Karkat that he had, indeed, had worse: his other ear looked like a damned chewtoy. "Excuse me a minute, Kar, I've got to get a different shirt on. This one's fuckin' trashed." He pointed out towards the living room, "There's a fuckin' infinity pool, those things are fuckin' awesome," he said, before walking to the bedroom, where he'd already had movers put a bed. It'd be another few days before all the rest of his furniture would arrive, but he wouldn't be here for most of it. He had his luggage in the main bedroom, and pulled another suit shirt out, checking to see if his coat needed to be changed as well once he started getting undressed. Luckily, the blood - what tiny drops there were of it - blended into the dark fabric. But he decided that it was a hot enough day where he could just go with his vest instead, and went that direction.

He strolled back out in a blue shirt under his vest, the sleeves still rolled up. "Sorry about that, Kar," he said with a slight smile. "You know what you _could_ do for me is cut off the fuckin' blood vessels in that flap so I can just yank it off."

"That was actually what I was thinking." Karkat shrugged, arching a brow at Eridan's now suave fashion sense. "Making me look like some god damned gutter trash just by standing next to me," he muttered as he stepped up to the other's side and pinched the area gently between his thumb and forefinger, stopping the bloodflow and reversing it until everything immediately around the spot had more or less gone numb. "I don't get how you can still hold all the damn earrings with as gnarly as these are getting."

"The rays are stronger," he said, tapping where he had his more substantial piercings against the cartilage, and then grabbed hold of the small flap of membrane, pulling it off with a tiny wince. "Egh," he muttered, and went to throw it away. "Thanks, Kar." He looked over his shoulder at his friend from where he'd stashed the garbage can under the sink, and shook his head. "You pull off that look better than I could, don't flip over it. If you got put in one of these suits, you'd look just as good, I'm fuckin' sure of it. Well okay, maybe a little less good. Your hair's always a goddamn mess." And with that, he smiled. "Let's get your fuckin' ugly face cleaned up before your matesprit kills me for lettin' anythin' happen to you."

"Who're you calling fucking ugly, you overgrown polyp," Karkat snorted then let Eridan lead him to the bathroom to clean up the slice that started halfway up his left cheek and terminated just below his eye. "Christ... Any higher and he would've blinded me. I'm pretty sure Dave is going to shit himself," he muttered, shaking his head and leaning closer to the mirror as he backed up the blood to work it back away from the cut to expose it and check just how deep it was. It would be a definite scar, but it was really just a flesh wound. He started feeling nauseous the longer he looked at it. "Anyway, I happen to like my hair as it is. It was longer a couple of months ago."

Eridan pulled out a first aid kit that he'd had stored away in his sylladex, and he propped himself up on the sink before Karkat to look over the wound for himself. He tutted and soaked a cotton ball with antiseptic, grabbing Karkat by the jaw to keep him from squirming while he dabbed it, brow furrowed. "Dave's protective? Never woulda guessed," he said, sticking his tongue out in concentration. "Yeah, this is gonna fuckin' scar, grubface. At least it doesn't need stitches." That said, he put tiny gray butterfly bandages across the widest areas to hold it together, and called it good as can get. "See, this is why I kinda miss you shitheads," he said with a tiny smile as he hopped off the sink. "If I kept in touch, I would a gotten a new doomsday device and would a blown up the HPO home base by now."

"You know, I can actually see you turning into some kind of white collar criminal by day, evil fucking genius comic book villain by night," Karkat chuckled, feeling a little better about the situation now that his face didn't sting quite as bad. He licked his thumb and reached up to rub a smudge of blood that had been missed when Eridan was cleaning himself up, wiping it on his jeans. As he turned to go back into the mostly empty living room Karkat sent off a quick text to let Dave know that he would be coming back soon. "This isn't my first run-in with these shitsuckers, you know. And I highly doubt it's gonna be my last."

"Mine either, but I've dealt with the cutesy sweet media end of that fuckin' mess," Eridan muttered callously, looking around to see if he forgot anything. He patted his hands, then wrists, then checked for his wallet, and then he nodded, heading back to the door. "Let's get you back to your matesprit," he said as he ushered Karkat out. "Don't need him flippin' his shit on me any more than he's going to." 

Once they arrived back at the hotel, Dave's jaw dropped at the sight. "Bullshit it's nothing," was the first thing he said as he got up from his seat, where he and Terezi were watching a movie while Bro and Sollux sprawled out on the bed and worked on building a new website. "What the fuck happened?" He turned to glare at Eridan, who put his hands up defensively, and explained the entire situation. Karkat held his silence, letting Eridan talk as Terezi stepped up to him to examine the damage without removing the bandages, sighing and shaking her head. She'd heard scenarios like theirs many times and it never made it any easier to take. She'd long since decided that when she finally achieved full status as a force of the law she'd do her damnedest to change things like this. Sollux had sat up on his knees as he watched the group, his eyes narrowed at Eridan. He was sure that it had been Eridan's fault in some way even though part of him knew that there were indiscriminate HPO attacks all the time, and this time it just happened to be these two in the line of fire.

"Could we just stop now?" Karkat snapped when he finally got tired of being fussed over, taking Terezi's and Dave's hands and looking back at Eridan. "Thanks for uh. Y'know. Not letting me kill anyone," he muttered. "Go get some rest before you have shit to do."

Dave finally stepped away, smiling sheepishly as he took a seat again, leading Terezi with him as he tried to stay calm in spite of the urge to find those fuckers and put them in a stable time loop of their own personal hells. Eridan shot a glare to Sollux for staring daggers at him before nodding to Karkat. "Try not to get the others into half as much trouble as you got me into today, huh?" He joked, putting his hands behind his back, curling his nails upward and leaving what felt like scratches across Sollux's hip. Fucker had no right to look at him like that. That said, he walked out the door, ready to let them all get back to their vacation.

Sollux's eyes widened behind his glasses, taking an involuntary breath then easing himself off the bed so that at least he wouldn't bother Bro too much as he worked, his lip curling as he strode out after Eridan, vibrant blue and red electricity crackling down his hands. He dragged Eridan back a couple of steps then shoved one of his shoulders to turn him around.

"I don't know what the fuck you tried to pull and frankly, I don't care but if you get anyone elthe hurt before they leave, I will track you down to whatever fanthy fucking arithtocratic fuckery you're planning next and I will kill you in front of your prethiouth fucking partnerth." He curled his lips back away from his teeth as he leaned down to get more fully in Eridan's face, his voice lowering. "Or maybe I'll jutht make you kneel and thuck me off right there. Though you'd like that way too fucking much, wouldn't you, fishdick."

"Don't be so fuckin' presumptuous, peasant," growled Eridan as he jutted his jaw out, looking up into Sollux's eyes, his own narrowed, "A bunch a simian fucks saw it fit to try an' act all high an' mighty. I would've killed them if Kar wasn't there." He flexed his hand and pushed Sollux back, holding him there with Science before slipping away and pushing him against the wall. Eridan stepped up behind him, his chest flush against Sollux's back as he wrapped his long, strong fingers around the other's neck. "Don't make fuckin' promises you can't keep, Sol," his tone was dripping with innuendo and venom, "I know what you've got goin' on under all that apathy an' pathetic little mundane job you've been keepin'. If anyone's gonna be doin' a pro job at suckin' bulge in this little fray, it's gonna be you, now _isn't it_."

Sollux's jaw clenched as his head lifted, his hands pressed against the wall as he wrapped his psionics around Eridan's throat and closed them down slowly. "You really think I give a fuck that you know what I do on the thide? Gueth what, I already found your fucking alt email and trathed the IP adreth right back to you." He pressed himself back firmly into the wider body behind him, very deliberately rubbing right up against him before turning away to go back to the room. "Go be a good boy and get back to your fucking thtupid pompouth-ath lifethtyle, athhole. Don't let the tabloidth bite."

"Where the fuck do you think you're goin'?" Eridan growled breathlessly as he pulled Sollux back towards him with a yank of his wrist back away from the room. He got back into Sollux's face and glared, "I didn't say _you'd_ care, but I guaranfuckin'tee your little mundane office boss might." He smirked smugly. "You know, the guy _my_ boss is havin' me meet tomorrow?"

Sollux's eyes widened then narrowed down to slits, his hands lifting up and physically wrapping around Eridan's throat this time, walking him backward a step at a time. "If you lose me my fucking job I swear it will be the last thing you ever do," he hissed, keeping his voice low and his words deliberate. "I could very easily have you labeled a terrorist. Or turn every last fucking social media site you're on against you. Don't even test me," he growled, staring straight back into Eridan's face as he pressed his fingers down over the other's gills.

With every step and moment of breathlessness, Eridan's smug smile grew. Oh, he knew Sollux was capable of those things, but he also knew that Sollux was aware of how thoroughly ruined _his_ life could get with just a few phone calls and a few deliberately timed emails. He slipped his hand down between them and firmly ground the heel of his hand down against Sollux's sheath. "Don't come into this with your big guns blazin', Sol," he warned, "Or what kind of fun would that shit be?" A good rivalry like this needed time to blossom, to really settle in. Setting fire to its best artillery on the first hint of kismesissitude would burn them both out way too quickly.

"I happen to _like_ my position and if you value yours you'll keep shit to yourself, do you understand me, you unrepentent douchefuck?" Sollux hissed through gritted teeth, willing down the flush starting to creep up along the tips of his ears. He would need time to cool back down after this, or else he would be sequestering Bro to their room for the rest of the night when they hadn't even had dinner yet. He removed his hands from Eridan's throat only after squeezing down harder for a couple of seconds, taking care to step on the toe of his terribly expensive shoe.

Eridan tilted his chin up, his own cheeks having gone purple. "Oh, I understand entirely, you common fuckin' scab on society," his eyes narrowed, though not due strictly to animosity as he stepped back. Shit, he'd have to get his shoe polished. "You don't fuck with my job, I don't fuck with yours. Personal as this shit is? I think we ought to stick to the basics, anyway." His smug smile turned dark as he turned towards the elevator. "Have a good night, Sol, it's the last peaceful one you'll be gettin'!"

As much as Sollux hated to let Eridan get in the last word, the shrieking in his head was drowning out any smart reply he could make before the elevator doors slid closed between them. He gave a fast, extremely rude gesture in the time Eridan could still see, then turned back to the room, sidestepping a multitude of raised eyebrows and grabbing Bro by the collar with one hand, closing the laptop with the other and tucking it under his arm as he pulled the other out of the room. Dave watched with a tight-lipped smile, before he dropped his head down against the mattress, laughing into it. Karkat and Terezi both stared after them, then looked back at each other with identical smirks. Budding kismesis was hellaciously fun to watch.

Bro came along without question or protest, brow arched high as Sollux pulled him along to his room. He opened the door and set the laptop aside before the door even managed to close and lock behind them. He was curious to see exactly how riled up Eridan had gotten the guy. And there was an inkling of wonder how much Sollux had given back in return. Sollux shoved him back down onto their bed, already messed up and lightly stained, barely taking the time to strip out of his shirt before straddling the other's lap and shoving his shades up then devouring his mouth with a hard huff. He dragged his nails down the back of Bro's neck, holding the shades by the earpieces in the other hand as his arm draped over Bro's shoulders. Already the mild honeysuckle scent was starting to permeate the air, the already dark jeans he was wearing starting to darken just a little more in the front.

Once straddled and thoroughly busy with his lips, Bro moved his hands immediately down to unzip Sollux's jeans and shove them away from his skinny hips. Once that was accomplished - it only took a moment - he removed his glasses while deepening the kiss and set them, as well as Sollux's aside on the bed, and then slid his hand down against his sheath, letting Sollux's bulges wrap around his fingers. 

"What do you need?" Bro breathlessly asked into the kiss. "I'll do whatever you need." He knew how absolutely unfair getting teased and riled up to this point was, and he was willing to do what he could to alleviate that hard punch to Sollux's libido.

Sollux's eyes lit up, his psionics crackling down the length of his body and wrapping around Bro, pushing his hands up over his head and holding them down, pushing open the other's fly and dragging his pants down just far enough down his hips to let his cock breathe. A hand wrapped around it and stroked him hard for a few moments before his bulges took its place, gripping down around him tight and slicking him with sweet-smelling fluid.

"I want you to thtay right fucking there and let me ride you like a mechanical fucking hoofbeatht," he growled, his lips pulling back to show his teeth. He lifted up onto his knees and reached beneath him to position the other's cock and push down onto it, groaning quietly as he was stretched; it had become something of an unspoken rule between them that any time he was on the receiving end, that he would do it anally just because of how much damage would be done if he were to attempt to take something Bro's size in his nooks. With a nod, he arched into Sollux's touch, looking into the other's eyes. The psionic fooling around had been tested a couple times before, but he was still surprised and delighted when Sollux decided to use it to that end. His lips parted to let out a quiet rumble of sound once Sollux descended onto him, eyes closing as he bucked his hips upward. If he'd had use of his hands, he would have reached down to work firmly around Sollux's bulges, but as it stood, he was more than fine with being used as a living fucktoy to get out some aggressive sexual tension.

Sollux let out a heavy breath as he seated himself in Bro's lap, his jaw clenching as he was stretched then falling open when he began to move. One hand started to tangle between his bulges, squeezing down and stroking over them,his fingers playing at the entrances of his nooks. He tilted his head up, his eyes falling closed, shifting his weight to roll his hips, stomach flexing like a bellydancer's. "Fucking stupid fishdick threatening my job," he muttered under his breath, pushing down faster at the ghost sensation of Eridan's so-called Science bullshit scratching over his skin.

Watching Sollux move was erotic and singularly entertaining in itself, and there was a perverse pleasure that Bro got in knowing exactly who was being deprived of this particular fuck. He rocked his hips in time with Sollux's movements, finally released enough from the psionic grip to put his hands down, brushing over his nipple before sliding his hand down his own body. He didn't want to disturb Sollux's fantasies while he rode him. His own breath went shallow at the tightness around his cock, and he attempted to stay quiet.

Sollux continued to seethe for a little while longer, swearing under his breath and tightening down every so often until finally he'd started to calm down, dripping over Bro's stomach as his hips undulated. He finally looked Bro in the face again, a brow arching up as he sent another shiver of electricity up his body and focusing some at the piercing through his nipple. Bro rocked his hips upward with the shock, finally letting out a low groan as he moved his hands to Sollux's hips, staring up at him briefly, giving him an unspoken cue that he was about to shift positions. He sat up to claim Sollux's lips first, and then moved down to suck a bright yellow bruise into his skin at his throat. He rocked his hips upward in the rhythm that Sollux had set, pulling him into each thrust by his hips. He moved one hand between them to catch and tighten around both of Sollux's bulges, pumping and stroking them in time with each movement.

Sollux let a quiet, needy little sound into his mouth and rocked up into the hand on his bulges, his hand wrapping around Bro's and squeezing down tighter, his peak approaching fast then finally barreling over before he could think to at least demand a bucket. He shuddered violently and squeezed down around the other's cock, his hips jerking until it was over. With the gush of yellow genetic material across his abdomen, Bro let out a low groan into the kiss, bucking his hips one last, shuddering time as he came, tugging at the back of Sollux's hair. He drew away from the kiss, his breath shaky and shuddered, coming down from the high of orgasm quickly, laying his forehead down against Sollux's shoulder. Once he came back around to his senses, he murmured, "You two need to get your shit sorted. Fun as this is, I'm not gonna abide by playin' the cockblock all the time."

Sollux groaned quietly and put his head down in the crook of Bro's neck, his hands coming to rest against the other's arms. "You don't think I fucking know that? God..." He'd been resisting getting into a black quadrant with Eridan for years and suddenly that was crumbling before him. He let a heavy sigh and sat back up, wincing some as he felt Bro starting to shrink down inside him. "Tho what, are you actually giving your blething or thomething?"

"Do you need it?" Bro asked quietly, brushing his fingertips against the small of Sollux's back as he slipped away and out with a subtle movement of his hips. He settled back to brush his knuckles across Sollux's cheek, smiling sincerely. "It's your fuckin' life, bro, and I'm not gonna try and sway you. But," he murmured, stretching down to grab a towel from off the floor to soak up what he could of the fluid from off of his torso and around his ass, "I've seen you dancin' this dance with him, it's stupid to deny those black feelings, or pass 'em off as platonic."

Sollux wrinkled his nose and laid his hand over Bro's until it came away from his face, shifting up to help him reach where he could to sop the mess up before it could do much more damage to the blankets. He looked back at Bro when it was about as clean as they were going to be able to get it, his forehead leaning down against the other's with his hands gripping down at his shoulders. "Maybe I don't need it but for the record, your opinion on it doeth kind of matter..."

Bro wrapped his arm back around Sollux's waist and closed his eyes. "I think you need to be truthful about what few feelings you allow yourself to have," he murmured, knowing full well it went double for himself. He took a moment of quiet contemplation in getting his thoughts arranged and his mind settled before he murmured, "We should just call this what it is. We know full well it ain't as casual as we make it out to be. It used to be, but it's been pushin' farther and farther off towards the flushed, and it's getting real damn stupid to keep up pretendin' it's not."

What little was left of Sollux's already decimated cool fell away, his posture slouching as he looked down between them. He was predictably apprehensive about it, but he could in no way deny the truth in Bro's words. He took the other's hands loosely and gave them a light squeeze. "I know. In other wordth it'th time to actually call it red and be done with it." He looked back at Bro finally and leaned back so he could fully face him. "I know you're aware of why thith thcareth the fuck out of me."

Bro put one of Sollux's hands up against his chest and leaned down to press a kiss to his knuckles. "Yeah, it's fuckin' terrifying for me, too." He knew what power his own desires had, and how rampantly destructive they were, if he didn't keep them in check. "But since you haven't run screamin' into the night because of some unquantifiable force makin' your heart break, and you're not hearin' the imminently dead tellin' you it's a shit move, then what the hell are we even worried about?" His smile went tilted. "We've been at this for months now, dude. I think we're pretty damn capable of holdin' shit together."

"I'm gonna hold you to that, Thtrider." Smiling faintly, Sollux laid his hand against the back of Bro's head and pressed a soft kiss to his lips, the other hand squeezing down on Bro's. "You know, I wouldn't doubt that they have betth going between them on thith," he said conversationally after a couple seconds, giving him a lopsided smile.

Bro chuckled under his breath. He was as close to certain about this as he was with anything, but the lingering doubts would fade away into nothing if he didn't directly focus on them. They were tricks of the light, and he knew that. "Oh, absolutely. Pyrope's probably got a pool goin' to see how long before we crack and say anything. Best way around that is to play coy 'til she gets distracted." He waggled his eyebrows before slipping away to walk to the bathroom. "Shower time, then I'm gonna grab some shit from a place, start up a barbecue. You tell the peanut gallery we got two hours before dinner?"

"Not like attaching a name to thith ith gonna change anything," Sollux shrugged then followed behind him, intending to rinse off so that they at least couldn't pick on him for smelling like a fucking flower bush. He only took up space in the shower for a couple of minutes before getting into a fresh change of clothes and doing as he was asked, plunking himself back down at the foot of Terezi's bed and mentioning offhand about the barbecued dinner. Karkat was sprawling across it over the top of Dave's back, his head propped on his hand as they watched some ridiculous horror movie that he'd been outvoted about seeing.

"Someone send a message to Rose so she knows she needs to pick up some more of her veggie stuff then," Terezi mentioned offhand. "Or veggie tofu whatever burgers."

Dave smiled at the mention of meat on fire. "I'm pretty sure Bro's figured that out by now. He got that weird look thing he gets when he knows what's up last time he offered her a burger." He had his arm back and hand up in Karkat's hair, his other arm around Terezi's shoulders. "You gonna stick around, then? You've been basically a non-entity this entire time, dude, it's about time you come hang with us," he said to Sollux. "Surfing with you kicked several levels of ass. It'd suck if you just holed up with Bro for the rest of the vacation."

"You thtill have like three more dayth here, I intend to keep learning how to thurf," Sollux shrugged as he dropped himself across Karkat's lower back, smirking a little when he whined, his ongoing little purr interrupted. "I don't really do the thocial thing, if you haven't notithed. But I gueth I can make an extheption since it'th you guyth."

"You better make a fucking exception or I'm coming to your place and shitting on your keyboard," Karkat muttered then reached back and shoved a little on Sollux's shoulder, grinning and rubbing his arm when it was punched.

Dave looked back up at the two of them with a smirk and a huff. "Fucking toddlers. But yeah, it's a drag coming all the way out here to your stomping grounds and then having you just both proverbially and literally dick around with Bro all day. Not that I'm saying it's not understandable, because it totally is, given your situation, but..." He shrugged. "Seriously, you bring a certain balance to this freakshow." With that, he went back to watching the movie and smiled a little. "Oh man, the makeup in this movie is hells of well done."

"Good gore is always yummy," Terezi grinned, her chin perched on her knees as some girl's face was torn in half. Karkat just gave her a deadpanned look then put his chin down on Dave's shoulder and yawned quietly in his ear.

"I don't get how you guys can love this shit so much after everything," he muttered, though he didn't really question it. They could like what they wanted just as long as they didn't think it pertinent that he actually be paying attention to it.

"What happened is real, and this is spectacle. For me, this makes that less heavy on my mind," Dave explained. "The more of this I see, the less that what we went through feels so... Real. You know?" He kissed Karkat's cheek and shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

It was about an hour and a half before everyone got the same text at once to meet Bro down at the beach. He'd just put the food on the grill, including a healthy dose of veggie kebabs, and had restocked the picnic basket with chips, fruit, and fruit roll-ups. He also filled the cooler back up with soda and beer - all of the beer in bottles instead of cans this time - and some juice boxes to mix with the Malibu that he'd packed in there as well. Rose and Kanaya were the first down, setting up a picnic blanket for the group.

Sollux had opted to continue hanging out with Dave, Karkat and Terezi until then and walked down to the beach with them, having a loud discussion with Dave about the technical aspects of having his movie's trailer go viral. It was already growing immensely in popularity after it had been put up on youtube and linked into every relevant social media site, down to and including a blog page that concerned the development, the information provided by Bro over the course of production. It already had a fair amount of followers and got a few more every day. Terezi was riding Karkat down piggyback as she listened, fascinated with what little she knew even though she hadn't been involved with the film. She was vaguely resentful of the fact, too, but she conceded that it was understandable given that they'd had no real idea about her situation at the time. Karkat put her down once they'd congregated on the beach, glancing around in case Bro had thought to send the mass text to Eridan as well.

He had, and Eridan was arriving from the other side of the beach, looking much better and more composed than he had been only a few hours previously. He'd decided that no matter how many barbs Sollux intended to throw his way, he'd rebuff them and generally ignore the other's advances.

Bro smiled as the group made their way down and gave a nod to them from his place at the grill, taking a long swig of his beer as he flipped the ribs and kebabs, and Dave came up to him with a curious look over his shoulder. "Needs more sauce," he stated, before dropping down beside Rose and squeezing her around the shoulders. He frowned softly when he realized that she looked a little preoccupied with her thoughts, and soon she explained why: there were rumblings of an attack on a hospital in Boston. She wasn't sure, but she didn't think it was an attack of Horrorterrors. She would've felt them even from this far off.

Karkat frowned faintly at that, rubbing his thumb across his fingers as he settled down at the edge of the towel beside Terezi, asking the name of the hospital then cringing some. He looked up at Bro, hoping for either confirmation or denial, hoping that he could at least know if Gamzee was alive. He intended to eventually try to find him, after all, and he was fairly certain that if Gamzee was killed here, he wouldn't be getting to his quest bed. Bro looked up and gave a lopsided, non-committal grimace. He knew that some shit was going down, just not what in particular. "All I know is that Vriska was supposed to be here, and she went off towards Boston the day we were all supposed to meet up."

Dave had started rubbing his fingers as well. "Oh, well _that's_ good news, now we know that all the wild shit that goes on up there isn't entirely on account of the girls. It's just going to go unchecked except by spiderbitch and her especially fucked up tactics." He paused. "Well. And Mom. I guess." 

Eridan raised an eyebrow to the discussion, and of Vriska. "She gets around, doesn't she," he muttered, leaning over the cooler to see what there was that wouldn't completely screw his stomach over. 

"Oh, you haven't the foggiest," Rose replied, looking over at Karkat with concern. "I'm sure whatever it is, he'll be fine. He's likely to be put in a very safe place, both for himself _and_ for us."

Karkat started to chew at his lip, nodding in acceptance but not really encouraged. He pulled his knees up in front of him and tilted to look into the cooler himself, knowing what Eridan was looking for. He doubted that anything in there would let him off unscathed, but he pulled out one of the juices with a slight grimace. At least Eridan had opted for casual attire rather than his suit or vest. Now the only thing that made him look out of place was everything else about him.

Sollux had gravitated to Bro's side after a little while, not really concerned with Gamzee's fate at least for the time being, preferring to let the others worry enough for everyone. He peeked over the other's shoulder at the grill, giving a little hum at the smell. "Good idea about the kebabth. I'll definitely be grabbing a couple mythelf."

"Lay off the veggie ones, those are for babygirl," Bro said with a smirk, before nodding over to the ahi tuna that he was grilling, "And that's for our resident royalty. Everything else is free game, though." He nudged a foiled potato to roll it over. "I'd worry less about Makara," he said to Karkat, "and more about who'd be after him." He did a quick roll-call in his mind of those who had shared the session, and who could have possibly held onto a grudge this long.

Everybody.

Great.

Dave scratched his jaw as he considered the same thing. "Well, most of us are right here, or don't really know anything, so... Maybe it's someone he's pissed off since coming here?"

Rose fidgeted with her fingers, and then murmured, "I have a pretty good idea as to the culprit in this situation. But I'm not going to divulge until I have all the facts at my disposal."

Karkat was thinking hard about the situation himself, his eyes darting back and forth as his brow furrowed deeply. After a moment he stood and took Sollux by the arm, dragging him to one side and having a quick, hushed discussion with him. He swore loudly then plunked himself down into the sand.

"Come on Nubth, you can't know that for thure," Sollux sighed, crouching down in front of him and laying his hands on Karkat's shoulders. " They were clueleth when we met them, do you really think he'd launch an athault thith thoon?"

"Do _you_ really think it would take much more than 'oh yeah, I know where this guy that killed my moirail is' to set him into action? Use your fucking pan, Sollux." Karkat's head dropped into his hands, groaning even more loudly.

Eridan made a faintly disgusted sound from the back of his throat. "I did a little research over who was where, once Vriska hauled me off a my quest bed," he said, "and if you're thinkin' what I think you're thinkin', in terms a who lives where, this isn't going to bode well for anybody." He tapped his nails on his elbow and shook his head. "So what do you guys _do_ in this sort a situation?"

Dave spoke up with, "There's nothing we _can_ do right now, we're all over here. I guess all we can do is hope that Nepeta's got one bitchin' shooshpap and knows that it's the time to use it, if it's who we think it is. And that he doesn't fuck Gamzee up too heavily. We can hope that he continues to be just as hung up on hemospectrum as you are." 

Rose sighed and murmured, "I didn't want to say anything, but I believe you're all on the right track. Let's just continue to hope that they all use good judgment, despite the rampant damage our blueblooded friend may have caused in the search for the highblood."

"She'll take care of him. She has to," Karkat muttered, standing back up and pacing some in the sand, his hands tucked under his arms. "He's going to end up labeled some kind of terrorist by the Priders. The only ones that would understand are us here and even then I really don't think they'd be all that willing to listen to us try to explain the singlehanded demolition of half a fucking hospital as righteous anger."

"The way the laws are worded here prevents us from explaining it anyway," Terezi spoke up, leaning back on her hands as she watched Karkat fretting. "Moiraillegiance isn't really an acceptable reason to reduce a guy to a fine purple paste anymore. We have to play by this civilization's rules and as such, Equius is screwed. Especially if he did manage to find Gamzee."

"Assimilation's a fuckin' bitch," Eridan muttered as he dropped down beside Kanaya. "Got everythin' ass backwards. Even with the clout I've got, it's a pain in the chute to get anythin' done about how fuckin' lopsided the laws are."

Bro raised an eyebrow to their conversation and shot off a quick text out of sight of the others, before he started plating up the food to take back to the rest of them. "Shit will get equal real fuckin' swift, if I've got any say in the matter." 

Dave glanced back at Bro for clarification but decided to leave it when nothing was offered. He wasn't sure how Bro had any sway over what and wasn't society, outside of his weird artist habits. Sollux pressed his lips together, looking up at Bro in slight warning though he knew it was highly unlikely to be heeded. He settled back down beside his matesprit (lord did it sound weird to think of him like that now) with a hand on his shoulder to watch him cook as Karkat flopped back down with the others, reaching toward a beer for himself, then deciding against it and grabbed for a soda instead. Terezi wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, trying wordlessly to be a comfort.

"Why can't we go more than a fucking week without something fucked up happening?" He said quietly, leaning the side of his head against hers as he rubbed his thumb through the moisture collecting on the side of the can. Dave, settling down behind them both, reached out and dragged his fingers through Karkat's hair as he shook his head.

"Dude, it's _us_. When has there _ever_ been a time that we went a week without some extraordinarily fucked up thing happening?"

Rose raised a brow to that and then looked up in thought. "Are we only counting larger events like this, or simple shenanigans perpetrated by you alone?"

Karkat looked up at her rolling it around in his head then shrugging. "Why can't it be both? It all falls under the vast umbrella of FUBAR."

Back at the grill again, Bro murmured to Sollux low enough to keep the others from hearing, " _They'll_ fix things once they realize how fucked up it is that they're catering solely to one society. That's some horseshit for which I do not stand." He handed off a kebab to Sollux and nudged him off to sit with the others while he killed the fire in the grill and grabbed his own food. Sollux gave a quiet huff, nodding as he took the kebab, somewhat placated for the time being settling back down by the cooler and handing off a cooked mushroom to Rose, muttering about the texture then biting a quartered tomato off of the skewer. He was preoccupied now, reminding himself that the only reason he wasn't in prison by now for fucking up everyone's hardware was the confusion over whether the perpetrator was human or not; trolls seemed to get heavier sentences for the same reason that the laws were weighted more in humanity's favor; trolls had the predisposition, it was agreed, to become psychopathic, while the humans were the meeker species. His lip curled at that and he nearly bit the stick in half at that thought, glancing up at Karkat's cheek where he could still see the cut around the bandages.

Bro sat down beside Sollux once he had his mountain of food plated and ready to eat. He handed over a similarly large plate to Sollux and listened while the conversation meandered on between the others about the various shit that each of them had done while on the meteor, or while on their own planets. There were moments of friendly bickering and heaps of sarcasm, but otherwise, it was nice to hear them talking about better times and how they passed the time between all the death and destruction. He looked up at the sky and gave a fond smile to the stars, before looking down at his phone, which had just received a text.

"Vriska says that the situation's under control. She's managed to subdue Zahhak, and is keeping him sedated while she transfers Gamzee out of the city."

Another text came in.

"She asks if anyone wants to babysit a clown."

Dave cringed at the prospect.

"How the hell would she be able to thubdue that fucktrumpet? She put him to thleep, didn't she," Sollux shook his head and started to pick his teeth with the end of his skewer, running his tongue over them then looking at Karkat as the other troll straightened up. "Vantath, no. You can't theriouthly be-"

"Fuck you, Sollux. I at least survived the entire fucking time on the meteor. If anyone could handle him why shouldn't it be me?"

"Because if _you_ take him in," Dave immediately objected, "You'll be putting him near _me._ " He shook his head. "No, Vantas."

Eridan, whose hair was being played with by Kanaya as they sat and listened to the argument, looked up and raised a hand for attention. "I'll take him."

Bro set his jaw at that and looked over at him, eyes narrowed. The seadweller stood his ground, even with a braid going through his hair. "I mean it. None a you have the means or accommodations to take care a him like he needs, an' it wasn't him who killed me." His cheek was papped lightly by Kanaya, and he shrugged. "Just sayin' the truth, Kan, don't gotta be offended by it."

She sighed quietly then looked at the others, nodding her head some. "He does have a point, though. I am just as aware as everyone else how close you were to him, Karkat, but when you go home and return to school, who would be there to care for him? Your petsitter? Eridan has the financial stability and the space to keep him and if necessary, he has the means to tranquilize or restrain him. It's either this, or putting him back in a very small room with only his own thoughts for company."

Karkat cringed and ran his hand back through his hair, scratching some at the back of his head. Coming from Kanaya it was an extremely reasonable argument. That didn't mean he liked it any. "But what about when Eridan's gone? He has to fly everyfuckingwhere for his business shit."

"That may be so, but if you consider how much time you and Dave actually spend in your apartment, you'll see that in total, it's not so different. He travels, yes. But you have your responsibilities. School, work."

Eridan nodded to that and smiled up at Kanaya. "Couldn't a said it better myself. An' I got about two months a vacation I haven't used up. Might as well use it on this bullshit. It's as good an excuse as any ta get out a the habit of flyin' all over the fuckin' world."

Dave calmed considerably at that. "Are you sure you want to do this, Eridan? I mean, we don't know exactly how fucked up Nutjob 2 Dope's been. He might still be all..." he made a scrabbly motion at his temple.

"He's been heavily sedated for a year and a half," Bro muttered. "He's been in rehabilitative classes for longer than that. It just so happens that Eridan's company is the one that makes the medication that Gamzee's been on. If there's any one of us who's singularly capable of making sure that Gamzee is taken care of, it's him. And now that we've got _that_ settled, how about we figure out what the fuck we're going to be doin' with Equius. He's the actual threat here, not Gamzee." 

Rose's pout deepened. "Oh dear." She looked over at Karkat and Dave, as if they had some idea of what to do.

Dave shrugged and shook his head. "I don't know the guy. Give him to a horse ranch or some shit."

"Honestly, I wouldn't put him in charge of a fucking snail," Karkat muttered. Terezi sat up, tenting her fingers in front of her lips then rubbing her hands together as she thought about it.

"I think Vriska's got him for the time being at the very least," she said after a moment. "We can coordinate with her and Nepeta on what to do about him on the off-chance he's not locked up in Ceder Junction. It's a supermax facility for violent offenders in the Massachusetts area," she explained. "If there's anywhere they'd send him, it would be there. They only recently built a new facility onto it designed to keep trolls separate from the human inmates."

Bro set his jaw again and shook his head. "We can only hope he's got a good defense, being that he's a blueblood _should_ have that kind of connection." He sent Vriska a text that Eridan was the one taking Gamzee. Her response was near instantaneous: a loud WHAT???? in all of their heads. 

Dave flinched. "Jesus fucking dicks, Vriska!" He shook his head to get it to stop ringing. "Anyway, now that I'm pretty sure we've got her attention, this will make it faster. If she's driving here from Boston, it'll take about three days. We'll be on our way back by the time she gets here."

Eridan nodded. "I'll be in the area for another five days on account a gettin' the house set up an' contracts drawn up at IBM." He looked over at Sollux with a steady gaze. "If we can keep our shit together," he said to the rest of the group, "it'll be no sweat to keep shit goin' smoothly. I'll take vacation after these negotiations are settled, an' keep Gamzee here." He looked down at his empty plate. "I haven't put much together, but I can tell it isn't real safe to stay all in one spot."

Digging his finger into his ear to try and stop the ringing, Karkat looked back and forth with a slight grimace between Sollux and Eridan, just daring either of them to start shit when they were having a serious talk. Sollux was giving him a look of his own that said very fucking clearly what he thought of Eridan's idea, but that he also acknowledged the sense behind it.

"In the meantime, I suggest we at least try to go about the rest of our vacation with as little cosmic monstrosity poking as possible," Kanaya sighed, starting to fuss the braid back out of Eridan's hair. "We'll only have peace for so long before something else is thrown at us."

Eridan smiled up at Kanaya before patting her hand on his head. "You're a fuckin' bastion a levelheadedness, Kan." He dug in his pocket to find his e-cigarette, needing a little stress relief, seeing Dave lighting his own cigarette in tandem.

Bro huffed a chuckle as he brought out his own cigarettes. "Y'all got bad damn habits," he murmured in amusement, handing a cigarette off to Sollux and lighting his zippo under it. "My plan for tomorrow's to get all of us rounded up and shipped off to Knotts. It's a little smaller'n Disneyland, but it's got less traffic on account of the fact it's a fuckin' park based on jelly."

Dave chuckled, "I liked it well enough? It's got coasters."

Sollux took a long drag off his cigarette after it had been lit letting the smoke through his nose as he sat back with his weight propped on his hand. He arched an eyebrow at the Striders about the amusement park, chuckling quietly. He looked very much like he wanted to comment on Eridan's electric smoke, but even he was aware that anything else would likely make him extremely sick. Having an out-of-commission kismesis was not something he cared for.

"You two like your amusement parks way to much," Karkat muttered. "Fucking Striders."

Dave smirked and leaned closer to Karkat, pressing a kiss to his neck. "It's about the adrenaline rush without having to throw down. And the beauty of it is that you can get lost in the crowd, and simply blend into the background." He looked down at the cherry of his cigarette, thoughtful. "You know. Just blend for a while."

Rose smiled, "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to see this library that Karkat's been spending so much time in. Amusement parks have never been my cup of tea."

"That sounds like a good idea actually," Kanaya smiled and glanced at Eridan then up to Karkat. "The three of you don't quite have the disposition to enjoy a theme park. I would rather you enjoy your vacation than wander around looking bored."

Karkat gave her a grateful look then pressed his lips against Dave's temple, combing his fingers through the back of his matesprit's hair. "You don't mind if we go be boring somewhere else right?"

Dave chuckled and wrinkled his nose. "If that's what you're calling it. You guys are better suited for quiet and thoughtful, when you're not destroying worlds and screaming." He wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist and looked up at Eridan. "You gonna keep him out of trouble this time?"

"I'm more than perfectly fuckin' capable of keepin' him outta trouble if he doesn't fuckin' lead me into it!" Eridan huffed, scowling at the indignity of having the blame thrust upon him yet again. "What happened earlier was 100% not my fault."

Rose sighed and leaned down to pat his head. "You really need to learn what jokes are, your grace." She looked over at Karkat, and laughed softly. "Has he always been this way?"

"More or less," Karkat shrugged then cocked a lopsided little smile at Eridan and the little bit of purple he could see creeping into his cheeks. He rested his hand against the side of Dave's neck, scratching gently at his skin as he looked back at Bro and Sollux, the latter of whom had decided to lie back on the ground with his nearly finished cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. "You guys better get video though."

"Yeah yeah. Who wouldn't wanna thee Terezi shit herthelf over jam," Sollux snorted, taking a last lazy drag then putting the butt out in the sand, finding an empty beer bottle and dropping the butt inside. Terezi had been fairly quiet after the talk about Equius, listening to all of them with her head on Karkat's thigh, smiling contently to herself but now she looked up, a grin pulling at her lips.

"Don't forget they have _cherry_ stuff there~"

It was Dave's turn to go inexcusably red around the ears. "So they do. Imagine that." He cleared his throat and grabbed the bottle from Sollux, tossing his own cigarette butt in. "A fruit farm with cherries. How novel."

Bro smirked a little at his brother's flimsy cover, and then nudged Sollux. "Help me get shit cleaned up, it's about time to get back in." He stood up from the other corner of the cooler and started cleaning up the trash they'd left.

Eridan helped with the picking up around them, not even being asked to do so. He wasn't going to be one of _those_ people, by any means. "I simply don't understand the fuckin' appeal to amusement parks. The noise pollution alone makes it unbearable. Not to mention, all those _people_."

Karkat stood after Terezi had moved and started to pack up the remaining drinks and carried the cooler out of the way until the last of the trash had been collected and thrown away, joining Dave when it was done and taking his hand loosely. He remembered the bath suggestion from that morning, and just then it sounded fantastic to him. He rolled his eyes at the passive aggressive bullshit that Sollux and Eridan were pulling now that everyone was separating again, knowing they wouldn't get too bad with Bro right there to separate them again. He yawned quietly in Terezi's direction when she yelled that they were done and opted to start back toward the hotel, letting the others do as they wished for the time being. Kanaya and Rose seemed to be best left to their own devices and Bro and Sollux... Well.

Dave stretched before he helped the girls by folding the blanket and tucked it carefully in the picnic basket, and then kissed Rose on the cheek as she and Kanaya headed back. He slipped his hand into Karkat's and smiled tiredly. "One hell of a day," he muttered, squeezing Karkat's hand as they walked back to the hotel. He was curious and concerned by the injuries that Karkat had sustained, but he wouldn't say anything until they were back up in their room.

Bro watched Sollux and Eridan silently pushing each other's buttons and smirked faintly, stepping away from breaking down the grill to tuck the room key into Sollux's pocket, murmuring into his ear, "I'll be back in a few hours." He finished packing the rest of the things up and started to his car to stash everything until the next time they were needed. He had a few things to take care of on a more ethereal, businesslike scale. He hated having to deal with the bullshit and red tape, but the fuckers in charge needed to get torn down a few pegs.

A dark little smirk parted Sollux's lips as Bro left and let his psionics flash, taking hold of Eridan before he could react then grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him close. "Before thith ith over, you're going to be calling me your fucking mathter," Sollux hissed into his ear then started toward the hotel with his fingers still clasped firmly around the other's collar, his psionics keeping Eridan's hands pinned do his sides. There was a side door in the hotel that led up to their rooms from the parking spaces closest to that wing of the building, so at least they could avoid making themselves a spectacle. When they reached the room he released his hold though, locking the door behind them.

Eridan wasn't foolish enough to think that he could break out of psionics that could throw a person twenty feet, but he also knew that he had a little range of motion with his hand. The white energy that he managed to manipulate was subtle as it left stinging scratches across Sollux's back and chest, and felt like his hands were tight against his kismesis' neck, not yet choking, but certainly there to keep him at attention as they walked. Once the door was locked, and the hold on him was lifted, he clenched his fist and threw Sollux to the bed, glaring at him. "You fuckin' overzealous, egotistical little insect," he sneered, as he kept Sollux pinned, straddling the lowblood as he pulled his own shirt off and tightly tied it around Sollux's eyes. "I'd never let you think for a minute your shitty little badass routine could make me forget your place. Which, if you've fuckin' forgotten? Is below me."

Sollux shoved Eridan off of him blindly and pinned him against the wall, standing and laying a hand against the side of his neck, using his thumb to push up on the other's chin as he bared his teeth, letting them scrape over the front of Eridan's throat. "You really don't theem to fucking get jutht who you're dealing with, athhole. You really, honethtly think you're above me? I could rip your throat out for that." He snapped Eridan's hands behind him in a tight psionic grip, backing up slowly without caring to remove the shirt around his eyes. "I could trash you blindfolded," he chuckled. "In fact, I think I _will_."

Eridan could feel the rise of blood into his cheeks and he moved his knee to slip between Sollux's legs, grinding it up against him. "There you fuckin' go again, all talk an' no proof. You spend too much time runnin' your fuckin' mouth, it's a wonder how often I've seen it fuckin' _filled_ with dick. When did you have the fuckin' time, with how much you fuckin' talk yourself up?" His sneer was downright devilish as he leaned forward to headbutt Sollux, taking that brief second of surprise to push him away and pin him on the opposite wall, his hand firmly around the other's neck. He hissed into Sollux's ear. "I've been waitin' for this for years, an' if it really gets you that soaked, I'll let you have the fuckin' honors. It's only fuckin' fair you get the one chance. 'Cause it's not gonna happen again."

"Don't even fucking thtart that, ED. You forget I have no fucking qualmth about going thtraight for your ath and I _know_ you keep thqueaky fucking clean." Spitting back into Eridan's face, Sollux shoved him and hooked a foot behind his heel to trip him back, following him on the way down and wrapping his hands around Eridan's throat. Eridan managed to fall gracefully and catch himself before the wind was knocked out of him, and kept his hand tight around Sollux's throat, his nails digging into the back of his neck as he fell. Sollux's legs stretched back to hook his ankles around Eridan's and keep his feet tucked up close to his body, the balls of his feet pressed hard into the ground. He rolled his hips torturously slow, his weight leaning on his hands. "Tho how about you get the fuck over yourthelf and admit jutht how fucking _bad_ you want me aaall up inthide you like a good little bitch."

"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction a hearin' it, you servile little plebe," Eridan hissed, his pupils gone into slits as he ground his hips upward, his pants already starting to soak through. "Still fuckin' _talkin'_ ," he groused as he yanked Sollux forward to claim his mouth with a guttural growl.

"Don't ruin your pantth thith thoon," Sollux sneered against his mouth before shoving his tongue deep inside past his teeth, tangling it around Eridan's, his teeth clicking against the other's. He ground back down into him as his hands finally moved away from Eridan's throat, tangling instead into his hair and yanking his head back to expose his throat. He bit into it then sucked a large, painful-looking bruise into the skin, running his tongue over the slightly oozing wounds. With a sharp hiss, Eridan dragged his nails roughly down Sollux's neck and shoulders, before he yanked his shirt up, digging his claws into his back. He'd quite nearly given up talking - it wasn't getting him anywhere - but one last thought came to mind and his lips curled into a dark, terrible smile.

"You sicken me," he growled. "Wantin' to work me up until I beg? You'll be here a LONG damn time waitin' for it." He moved his hand down to dig his nails into Sollux's hip.

Sollux's back arched up at the nails digging into his skin, letting out a shuddering breath then growing low in his throat, a smirk creeping back onto his own lips. "I hope you have thome fucking makeup handy, or a really fucking high collar." He rubbed the pad of his thumb over the ring of toothmarks then sat back up, pressing all of his weight down onto Eridan's crotch and rolling his hips again, pulling his shirt off and throwing it on the floor a few feet away. There were still marks littering his skin from the multiple trysts with Bro over the course of the last few days. "I don't feel like hearing you beg, fishdick. I feel like hearing you talk to me like a fucking equal."

Sollux's words made Eridan huff in indignant amusement. "And here I fuckin' thought you'd have caught on by now." He moved his hand back up to grab Sollux's jaw roughly, slipping his fingertip over his kismesis' lips. "I don't fuckin' call other people peasant. I don't fuckin' start shit with anybody, either." He tutted and brushed his lips against Sollux's earlobe. "It's better than bein' equal, Sol. You got a category all a your fuckin' own."

Sollux bit down on Eridan's thumb just hard enough to break the skin then ran his tongue over it before pushing it back out of his mouth. "You thound like you think I should be honored by that," he snorted, his nails dragging dark furrows into Eridan's sides under his grubscars. He burrowed his head and nosed up under the other's jaw, bumping his head up then letting a warm breath against his throat. The scent generated between the two of them was getting heady, almost sickly sweet and cloying. "Strip down, fishfathe. We've ruined your pantth enough for now, don't you think?"

"You fuckin' _should_ be," Eridan said, gasping sharply at the scratching, "I hold you to a much higher standard than any other fuckin' person I know. You put up with every moment of abuse I've ever fuckin' decided to give you." It was admirable. He slipped his hand down to undo both their pants at the same time, and he squirmed gracefully out of his own. He then leveled his gaze to the still-blindfolded Sollux, huffing a chuckle as he yanked the shirt away from his eyes. "I wouldn't have sought this kismesissitude out if I thought you were anythin' but my peer. A lopsided rivalry would never suit."

"You're a fucking piece of work, you know that?" Sollux muttered, slipping his hands down the length of his thighs and slipping off his boxers and jeans in the same motion, curling his legs up then stretching them back out and planting his feet flat on the ground as he used his psionics to lift himself back up to stand. He tilted his head as he smirked down at Eridan, holding out his hand.

Eridan took Sollux's hand and pulled himself up, brow arching briefly. "I've been told that a couple times," he said, shoving Sollux lightly towards the bed, with no clear malice, but with definite impatience. He slipped out of the rest of his clothes and followed along. Sollux snagged his wrist and pulled him forward, giving his shoulder a push in kind then using the side of the bed as a fulcrum to tip Eridan forward and press up against his back, his nose pressed to the back of the other's neck. He planted his knee against the edge of the bed and pushed up against Eridan's ass, one hand creeping along his hip and down between his legs to dip his fingers into the wet, sweet opening of his nook. Now it was just a matter of figuring out what his kismesis liked and using it to keep him right at the peak, singing a figurative high note for him.

With a huff of breath at the fall into the mattress, Eridan looked over his shoulder at Sollux, and spread his hands out across the bedding, ready for most anything. The way Sollux teased against his nook made his breath go sharp and shallow, and he bowed his head forward, slowly moving one hand to remove his glasses and set them aside. His bulge slipped half-out from its sheath and went back to twist around Sollux's invading fingers, and he twitched a smile.

Sollux spread his fingers to let the bulge wind between them, squeezing down just this side of tight and rocking his hips forward into Eridan's ass, his own bulges slipping out and running along the cleft. He used his free hand to spread his kismesis and show his waste chute, the tip of a bulge just starting to work at it as the other sought out the peculiar coolness of the other's nook. He leaned over Eridan's back with his palm flat between his shoulderblades, grinning down at the back of his head. "Ever been double-penetrated by the thame perthon?" He murmured, his eyes falling half closed as he breached and started to push in, barely sparing much time to properly let him adjust. He pulled Sollux's hand away with his bulge to give more room for his kismesis' relatively hot bulges, and then squeezed against the fingers with a shivered breath, steeling himself for the breach at the sensation of a bulge against his chute. Only when he was penetrated did Eridan make a faint sound, his toes and fingers curling at the sudden fullness.

"You gonna play fuckin' sweet an' coy with me?" As he turned to look over his shoulder again, shooting a daring glare over his shoulder at Sollux.

"Fine," Sollux growled then forced each bulge in as far as it would go, his hand curling against Eridan's back and leaving bleeding furrows in the wake of his nails. He laid the other hand on the lean curve of Eridan's ass and ran his thumb over it a moment before lifting his hand and giving him a ringing slap at the same time as his hips pushed forward and started to roll, his upper body remaining still as everything from his belly down undulated slowly, keeping him buried to the hilt inside the other's body. His bulges writhed and pressed against the other's walls in a regular rhythm just a little too controlled to just be reflexive. It was a trick he was still learning but it always seemed to get good reviews even in its unrefined state.

Eridan let out a low, animalistic noise once Sollux finally scratched him, and he put enough mental energy to return the favor, albeit with white science across Sollux's chest, leaving yellow welts in the wake of a flash of white as his jaw went slack and his teeth bared. He moved the energy down towards Sollux's nooks, dancing against them with a cold, bright energy that sparked like electricity, but didn't burn. It was that same energy that he could use to destroy angels, but fine-tuned to his needs and desires. The pulsing sensation within him gave him more reason to let out another faint sound, and his bulge reached back to trace along what part of Sollux's bulge couldn't reach into his nook from where he was seated.

Sollux's brow furrowed at that and his head tilted as he looked up to where Eridan's hands were still visible on the bed, drawing the obvious conclusion. He bent down over Eridan and nosed against the back of his neck then craned to huff against his earfin. "Interethting trick...Gonna have to teach me." He pressed his chest against Eridan's back, the scratches on his chest stinging slightly at the cool contact.

"Not enough incentive to," Eridan strained, his breath sharp and shallow as he moved his bulge down towards where his kismesis' bulges met, to wrap around the one that was hotly pulsing inside his nook. "Could, a course, if," he hissed and put one hand up to tug at the back of Sollux's hair, "If you gave me reason to." He pressed his lips closed as he tightened around Sollux in something like a vice grip.

"We'll dithcuth inthentive later then," Sollux hissed and lifted his foot to gain better leverage, kneeling over Eridan's bowed body and lifting himself up, his hand winding into the back of the other's hair and giving it a hard tug. His hips began to roll again, his lower lip sucking into his mouth and catching between his teeth. The other hand scratched deep marks down the length of Eridan's back then rubbed back up them to smear the traces of blood across his skin. Eridan was yowling and he bucked backwards against Sollux with a glare, curling both hands into fists as he cursed Sollux in very colorful and creative Alternian. He brought another wave of energy around Sollux's throat, clenching down as his fingers flexed into the soft comforter beneath them. He tried to get Sollux to bear off, demanding a pail in their native tongue as he worried his lower lip to keep himself from his peak. Sollux pouted some but pulled back and fished around under the bed for a moment until he'd found the bucket that he and Bro had taken to keeping there over the last couple of days, slipping it under Eridan's hips then pushing back in hard. He was barely done, his steadily coming climax staved off for the time being. He continued to move nonetheless and brought down his hand in a hard slap, smoothing his palm over the dark purple mark on Eridan's ass.

Sollux's departure made Eridan manage to reel himself back in to a degree, taking a deep breath and sighing it out before making a squelching sound at the re-entry. At least the pail was there when he'd actually need it again. He hissed with the slap to his ass and curled his fingers into a fist, punching the mattress before using that energy to slip back against Sollux's nooks, intentionally upping the power of it to make it just this side of uncomfortable. The sensation made Sollux growl deep in his chest and wind his hand back into Eridan's hair, pulling back on it to make him stretch out his neck. He sank his teeth into the other's shoulder and bit down as he shoved into him hard, his hips digging into the meat of his kismesis' ass.

With the bite, Eridan let out a choked but not unpleasant sound, twisting his hand subtly to twist the sensation as if something tangible was inside Sollux's nooks, rotating and pulsing while his bulge slunk back again, tightening around the one in his own nook once more, winding around it with a near deathgrip. He hadn't attempted to spread his energy out so far before, but he only lost a minute amount of intensity as he curled his other hand's claws into the mattress, making the white science claw across Sollux's back. Sollux let out an uncomfortable sound and wrenched his hips to one side just hard enough to put real pressure on on of the sweet spots he'd been able to locate based on how loud Eridan got when he touched it, coupling it with a matching scratch down the other side of his back. "Never notithed before jutht how pretty you bleed," he sneered, his chest pushing forward with the slightly tingling sensation at his back.

Eridan took a sharp inward hiss of breath once more as he felt his skin break under Sollux's nails, letting out an unbridled growl with the pressure against a particularly sensitive spot. "Gonna have to get you chained up to see if you bleed just as nice," He hissed under his breath, jaw clamped around his words. He reached between them to position the bucket more correctly as he felt himself reaching the end once again. "See how long you can go without usin' those fuckin' talons."

"Thith ith me with my nails trimmed down," Sollux chuckled darkly. Doing both the high-speed typing and the hardware work he was usually required to do meant that he had to keep his nails short. He couldn't deny how attractive the idea of being made helpless and immobile was though and entertained mentioning his personal kink, if Eridan hadn't already gathered it from a couple of the videos he _knew_ the asshole had seen. He straightened up on his knees and once more started to execute his belly roll, his bulges squeezing hard against Eridan's sweet spots in tandem as his hands laced together behind his neck, his lips pulled into a wide smirk.

With his hand still under him, Eridan disentangled his bulge from Sollux's and wrapped it around his fingers, manipulating himself with a few rough pumps and squeezes, growling low in the back of his throat as genetic material first dripped then slowly poured into the bucket beneath him, the room - which had already been completely ensconced in their mutual scent - filling with an overwhelming plum scent as he came. He had a split moment's thought that he could simply slip away and leave Sollux high and dry after he got his, but he decided, hell, that was going a little too far.

Sollux's jaw clenched at the tightening of Eridan's muscles around him as he came, withdrawing slowly and wrapping a hand around the base of his bulges and slipping his middle and ring fingers in between them to help himself get off, fully expecting Eridan to leave now that he was sated. He let a low, content growl in spite of the fact and let his head fall back as he used his psionics to warm back up, having to take longer because of the temperature difference, having gotten so used to Bro's heat as opposed to the seadweller's chill.

Eridan smoothly turned around, and wrapped his own hand around Sollux's, leveling a cold gaze on his kismesis as he brushed the back of his long nails against his middle and ring fingers with a tease, before he leaned forward to run the sharp points of his teeth along Sollux's jaw, hissing into the other's ear, "Next time, I'm bringing some restraints for your overzealous fuckin' hands, Sol." He sunk his teeth into Sollux's neck and then slid his slick tongue against the wounds, groaning faintly when the yellow blood hit his tastebuds. He pulled back then, and moved away to collect his clothes.

Sollux held himself over the pail until he was sure he wouldn't make a mess anymore, rubbing his hand over the wounds in his neck and wrinkling his nose then glancing back at Eridan, at the wounds littering his skin. He moved quickly and snatched his phone out of the pocket of his jeans, snapping a couple of pictures while the other's back was turned, sending one of them off to Bro. He carried the nearly full bucket to the bathroom to let it make that room smell like canned fruit too, then came back to slip his boxers on. "Yeah ok, we'll jutht thee how that one goeth," he snorted, smirking at Eridan as he sat down on the edge of the bed with his arms and legs crossed haughtily.

"I heard that," Eridan muttered when the sound of the phone's camera shutter sound, smirking faintly over his shoulder. He pulled up his pants, fastening the fly before pulling on his socks and shoes, leaning firmly against his scratches, an obvious show of how much he'd enjoy having them until they healed. Once his shirt was on, he grabbed his glasses off the bed and stepped out of the room, putting them on silently as he walked down the hall with the poise of a king.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CH was the one that got the honor of writing Eridan, because like hell was Meebs gonna try and play a fuckin' fishy douche.
> 
> Here, have a pile of links:
> 
> [Eridan as he now appears](http://curiouslyhigh.tumblr.com/post/54581627664/oh-hey-he-got-dressed-i-really-enjoyed-working)
> 
> [Eridan naked and showing off his mods](http://curiouslyhigh.tumblr.com/post/54573939741/what-is-even-that-background-idk-modstuck-eridan)
> 
> [Rear-view of Eridan to show off his full back piece](http://curiouslyhigh.tumblr.com/post/57686342739/i-have-been-working-on-his-bio-luminescence-all)
> 
> [Also available in glowy](http://curiouslyhigh.tumblr.com/post/57694723184/fucking-finished-oh-my-fucking-god-here-guys-have)
> 
> [Karkat's hilarious fuckin' shirt](http://www.snorgtees.com/t-shirts/text-based/the-last-thing-i-want-to-do-is-hurt-you)
> 
> [Eridan taking care of the angry little shitbadger](http://curiouslyhigh.tumblr.com/post/55058086846/yeah-thats-goin-to-scar-grubface-so-much)
> 
> Eridan's ridiculous Topanga Canyon house:  
> http://photos3.zillow.com/p_f/ISlm73s6k4qqvl0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos3.zillow.com/p_f/IS95e3bqwseivl0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos1.zillow.com/p_f/ISphirb359vcvl0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos2.zillow.com/p_f/IS5e6gx2fqdiul0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos1.zillow.com/p_f/ISp12swp6axnul0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos2.zillow.com/p_f/IShvzfej22pqul0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos1.zillow.com/p_f/ISdk8sf9jylful0000000000.jpg  
> http://photos2.zillow.com/p_f/IS5a7mni3ogyet1000000000.jpg
> 
> All of the art was done by collaboration between Meebs, CH and our lovely friend Hallo.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the motherfuckerin'est of motherfuckers.
> 
> Also, Sollux dies.

Karkat rolled his eyes when he heard the door slam on the other side of the hall, turning his attention to Dave and frowning slightly at the look on his face. "I know, don't say it. We should've been watching our asses while we were out. It was a bullshit fight."

Dave sighed heavily shook his head, brushing his thumb gently beside the cut on Karkat's face. "I wasn't going to say anything. I'm just glad you're all right. Is this it?" He asked quietly, his brow furrowed.

Karkat nodded, laying his hand over Dave's wrist. "This is all. And it doesn't even really hurt anymore. It's not as deep as it looks, I promise." He wouldn't say 'you should see the other guy'. It just felt like cheap bravado that he wouldn't have stood for if it had come from Dave. He winced some at a thump against the wall in the other room, feeling bad for Rose and Kanaya being closer to it. They would likely opt to go out and have a few drinks before long.

Dave smiled weakly and then raised an eyebrow at the noise, shaking his head as he walked to the bathroom to strip down. "Hey, here's a great idea, let's give those two maniacs a room and an indefinite amount of time in which to fuck it up! Genius plan. Foolproof." He started the tap in the bath, plugging the tub as he sat on its edge. "I think the only thing that really surprises me about that," he said, hearing another, quieter thump before nodding towards the sound, "Is how fucking long it took them. When Laserface plays hard to get, he isn't fucking around." 

Karkat perched on the edge of the tub after stripping off both his overshirt and tshirt, rolling them up and laying them on the counter beside the sink. "I don't think Sollux was ever really black for him. The hate was pretty platonic. It's had time to fester without Eridan there to be a constant annoyance. It had to age, I guess."

"I suppose," Dave conceded as he slipped out of his pants and eased his way into the hot water with a murmur. "I never met Eridan in full live technicolor, so I'm a pretty bad judge of what the hell he's all about."

Karkat dipped into it himself after a couple more seconds, on the opposite side of the enormous tub with his legs stretched out and resting beneath Dave's. He let a soft sigh and leaned his head back against the side with his eyes closed. "If you'd met him back then I'm pretty sure you would've hated him too," he murmured with a small smile.

"Basically he's everything I hate about aristocracy in general, regardless of what species it is. It seems being a pompous douchefuck is a trait inherent of all fucking royalty," he put his hand down on Karkat's ankle, his eyes slipping closed. "I'm kind of glad that I never wound up like that." He very well could have, if Bro had raised him as a rich kid instead of in a way more befitting someone with very little means.

"I think if you'd turned out like him, I might have shoved you out of an airlock as soon as you opened your mouth on the meteor," Karkat hummed, pressing his leg against Dave's hip. He opened an eye to peek back at him, a soft smile playing across his lips.

"Shit dude, I'm surprised you put up with me as fuckin' tryhard as I was to begin with," Dave said with his eyes closed and a relaxed smile settling over his face. "Fuckin'... it gets really damn tiring being so damn cool all the time. I don't even fucking know who I was trying to impress after a while. I guess I was holding myself to some arbitrary standard of awesomeness, representing Team Strider for the paradox space championships or some shit." He sighed. "Fuck dude, I even pissed me off."

"Everyone's embarrassed as fuck at their 14-year-old selves," Karkat sighed, leaning forward in the water and reaching his hands out to slick them back through Dave's hair, scooting forward between his matesprit's legs and pecking lightly at his lips. "You still try a little too fucking hard to keep up appearances. You don't have to try to impress anyone, you know. You're pretty fucking impressive as you are without the showy shit."

"Yeah, sometimes I forget who I'm talking to about that," Dave said as he snuck another kiss in. "You're the one guy who hated himself ten minutes into the past." At least Karkat had gotten over that for the most part. "Dude, I don't even know what you're talking about." He smirked and looked down. "If I let shit through without a filter, I'd be every flavor of nope. On either end of the scale, there's trying too hard, and then there's unfiltered Dave, and both of those would make me a victim of murder due to obnoxiousness. So let's just say I'm doing the world a favor."

"You do realize that you're talking to the guy that lives in your apartment, right? I've seen unfiltered Dave. Even when he doesn't know he's been seen." Smirking faintly, Karkat leaned up and took another light kiss, then pecked his way down the line of Dave's jaw to his neck. He withdrew his legs and twisted around in place, turning and laying back against his matesprit's chest with a soft sigh.

"Imagine living with that _constantly_ though. Eeugh." Dave wrapped his arm around Karkat contentedly. "That's a messed up situation right there." He sighed merrily, however, eyes closing again. "I'm pretty sure you're the only one who's seen me lose my cool to that extent, though. And you're the only one I'd trust to let it go around." He shrugged subtly, so as not to disturb his matesprit's head.

Karkat dozed a bit in the warm water with his hands resting against Dave's legs, his thumbs rubbing over his matesprit's skin. "But what if I like that Dave as much as I like this Dave? It's all Dave to me."

"I'd still keep my shit together around others. I'm not gonna change that," Dave murmured as he slid his slick hand up Karkat's chest. "I'm glad at least one person likes it when I'm not trying to keep my brain from vomiting mental images into every fucking thing I say." He leaned forward to kiss Karkat's jaw. "It's just a pleasant coincidence that it's someone I've got this thing for, whose perfections and faults are equal in their charm. At least in my opinion."

"Have I ever told you how much I enjoy it when you decide to wax poetic?" Karkat murmured and reached up to lay his hand against Dave's neck, scratching at it some then reaching up and tangling his fingers into his matesprit's hair. "You're kind of full of shit, but it still sounds nice."

Dave chuckled and leaned his head against Karkat's hand for a moment. "It takes some serious effort for me to not," Dave murmured. "Like, whenever anybody says anything, it's some herculean feat not to go off on some flamboyant goddamn tangent about what the hell my brain just decided to visualize." He huffed a chuckle. "Hard being so mentally full Kodak visual when the world's textual and in black and white."

Karkat chuckled quietly and nudged his head against Dave's chin, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together. "What if I said you have a pass to go full Kodak right now? I want to listen to you talk until you run out of words."

"I wouldn't know where to begin," Dave admitted quietly, brushing his free hand's fingertips across Karkat's collarbone. "I'd be reticent as hell to start just flowing at the mouth because I wouldn't know where it would lead. It's embarrassing sometimes, where my brain goes with the visuals, it's like looking into a photograph and then seeing all the tiny details that most people would miss if they passed over it. Every flaw and every hidden image, every vein in every single leaf of a tree, you know. Most photographs aren't _meant_ to be looked at for a long time. Most thoughts shouldn't be analyzed that long, either." He bit the corner of his lip and shook his head.

"I want to hear it," Karkat said quietly, his head leaning back against Dave's shoulder as he looked up at him, bringing his hand up and kissing the knuckles. "Just once I want to know exactly what's on your mind. It doesn't matter what it is."

Dave's ears went red as he murmured, "Just that I can't believe the one person I fuckin' ever managed to fall this damn deep in love with has told me that he'd move halfway across the country with me. That you didn't even need time to think it over, and how you always fucking astound me with how damn much you actually care." He shook his head. "It's not like I've really ever been on par with you when it comes to shit like philosophy; shit, I'm intimidated as hell walking into that place, because I don't know fuckall and have spent my entire life basically mocking the very things you strive to understand." He shook his head. "Maybe I'm just a little apprehensive. Y'know. That I'm not an intellectual equal to you and Rose. That's not how I operate, though, and I'm not going to shame myself for that. But it gives me cause to worry, because you deserve an intellectual equal." He took a deep breath, feeling like he'd been talking forever. "Someone like Prince Stuffypants. Iunno. Ignore me."

Whatever he'd been expecting, it certainly hadn't been that, and he certainly hadn't expected it to make his chest ache like this. Karkat shook his head and turned in place, sitting up in the middle of the tub, taking Dave's hands and looking him in the face, his expression a soft, thoughtful frown. "I would move to the other side of the fucking planet with you if it came to that," he said quietly, rubbing his thumbs across Dave's fingers mimicking his own nervous habit. "You don't have to have some deep understanding of philosophy, or be some kind of great thinker, or be able to understand what I'm trying to learn. You don't need it. You have a beautiful mind, David Strider. That was what I fell for the hardest." He paused a moment, swallowing hard as he wrapped his hands tightly around Dave's, squeezing down and looking him straight in the eye. "You gave me a reason to live that nobody else could have. If there's anyone that doesn't deserve it, it's me. I was a piece of shit to you for so fucking long, you should have just walked away. But you never did. You decided to be my best fucking friend and you still are and I really, honestly feel like you will be for the rest our pathetic lives. And I'm happy with that. I'm pretty sure I've never been able to say that before." He blinked, then smiled faintly. "Scratch that. I have said it before. Last time it was to you too."

"It came out way more pathetic than it sounded in my head," Dave explained as he pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead, "I meant to say it's cool with me that you and his royal bozo in the next room are friends. It gives you a different person to talk to about shit, y'know, someone more like-minded in ways I can't be." He smirked then and brushed his fingers lightly over his matesprit's cheek, careful not to disturb the wound. "Of course, you're a little less tool-tastic than that chump is." His head went up when he heard a muffled, but loud, inhuman yowl come from across the hall and then laughed quietly. "Ten bucks says Eridan's ripped to shit tomorrow."

"Sollux is a sadist. Eridan will be lucky if he can walk without a limp." Karkat smirked faintly at that then leaned forward to drape his arms around Dave's neck, nudging his forehead against the other's then looked at his fingertips, which had wrinkled from how long they'd been in the water. "There are things I can talk about with you that I wouldn't bring up in a million fucking years with Eridan anyway, so there's that at least."

Dave huffed in amusement at the first, his eyes opening to look into Karkat's eyes, following his line of sight to his fingertips, his smile gone lopsided. "Like how you're a fucking sap, for instance? Nah, I'm pretty sure he knows that one. Er... Can you do me a favor and not call me David, by the way?" The smile faltered and fell. "It's impersonal and callous-sounding to me. Nobody uses that name but government stooges and doctors. Nobody who really cares about me, you know?" He slipped his hands to Karkat's waist and then sat up. "I know you were trying to give what you said weight, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth."

Karkat's expression fell as well, his lip sucking into in his mouth as he nodded, eyes falling and giving him the look of a scolded child. "Sorry," he muttered, drawing his arms back until just his hands rested against Dave's chest.

Dave shook his head with a smile. "Don't be upset, dude, you didn't know any better." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead and nudged him. "The water's getting tepid as hell. Let's get out." He reached over to the plug, releasing it so the water could drain.

Karkat wrinkled his nose and nodded, standing in the tub then looking toward the shower stall. Baths always made him feel strange and somewhat uncomfortable after the fact, his mind conveniently reminding him that he'd just been sitting in a pool of warm, standing water with his own dirt from the day. He wanted to rinse down. "I'm going to step into the shower for a second if you don't mind," he muttered and stepped out onto the fluffy bath mat, glancing around to see that they had enough towels then moving to the shower. Dave stood as well and slipped out, following Karkat into the shower. He wasn't a fan of the knowledge that he was stewing in his own bacteria, either. He ran his hands down Karkat's shoulders and arms as he moved in behind him, smiling to himself at how cozy the situation was, all things considered.

Karkat's head tipped back to nudge against Dave's, his hands moving to wrap around his matesprit's and locking their fingers together. "Is this anything like what you were expecting when you first told me how you felt?" He asked quietly, genuinely curious.

"Honestly?" Dave murmured as he put his lips against Karkat's neck, "I expected you to say no. I expected nothing to come of it, other than a clear conscience." He smiled then, chuckling a little. "After that though? Nah, dude, this shit has been all surprises. Little daily blessings. Nothing at all like I'd ever expected for any part of my life." He smirked as he ran his hand up Karkat's arm again, noting how his own skin had gotten darker over the past couple days, and was much less of a stark contrast as they had been.

Karkat nodded some. He couldn't really argue with that; it was the logical assumption based on everything that had happened up to that moment and the fact that he'd still been in a relationship when it did happen. He leaned back against Dave's chest with a rather sleepy expression and reached up to lay his hand over his matesprit's, fiddling a bit with his fingers. "Goddamn pile of mush..."

"Speak for yourself," joked Dave, squeezing his matesprit's hand before slipping away, rinsing off quickly before stepping out of the shower. He grabbed a towel and patted off the drips of water before walking into the room, immediately shouting, "'REZI! OUT." She cackled and wrapped her arms around him, leaving a huge kiss on his cheek before calling out to Karkat in a singsong, "Night Karkles! Don't let him keep you up all night~"

Karkat rolled his eyes, looking up at the ceiling in a silent 'why me' then slipped out with the towel still around his waist, hands on his hips. "Tell me again why we put up with these complete bullshit shenanigans?" He sighed then went to listen at the door for a moment, brow arching. No more thumps, creaking or yelling, just a murmur of voices nearly obscured completely by the wall. Apparently they'd finished and were back to trading barbs.

Dave sprawled out on the bed and chuckled with a shake of his head. "We put up with it," he fathomed a guess, "because without her, we would be two overserious idiots who never had any fun." He slipped under the covers and stretched contentedly, letting out a loud yawn. "She keeps us level."

"You're implying that I'm not level," Karkat snorted, then crawled into bed beside him and pulled the blankets up to his nose, taking a moment to stretch out then curl up against Dave as he'd been prone to from the very beginning. "Ok I'm not really level but honestly? Pretty sure I'm never really going to be. But that's not really going to stop me doing whatever the fuck this is I'm doing." He smiled faintly and flattened his palm against Dave's chest, ignoring the shufflings from next door and across the hall in favor of listening to the steady thud of Dave's heart.

What he would never understand was how anyone could believe that trolls and humans were fundamentally different. They were sentient beings, with morals and conscience, honor, and grace, saints and demons alike. A troll's blood pusher sounded no different from a human heart. If you listened to the voice of a human next to that of a troll, you wouldn't be able to tell who was what. Shallow fucking perceptions was what it all boiled down to. His mood started to darken some in spite of the peace between the two of them, his thoughts coming back to Equius and his likely incarceration without trial. Nobody would question it either because "trolls are inherently violent and need to be controlled more strictly than humans". Said the congressman that lobbied for segregation and outlawing interpsecies relationships. Karkat pressed his cheek against Dave's chest, wrapping an arm around him and squeezing down tight.

"No fault in being off-kilter. Everybody is." Dave said as he turned on the TV, tuning it out just to think while his eyes were occupied with the movement on the screen. At that point, his entire mundane life rode on the success of the film. It was mostly complete; all it needed was some tweaks, finer details that needed to be fine tuned into a perfect final form. He had his friends to thank for that; without them, and their fonts of personal talents, and their willingness to even come around and help him with it, none of it would have happened. It was a group effort, but inevitably, Dave was the one who could sink or fly with its success or failure. He ran his hand through Karkat's hair and then brushed his hand down to run idle circles against his matesprit's shoulder.

The success of the film would mean a steady chance of actually producing films that made it to the big screen. Its success would mean a scholarship. Its success would mean he could pursue his dreams and actually have a chance at reaching them. Its failure would mean that he would have to find some other way of existing, something mundane and dull and ill-befitting of his vibrant mind. He didn't even want to think of that highly likely scenario. He squeezed Karkat's shoulder and looked down, noticing that Karkat had a similarly thoughtful expression on his face.

"There you go thinking those deep thoughts again," he murmured with an inherent chuckle in his tone.

Karkat blinked and looked up at him, then shook his head with a soft smile as he was drawn out of his thoughts. "Not really. At least they're no deeper than the usual," he shrugged then propped his head up to stare at the tv without really seeing what was on it, his eyes unfocused. He paused at a thought though and grabbed the remote for himself, flipping through the channel guide to find the news stations and starting to slowly surf through them.

His stomach sank when he found what he was looking for; A stone-faced woman in a $400 pantsuit was doing as detailed a report as she could concerning the attack on the McLean mental hospital, with a decent sketch artist's depiction of Equius' face in the top corner, saying that he'd fled before he could be caught as soon as Gamzee had been removed from his immediate line of sight. The wording of the report, while seemingly impersonal, was painting Equius into some kind of violent sociopath. There was no mention of Nepeta, nor of Gamzee's history prior to being locked in the institution for insane proselytizing and disturbing the peace on top of drug abuse. Karkat sat up, watching intently until the program had to skip to a commercial.

"Don't invite trouble," muttered Dave as he put an arm over his eyes. He didn't like the news in general; it was biased as hell. "I'm sure Vriska's gotten the dude stashed somewhere safe."

"Yeah I know...But now everyfuckingbody knows and Equius... You know he's not going to keep his cool about this even with Vriska's influence. That's just not how he works." Karkat dropped his face into his hand and rubbed his fingers into his eyes then flopped back down beside Dave, turning the tv back off again. "That's it, I give up. There's no fucking peace to be had here or anywhere. We're doomed to lives of constant interesting times."

Dave reached over to turn off the lights as well, and settled in. "Some shit just can't be helped, Karkat. And if Mom is as attentive and caring about our session's little freakshow as Bro is, she'll do somethin'." He yawned again. "Something good'll come up somehow, I dunno. We can't spring everybody out of a shitty deal, y'know."

Karkat climbed over the top of Dave and settled down on his chest with his hand tucked under his chin, the fingers of the other one starting to trace a slow map of the familiar lines and curves of his neck and collar. "Whatever happens, at least we know we'll live through it, right? We've lived this long in worse situations than this."

"Mm," Dave murmured with a nod, "Nobody's gonna get lost to us. We're all too headstrong to let anybody go. Even when we sincerely should, or want to." He ran his hand gently over Karkat's back, pressing a kiss to his matesprit's temple, drifting slowly off to sleep. His next murmur was near incomprehensible, "You gotta stop worryin'."

"Can't stop, won't stop," Karkat muttered and tucked his cheek against Dave's chest, hiking the blanket up to their shoulders and dozing off without moving away.

\--

Bro silently returned through the patio door, a full ten floors up, and smiled briefly toward Sollux. He walked through to the bathroom, shedding his shirt on the way. He was deep in his own thoughts, as he tended to get on occasion. Sollux was sitting at the head of the bed in his shorts with his laptop perched on his knees, tapping away peacefully at whatever had taken his fancy for the time being, his fingers barely slowing as he looked up toward Bro and gave him a small nod. When Bro wanted to say something, he would. Otherwise, he wasn't going to pry. The balcony door had been open to air out the room so that the leftover scent wouldn't be quite so thick when he came back, but the air still smelled vaguely like canned plums.

Bro returned from the shower with a smirk at his lips, a towel around his waist, and the bucket - now rinsed out - in one hand. He put the bucket back down under the bed before sprawling out on what seemed like every inch of the bed Sollux wasn't occupying. "Shit's gonna change," he muttered as he rolled his shoulders. He recounted what he'd been doing over the past few hours to Sollux, and the affronted looks of the other Guardians that he'd met with, though the two that opposed his standpoint stepped the fuck down once he pointed out that if it weren't for HIS wards, there would be a lot of deserving kids that wouldn't have had any chance but to go insane, and that alone was cause enough to give them a wide berth, and that since the vast majority of them were trolls, that he wanted his wards to live in a peaceful, equal society, free of hemospectrum classism and free of prejudice.

"Dunno what they're gonna do about the Equius clusterfuck," he said as he rolled onto his back and looked up at Sollux with a slight shrug. "But he's not gonna be a wanted man for long."

Sollux stopped typing as he listened, his hands coming together in his lap. His only real argument was that at least in this generation, there would still be that classism because of how the majority of the trolls in their reality at this point were raised. If they'd been Beforan trolls, it would have been a different story. But that also brought up the point of reproduction in the first place; he hadn't seen a single grub since he woke up in this world, nor had he seen a collection drone, and he hadn't heard a thing about facilities pertaining to the breeding of trolls or a mother grub. "Tho unleth there'th thomething that I don't know about, after the latht of the highbloodth and theadwellerth die, there won't be any more of uth. Well, exthept what cometh in from other thessionth."

"Mm," Bro nodded, tapping his fingertips on the mattress as he stewed something over. "I'm pretty sure that's what Ampora's company is trying to settle up out here. I heard rumors of some big company working on a reproductive center. There's a huge fuckin' number of backers on that, too. Big corporations, the sickeningly rich, you know how it goes." He scratched through his sideburns and looked up at Sollux with a smirk, "How'd you go about that shit if it was up to you?"

"What do you mean, how would I go about that? It would be more or leth the thame to me I would think, exthept leth fear of culling if you don't have a matethprit... Oh." Sollux's expression fell for a moment. He wouldn't be able to contribute to the gene pool if this really was going to be a thing. Those with human relationships wouldn't be viable. The same would go for Karkat. At the very least, he himself would be able to because of his kismesissitude, but Dave was the only one in any of Karkat's quadrants as far as he could tell. There were a lot of interspecies relationships cropping up, the more people got used to living together. This could end up going badly for a lot of those relationships, he could see it already. He made a face and shrugged, running his hand over the bite mark Eridan had left and the scratches on his chest. "I really hope they know what they're doing."

Bro raised an eyebrow before smirking. "Hey, lemme tell you some shit about Earth for a minute." He explained about sperm banks and egg banks, and how those were completely on a volunteer basis. There had even been tests, in the permutation of his and Dave's world, in the advances of lab-gestated fetuses - test tube babies - and how that, if the world hadn't been overpopulated, that the science behind it would have been a boon to society, especially if it was at the brink of extinction. He explained adoption in brief, and then he looped it back around. "So the science - at least on Earth's part - is there, and could easily be equated into Troll terms, and make not only fuckin' possible to go on, but to also make advances in the cohesion of our respective fuckin' species. Bi-species couples could adopt if they wanted, either from the human or troll agencies." He smiled as he spoke, "And it wouldn't be fuckin' mandatory to supply genetic material. There'd be a wealth of it even on a volunteer basis, especially with the incentives we got for donatin' back home." He looked up at Sollux with both brow arched. "I ain't really up on all the actual science shit behind it, but that's how I'd have it done."

"That wathn't what I meant, shit-for-brainth. I wouldn't have it mandatory. That would thet uth back ath a thpecieth. What I meant wath the viable offthpring, when it cometh to uth at leatht, fare better when the protheth includeth the red or black pairth, which provide the thtronger genetic material. If both partnerth can't produthe the genetic material, what'th provided only endth up diluting the gene pool and giving rithe to the theriouth genetic fuckupth. And grubth aren't raithed like human children, you know that. We have to be left alone and picked up by a luthuth. That'th the way it'th alwayth been. The only extheption wath the Thufferer." Sollux was aware after he stopped talking how stupid his argument had to sound, at least where rearing was concerned. His points concerning the creation of the new generation of grubs were valid, but the thoughts when it came to the adoption of them were a product of how long he'd lived in one specific setup. "Look, my point ith that even if they did have a way for trollth to continue breeding here, you would still have to be careful becauthe exclusively troll partnerships are really the only viable means of bringing them about in the firtht plathe."

Bro shook his head, "What's a worse fate, Captor? Extinction or meddling?" Neither option was ideal, it was true, but there was nothing they could do about that. "There's gonna always be a fair amount'a bleedover from one society to another here, we're gonna have to fuckin' live with that, but if human science can facilitate viable eggs and livin' grubs, I'd rather see that than...see y'all die out in one generation." Not that he'd be around for that; he knew even the shortest-lived lowblooded trolls had a slightly longer average lifespan than humans did. "And would it be so bad to have a human upbringin'?" He added after rolling over to grab his cigarettes. "And there ain't really that many lususes 'round these parts. Just the Guardians."

"Luthii," Sollux corrected then grabbed one out of the pack for himself, grabbing a lighter off the side table and lighting it before continuing, "Honethtly, I don't think I'd trutht a human to know how to raithe a grub any more than I'd trutht a troll to raithe a human baby. Thomeone can thay they've done all the rethearch and been around grubth or kidth or wrigglerth but I jutht...I don't trutht it."

"It ain't like all humans instinctively know how to raise babies, neither," Bro pointed out, "But we've been around a pretty fuckin' long time and most'a us live to adulthood. They got shit in place," Oh how he knew aaaall about that, "to keep assholes who can't learn to fuckin' take care of a kid from bringin' one up. While I get where you're comin' from, and you got a shitload of good points that are worth thinkin' through in depth, it's not impossible, and it ain't a death warrant for your kind, dude."

Sollux pointed at him with his smoke tweezed between his fingers. "And that'th another thing. People thinking they know how to raithe a fucking kid better than thomeone elthe when all of you are pretty fucking bad at it, from what I'm theeing. Trollth more or leth thurvive on their own, and take care of their luthii. Humanth need each other to thurvive but trollth really don't. We've alwayth learned to be more or leth completely thelf-thuffithient for millenia. Tho even if it came to path and the geneticth were viable, humanth would try to impothe their thtandardth for raithing kidth on uth even more than they do tho to each other."

"That's a pretty broad brush to be paintin' an entire species with, bro," Bro said, brows arched as he took a drag of his own cigarette. "but you got that fuckin' right; douchefucks would seriously try imposin' human shit on trolls that ain't even a fuckin' _thing_ y'all need, if they're let to do it. But see, it's this kinda shit we talk about that makes a difference in this newly buddin' reality. Hearin' this shit and really representin' it to the other Guardians is what's gonna make shit easier to be copacetic as a whole. Not walkin' around like dunderfucks tryin' to get some jackoff in a suit to change shit that isn't even set in stone as of yet. So long as we're still stuck in a flux reality like we are, there's a possibility for changin' history, for changin' this reality's core principles and social shit. If there's somethin' I can put forth at 'em in a sound damn argument, I'm gonna."

"Same broad brush being uthed to paint uth ath monthterth unfit to live the thame way humanth do," Sollux replied quietly, taking a deep drag off his cigarette. He ashed it then looked down at the cherry as the smoke drifted from his nostrils to obscure his face. "If you think changing hithtory ath it thtandth ith gonna change anything for uth perthonally, you're gonna find out real fucking quick that that'th not how it workth. Going back and trying that shit only led to doomed timelineth and a lot of dead Daveth. Even if it doeth work out, it'll be gradual. None of them can jutht thnap their fingerth and have the world be a better plathe, as much ath any of uth would like that to be true.

"I've been having dreamth again," he said quietly, leaning his head back against the wall and slipping his glasses off to hold in his lap. "Jutht like the oneth I uthed to have before the game. Thith ithn't going to end well."

"Well, since this place isn't exactly real, the history behind it ain't real either." Bro slipped closer as Sollux moved and motioned for him to turn around so he could rub his back. "And writin' history is somethin' a few of the Guardians are doin'. I wouldn't send my kid bro out there to fuck with the timeline." He pursed his lips in a faint scowl at Sollux's murmur and shook his head. He couldn't run on that information alone, and Sollux knew it. He waited for his matesprit to continue if he wanted as he rubbed firmly but carefully over Sollux's knotted muscles.

Sollux slouched forward with his elbows on his knees, his forehead propped in his hand while the other one hung over the edge of the bed, the cigarette burning down slowly toward the filter. "I'm going to end up dying again and it'th gonna thuck. That'th all I really know about it. Thingth are going to thtart going theriouthly wrong and nobody will be able to do anything about it."

"Ain't gonna happen on my watch, dude," Bro rumbled as he worked at a particularly stubborn knot. "And for the record, I'm not sayin' I don't believe you - you're one of the most consistently accurate dudes I've met - but you're the only one who's been gettin' that feeling. Now if you were tellin' me this while Rose was backing you up with some of her Seer shit, I'd be more inclined to let you be as fuckin' negative as you please." He took a final drag off his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. "And I'd be getting notes from the girls above if it the shit was comin' through." He slipped away once he got most of the knots out of Sollux's back, and went to get a bottle of water for his matesprit. "Drink this." It was typical of him to give Sollux water after a back rub, as it flushed the system a little and kept the body from dehydrating and getting even more tense afterward. Sollux sipped at the water, sitting up and arching his back until his spine gave a small chorus of pops then slumped to the side instead, glancing back at the laptop as his screen had gone to sleep. He closed it without bothering with what he was doing, knowing it would still be there when he resumed.

"Really wish I could believe you, Thtrider. You have no fucking idea how much I want thith to not be a thing. But thith hathn't been just a one night thing. It'th been pretty regular thinthe everyone arrived. I don't tell them thethe thingth anymore becauthe they think it'th jutht old habitth and pethimithm."

With a sigh, Bro sprawled back out under the covers, and tucked a pillow between his head and his arms, just enjoying the comfort of linen on his bare skin for the moment. "Well, you should've told me sooner. I know you're not the kinda guy to say this shit without good reason." He shook his head. "Once they leave, I'll spend another couple days here, make sure the kid with the pan problem is safe with Ampora, and I'll keep you company. If the nightmares get worse or more vivid, you tell me."

"You have your own shit to get back to. I'm jutht gonna hunker down and at leatht hope it'th quick and painleth and that I'll come back when it'th over." Finishing off the water, Sollux put the bottle down on the nightstand then turned over and put his head under the other pillow, stretching out on his stomach on top of the blankets.

"What shit do I gotta do that's more important than this?" Bro asked, before turning his head against the pillow, looking over at Sollux. "What the hell is more important than keepin' me'n mine safe? If you got fuckin' wiggins about your goddamn imminent demise, I'll do my goddamndest to prevent it." Bro's tone was final and pointed. There was no budging him on this. "If in five days from now, shit hasn't gone pear-shaped, then I'll fuck off and go back to Houston."

"Wish I could at leatht tell you when it'th thuppothed to happen tho we'd know not to get fucked up about it until then," Sollux muttered, muffled by the pillow still sitting over his head. He peeked out from under it at Bro, reaching up and pushing his fingers through the other's hair briefly then leaning forward to take his lips in a brief, firm kiss. "I promithe I'm not jutht going to let mythelf die. If I can fight back I will."

With a smile into the kiss, he poked Sollux gently in the chest. "You'd better come back when you do, or I'm gonna find your soul and punch you clear into another bubble." His smile went lopsided and he rumpled Sollux's hair, mindful of his horns. "Get some sleep, skinny. We got a day of fuckin' around to do tomorrow. If you _are_ gonna die, might as well make the most of the time you got left."

Sollux rolled his eyes some and shook his head to straighten his hair back out. "You really know how to make being a wet blanket really fucking hard," he muttered then turned to press his back to Bro's chest and tossing the blanket up over his head to sleep off the slight ache in most of his body.

Come morning, they split off into two groups, with Karkat, Eridan and Rose going to the Research Society and everyone else headed toward Knott's. They would be able to spend the better part of the day there, and get a day pass for Rose for the library. They had enough between them to be able to pick out a few things from the bookstore and there was no telling what random shit the others would bring back. Dave had to admit that seeing Karkat go off with Rose and Eridan made him equal amounts sad and happy. He wished that he could have spent the day with him, but he was glad to let him go, knowing how much Karkat loved the place, and that he would still be among people that he cared about. And he was happier still that he wouldn't have to drag Karkat begrudgingly everywhere with him, making the whole day really more of a downer than it should be.

Terezi was like his conjoined twin for the day, though, and that made up for the lack of his matesprit's presence in full and then some. She chirped and joked and teased, pulling him along by his wrist from one attraction to another, and mugged for the video camera that Sollux and Dave took turns manning. Bro kept his eye on the group and up at the sky more often than usual, due to the creeping paranoia that set in after his talk with Sollux, but by midday it had faded off into a mellow wariness that kept him on his toes.

Meanwhile at the library, Eridan struck up a debate, mostly by accident, about the validity of religions that were pasted together dogmas and principles of other, older religions that were found in its native areas. It was as common on Earth as it seemed to be on in Troll society, and he had a great many bones to pick with that. Rose pointed out that when religions did that, they were only doing what those with a deep sense of spirituality but not necessarily a strict belief system do: try to find truths and live by them, only doing it on a larger scale. So though those religions were, as Eridan put it, "fuckin' Frankenstein hoofbeast shit," they were simply based on the truths that a group of people found worked for them.

Karkat couldn't help but point out that people seemed to pick and choose the aspects of religion that seemed to fit their own culture and circumstances best and warp them into something new, even if not completely original, as a way of comforting themselves and giving themselves some kind of meaning. Whether or not that meaning turned out to be beneficial to the individual or the masses was usually up to the respective points of view of those involved. Some might find parts of whatever belief they were working with valid while others would raise high objections based upon morals. It all boiled down to upbringing and exposure and the allowance of free will to dictate what path someone took in their personal dogmas. He personally believed in gods, if only because he'd more or less witnessed them. He just didn't think it wise or necessary to put them on a pedestal.

The discussion went on into the afternoon as philosophies were brought into the discussion and the different arguments that different sects had regarding science, igniting a mutual bashing session of scientology until Karkat finally had to stop to answer a text, alerting them not only to what time it was, but to the fact that none of them had eaten since that morning by telling them that dinner would be at one of the local hole in the wall restaurants, and no, Eridan, you can't convince us to eat somewhere nicer so suck it up or go home.

Eridan conceded that he was hungry and wasn't willing to wander off back to the mundane life of corporate fuckery just yet. He drove Rose and Karkat to the restaurant, the three of them still conversing and waxing philosophical in their own rights when they stepped into the restaurant. They were flagged down by Bro, who had made sure they'd gotten a large table for the eight of them. The group that had been to the park was talking amongst themselves, as well - music in specific, and what they all agreed were fantastic bands and what moods they had to be in to listen to them.

The restaurant was a good choice for the entire group; everyone, even those with dietary restrictions with the exception of Kanaya, were catered to with many choices, while still having no lack of delicious integrity. It was about midway through the meal that Dave asked if anyone else was up for more swimming and surfing, getting a resounding yes from the group, and they all packed back into their cars and went to the hotel, with the exception of Eridan, who had to be at a meeting.

The day wore on, and soon the sun was setting against the ocean once more, looking like the sky was on fire while Dave and Terezi undertook the task of building a sand castle big enough that it'd last days after they'd all left - a temporary testament that they'd been there, a mark on the world for all who saw it to see that they were, in fact, the pinnacle of maturity, with the keeps looking far more like dicks than any castle keep ought.

Karkat had opted to keep Kanaya and Rose company, continuing the conversation with Rose with Kanaya's perspective involved keeping things fairly light. Sollux and Bro were keeping to themselves for the most part, staying a little closer together, prompting Terezi to hold her hand out in a silent, smug request for the five dollars that each of them owed her. Karkat stuck his tongue out and handed over a folded bill then laid back on the ground and watched the sky darkening until it was deep, velvety blue directly overhead. Sollux muttered something about needing to get back to his apartment for the night, kissing Bro's temple as he stood then started back to the parking lot and his car that was still sitting there, unmoved for the last couple of days. Dave handed over his money with no qualms; if the guys had just stuck it out _one_ more day, he would've gotten the money instead, but no such luck. When Sollux stood to leave, Bro smiled faintly, sure that he'd be fine for the night. He brushed his hand against Sollux's side and leg from his seat on the cooler as he walked away, and then went back to watching over the rest of the group, sipping on his beer.

When they'd finally all gone back to the hotel, Karkat perched on the foot of the bed with his phone in hand, texting back and forth with Eridan about nothing in particular, mostly keeping him company in a sudden bout of loneliness that he couldn't shake. He tipped sideways after a little while and curled up with his phone in hand, his face half shoved into the blankets as his thumbs tapped across the keypad.

Once everyone went back in for the night, Dave and Terezi curled up on the bed to watch TV with Karkat, though Karkat seemed distant, and it made Terezi ask, "What's eating you, Karkles?" Dave took a more silent approach of very subtly furrowing his brow in a silent repetition of Terezi's question. Dave didn't figure it was anything from the rest of the day, and it had to be something else.

"Eridan," Karkat muttered, putting his phone down after the other had stopped responding. "Something's up with him but he won't tell me anything up front. I'm guessing it has something to do with his volunteering to keep Gamzee." There was really no telling with Eridan though, as moody as he tended to get when something was going on in his head. He dragged a pillow over his head and sighed into it the mattress terminating in a tired groan. Terezi crawled up next to him and curled up against his side wordlessly, looking up at Dave then back at the tv.

Dave wrapped his arms around Karkat and Terezi both, quiet still as he considered it. He had noticed an uneasiness with everybody who had powers of foresight - either latent or active - and hadn't really been thinking about it, because he wanted to stay in the now. He still wanted to stay in the now, and not worry so damn much. They'd be going home tomorrow, and moving on with things, and there would be less of a chance of crazy shit happening once they went back and spread out once again. He dozed off, keeping Terezi and Karkat close, falling into a feather-light sleep, stirred by any sound or movement.

Terezi slept uneasily, clinging to the closest body, which happened to be Dave's at that point, her head shoved into his chest. Karkat's arm was draped over them both, his own sleep less than peaceful. By the time morning came around, everyone seemed a little more tired than usual, moving slowly and not talking much. There was effort to try and dispel it on Terezi, Rose and Kanaya's parts but it stuck around even as they went to get breakfast, eating together in the same room until they had to leave for the airport, all agreeing to stay together until the last flight left. Sollux was nowhere to be seen, but at least Karkat didn't blame him, after how subdued he'd been before.

When he did appear, it was while they were at the airport, sitting around and chatting quietly in the food court about what they would be doing now that they were going back to their lives. It wasn't entirely sure when they would next see each other if they did before the movie's premier. Sollux slid into a seat between Karkat and Bro, thumbing the flash drive he'd taken to keeping around his neck, tucked under his shirt. Bro looked over to Sollux with a browarch, giving a quick but pointed look to the lump. He didn't ask outright, but there was an implied 'you'll tell me later' about the expression. Dave looked around him, at Rose and Sollux, then at his brother, and then to Kanaya. Every one of them was acting off and it was mentally freaking him out. 

"Okay, far be it for me to call out horseshit on a gargantuan level," he said aloud, "but would one of you all-knowing gurus of wacky antics and fanward-flying shit tell us all what the fuck?" 

Rose looked up at him, and then sighed. "There's really nothing we can do about it, Dave, we're all on our way home. And there would be very little any of us could do to stop what will happen even if we stayed. In fact, it would only make the problem worse. So drop it." 

Dave started to protest, but cut himself off and crossed his arms, scowling like a scolded child. Karkat took one of his hands and squeezed it, giving him an apologetic look even though he wasn't entirely sure what was going on either. They were in the dark, but then he reminded himself once again that it was most likely better this way. He glanced up at Sollux then eyed the thing under his shirt as well, clearly curious but not wanting to pry.

Sollux didn't quite meet anyone's eyes, leaning against the table with his arms crossed on top of it. He'd spent the night backing up all of his files onto a massive external hard drive, intending to send it home with Bro as the personal doom he'd already spoken to Bro about came closer far too quickly for his liking. He wrinkled his nose at Dave, then glanced up at the sound of an announcement for a flight close to departure. The others wouldn't have to get up and move for another half hour to see Rose and Kanaya off at least.

The wait was tense after Dave had spoken and once everyone had filed into their respective gates, Bro crossed his arms and saw to their departures, two by two, by one. Once Terezi's plane was out of his range of view, he turned back to Sollux and nearly glared at him. "You'll come back." It wasn't a question. Hell, with the tone, it didn't even qualify as a statement. It was a flat-out demand. "You'll come back, and you'll tell me who or what I need to destroy."

Turning his eyes up to the ceiling, Sollux pursed his lips and sighed then looked back at Bro, straight in the face with a hard expression of his own. He didn't want to talk about this here, that much was clear. Now that everyone was gone, it was just them, unless Eridan decided he would take the time to harass them again before Bro left. Sollux doubted that though. He jerked his head back toward his car, leaving it up to Bro whether he took his own car or rode with him.

Bro didn't give a shit who heard; frankly, he'd been sitting on that thought for three hours and needed to let it out. But, for what it was worth, he stopped talking and walked with, hands stuffed into his pockets. He captchalogued his car before dropping himself into the passenger seat of Sollux's, immediately lighting up a cigarette with a scowl on his face, his entire attitude and posture tense and coiled, like a big cat in tall grass. Sollux's driving was no less reckless than usual as he swung back toward his apartment, holding his silence until they'd made it back to his apartment. He avoided looking out toward the ocean in case it might goad something into action prematurely, locking the door behind him when they stepped inside then closing the curtains over his windows. He continued to stand at one with his hands on the awful, faded material, waiting for the blowup, some trigger that he could use to justify yelling back like he wanted so badly to do.

Bro crossed his arms, standing on the other end of the room. He wasn't about to say anything. What was there to say? They both knew the inevitable outcome of whatever was going to come knocking on their proverbial door. He was tense because he knew he couldn't stop it. He knew Sollux was pissed because it meant a death sentence. He pursed his lips as he considered the near-infinite choices that could be made, though none were looking very hot. After a tense minute, he finally went back to the door and rumbled, "I'm goin' out."

"No you're not," Sollux muttered, turning back to him finally and and crossing his arms. He knew what happened when he heard 'I'm goin' out'. Usually, he wouldn't have particularly cared, but this time he knew it was his fault. At least, that was what it felt like. Normally he wouldn't have given a shit but now, he didn't feel like letting it happen. It didn't matter who Bro was or what he was capable of. "Sit down. Please," he added quietly, his hands shoving into his pockets, thumbs rubbing over the stitches nervously.

Bro had his hand on the doorknob when Sollux spoke and he halted, before slipping back away and turning slowly to his matesprit. He walked to the sofa and slowly settled on the edge of the seat, pulling off his hat to run his hand through his hair, clearly barely keeping himself together. He wanted to speak, but had nothing to say, wanted to ask a million questions but nothing seemed relevant. "Dammit," he whispered. He couldn't save Sollux, that was the heaviest weight on his shoulders. He was used to clean getaways and narrow escapes. He was used to getting what he wanted. The fact that there was no probable chance of that happening - and an even higher chance of death if he intervened - was destroying his will.

Sollux stood in front of him, reaching out slowly and slipping his shades off and laying them aside on the couch then combing his fingers back through his matesprit's thick, perpetually styled hair, his arms wrapping loosely around Bro's head as he stepped between his knees. Nothing he could think to say would make the situation any easier to live with for either one of them, he knew. He just ran his nails across the other's scalp and tried to calm him enough to where he wasn't about to bolt and find someone he wanted to punch into paste. Bro finally calmed from his destructive urges, though the pain was still very much present. He closed his eyes and murmured, "I'm sorry, Sollux. I'm sorry you're the one singled out by fate." He really hated using the word 'fate'; it was such a final sounding word when nothing was ever that set in stone. "Can we make this less like it's the last few hours of certain time you have left? I'd really fuckin' like that."

"Hey, you forget, I've done thith before a few timeth. It'll be ok." He was trying to sound optimistic about it, but given who was talking, it was less than reassuring. Sollux continued to scratch through Bro's hair nonetheless though as he stood there in front of him, then eventually drew back and grabbed the other's hand to pull him toward the kitchen. He wrinkled his nose and slowed down a little, deciding the best way to make things feel a little less doomed would be to keep practicing away his lisp. "You wanna spend the night being normal, I'm down for that. Feel like freezer pizza for dinner or I have boxed shit or we could order in. I really don't give a shit at this point."

Bro chuckled a little at the sudden change of pace, though it was a little wry and rasping. "I'm down for whatever," he said with a shake of his head. "And I don't care how many fuckin' times you've died. Those were before I fuckin' met you and I don't count 'em." He gave a cocky, lopsided smile at that. "They don't fuckin' count unless I say they do." 

Once they settled back down and the air mostly cleared of apprehension, the sun had set and Bro had gotten comfy on one side of the sofa, working in tandem with Sollux to get some shit secured away so at least when Sollux cacked it, the sites could carry themselves without maintenence for another month or so. That was when Vriska texted Bro. **At the g8 at Sollux's pl8ce. How do you get to 8ridan's?** The creeping in of her favorite number in erratic places spelled stress to Bro and he stood, peeking out the window to see her car and a long-horned, long-haired troll in the passenger side, seemingly staring straight at him. Spooky.

Bro looked at Sollux and then shook his head. "Guess who made it."

Sollux stood, glancing out the window and grimacing at the way Gamzee's face seemed to light up when he saw him, as if seeing someone familiar was the highlight of his day. He rubbed his fingers into his eyes then went back to the couch, sitting back down with his laptop on his knee. He finally took the flash drive from around his neck and held it up on its cheap steel chain. "This has the codes to decrypt my shit. I'm trusting you with everyfuckingthing on every harddrive I own. There are a few things you really _don't_ want to open, if you decide you want to go snooping. There's a list of those on this too. This is your table of contents. If shit goes down and it stays down, you're basically in charge of my entire fucking life's work. No pressure, right?" Smirking faintly, Sollux looked up at Bro then back at the window where Vriska and Gamzee were probably still waiting for...something.

Bro put the chain around his own neck and tucked it under his collar, looking at Sollux with a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips. "I expect hourly fuckin' check-ins from tomorrow noon onward. If I don't hear back in seven days, I'm going to set fire to an entire fuckin' city. I'm not even kidding." He smirked again and brushed his thumb against Sollux's cheek. "You don't gotta say a goddamn thing. Just send a text of gibberish, somethin', just... let me know you're still all right." 

Vriska sent another text, to both their phones: **Can the dram8tics and get Strider out here.**

"You'd burn down a city for me. Way to make a guy feel all warm and fuzzy," Sollux snorted then glanced at the text, tossing his phone back over his shoulder. He tangled his fingers into the hair at the back of Bro's head and pulled him into a hard kiss, staying there for a few seconds before pulling back and looking him in the face. "You manage to get yourself in some shit with the other guardians, it's me you're gonna have to worry about more than any of them. Now go before she decides to pull some puppeteer shit."

"Well y'know, I'm all about the romance," he joked. Bro wrapped his own hand firmly around the back of Sollux's neck and then rested his forehead against his matesprit's, and nodded slightly when he was told to go.

He walked down to the gate and jumped over it rather than use the security code, and landed in front of Vriska with his arms crossed. She glared at him and berated him for taking his sweet damn time; the last of the medication had worn off hours ago and she was BARELY able to keep Gamzee sedated with her powers. She needed to get to Eridan's place, quickly, and Bro shook his head, unable to give her that information. "He's up Topanga Canyon somewhere, I don't fuckin' know where he dropped his posh ass," he said, before she growled and grabbed his phone, using the address book to call Eridan directly. She sharply barked at _him_ , then, to give her directions to his place. She then pointed into the back seat of her car. "Get in, Strider, if he comes out of this state, I'm gonna need more than a shooshpap to calm his ass down."

Once they were up in the canyon and parked in front of the extremely luxurious house, Eridan met with them and was made aware of the situation. Gamzee had no medication left, and once Vriska was gone, her hold on him would fade. He assured her that he acquired five different prescriptions that had been given to Gamzee back at the hospital, and would make sure he was well taken care of before she and Bro drove off, and at the first available turn, went in different directions.

Eridan looked Gamzee over with a tight-lipped smile once he returned indoors, having ushered Gamzee in before discussing the details. "You got pretty fuckin' tall, Gam."

Gamzee was looking around the place with a dozy little smile of his own, seemingly barely aware that he'd just been left there as he took in the atmosphere. Shit, this was swanky as fuck. No wonder Eridan liked the place so much. He turned back to the other when he spoke to him again, looking down at himself then shrugging, his slouched posture barely doing him any justice as he looked Eridan over.

"Shit, man look at you. Don't even motherfuckin' look like Eridan no more. Looks like a motherfucker all up and motherfuckin' ate Eridan and stole all his fuckin' cash." He looked ready to attempt to hug Eridan, but he was held back just barely by Vriska's influence. It was fading though, and fading fast. As it did, his eyes cleared, gaining a keen, disconcerting light. His brows twitched up as he dragged a hand through the mop of his hair, by now grown nearly to shoulder-length, the curls flying every-which-where. "So where the fuck am I supposed to be in this big motherfuckin' scheme you got, huh?" He asked, turning back on Eridan with an arched brow and lopsided little smile.

"Well..." Eridan said before sighing deeply, "I decided you needed to get the fuck out a Boston, since you don't want to become fuckin' clown paste a-la Eq. And you been in there what, fuckin' two years now?" He looked Gamzee over and waved him towards the kitchen, where he had the meds stashed in a locked cabinet. "You're going to need _some_ reality interspersed with your fuckin' medical needs, an' I happen to have a pretty fuckin' sweet place that needed someone to really appreciate it. Not a really elaborate scheme. Just takin' care of an old friend." He handed over a couple pills before looking at the syringe and small bottle. That was the shit that would come next, if the pills didn't do their job within a couple hours.

"I didn't know you were certified to administer this shit," Gamzee mused as he tilted his head at the meds, giving Eridan a look then glancing down at one of his arms, where there was a little circle of scar tissue from repeated injections, likely by the same substance in the bottle. He wrinkled his nose some at the syringe. "If it's all the motherfuckin' same to you, I'd just as soon avoid the fuckin' needles, bro. Shit stings like a motherfucker." He rolled the pills a little in his palm, recognizing them dimly from the institution. He glanced around, then tossed the pills back into his mouth and bent over the counter and slurped a few mouthfuls of water straight from the sink rather than grabbing a glass.

Eridan shrugged. "Okay, no needles unless you go fuckin' crazy. I promise." He tapped his nails on his elbows as he watched Gamzee drink the water, before nodding, "Open," he said, brows arched as he waited to see whether the pills were pocketed between Gamzee's gums and cheeks or under his tongue. Gamzee knew the drill well enough and pulled his cheeks out with his fingers, showing Eridan his empty mouth and under his tongue then tucking his hands into the pockets of the loose pants Vriska had picked up for him just so he wouldn't keep wearing the same slightly filthy day clothes he'd been in when she'd found him. "I'm not certified, technically," Eridan continued, "but I pulled a few strings and I'm legally actin' as your fuckin' personal babysitter 'til you get your head on straighter. The fuck did they even put you in there for? Nobody's told me bulge-all."

He shrugged a shoulder casually. "I was tryin' to get some motherfuckers to listen to me about the motherfuckin' session, man. Everyone here's sleepin' and it's high time they got made aware of what the fuck's out there watchin' 'em. There's some big mean motherfuckers got their big fuckin' bright shiny eyes all up an' oglin' this place like the last fuckin' deviled egg on the platter."

"So I've been told," Eridan muttered as he set the syringe and bottles back into the cabinet and locked it up. "I remembered bits and pieces, even before I got fuckin' shot and Vriska came flyin' outta fuckin' nowhere." He settled down onto a stool at the kitchen island, looking over at Gamzee. "I just decided to keep away from you guys, 'cause this is a fuckin' great life to be dropped into, and I didn't need any a those pricks ruinin' it for me." He looked down then and shook his head. "A week ago, I was still doin' that, too. Then fuckin' outta nowhere, Terezi was on a plane with me, an' all the shit fell into my lap." He smiled weakly at Gamzee and then pushed himself back up to his feet. "Come on, I'll show you where your room is an' shit like that. I took the liberty of gettin' you clothes an' a cocoon, but if you need other shit, you just say."

"Come on man, you can't just fuckin' say you're not happy about gettin' ta see some people again. Hell, what about Karbro? I know you were sweet on 'im for a little while there, thought you woulda been fuckin' stoked to see his cute lil' face again." Gamzee smiled as he followed Eridan back to the room, curious as to what it was going to look like compared to the rest of the house that he'd seen so far, which really wasn't much considering the size of the place.

"Yeah, seein' Kar really put shit into perspective for me, actually," Eridan admitted as he pointed into a pretty large bedroom, with a cocoon and a large dresser which had t-shirts and long, comfortable slacks, some socks and some boxers. "You got your own bathroom. Kitchen's pretty much completely fuckin' free range, 'cept for your meds, a course. An' Gam," he added, his voice strict, "If I catch you even thinkin' about eatin' the slime outta the cocoon, I'll fuckin' knock your head into a wall. What little a your brain you got left, I want you to keep."

"Man, you'd fuckin' damage your wall over that shit?" Gamzee shook his head as if Eridan had disappointed him, then strode inside to start shuffling through the dresser, picking out a tshirt at random and holding it up, tossing it over his shoulder then grabbing a pair of boxers. It was late enough in the evening that he really didn't care what he wore, but seeing as this was Eridan's place, he'd try and play by his rules. The operative word there being _try_. He disappeared into the bathroom, glancing around and whistling quietly then spotting the towels. He dragged one out to put up with his clothes before stripping down with the door was wide open; it wouldn't be much of a leap of logic to assume that he just didn't bother anymore after having gotten used to very little privacy in the institute. He took a moment to stare at the shower knobs, then turned one and let out a loud honk on reflex at the sudden spurt of cold water down his back. He fiddled with the shower until it ran warm, turning his face up into it and just enjoying it for the time being. It had been a few days since he'd been by himself and longer than that since his last shower. He was glad that Eridan had provided soap and shampoo, as he would have likely spaced out and forgotten it too and simply stood under the water until he was checked on.

Eridan smiled tightly and watched Gamzee breeze past him as if completely at home already. He nodded his head as he thought, 'good. At least one a us is fuckin' comfortable.' He moved out of the room just in time to hear the honk, which made him chuckle and shake his head. Okay, so some things were still fuckin' hilarious about the guy. He strolled back down to the living room and settled onto the sofa, grabbing his book and relaxing while Gamzee took his bath. He'd hoped that the one little gift he _did_ decide to indulge Gamzee in was well received: he had bought a small pot of white facepaint and left it on the sink counter in plain sight. He had considered not buying it, but then, in a fit of empathy, he decided it was almost necessary. After all, he would have felt terribly bare without his rings. Gamzee without his paint probably didn't even feel like himself.

The shower ran long, nearly as long as Bro's tended to on good days, as the water held out nicely until Gamzee had finally scrubbed his hair twice over then followed the conditioner instructions to the letter, leaving it in his hair while he went back to spacing out then eventually scrubbing the rest of himself. He rinsed it out and turned off the water, drip-drying in the steamy stall for a little while, then wringing his hair out and climbing out to snag the towel off the counter and wrap it around his waist. He paused when he spotted the paint, then cracked a wide smile. "Aw shit, man..." He took a second to twist his hair up around itself and out of the way then swiped a hand across the mirror, leaning toward it and starting the careful painting around his mouth and eyes then filling in the rest of his face, the pattern returning to him easily as it was more or less burned into the muscle memory. He turned his face back and forth when it was done, waiting for it to set then glancing around for powder to pat on over it to help seal it from smudging. He shrugged a shoulder, deciding he'd ask about it later, then pulled on the clothes Eridan had provided for him and ambled back to the living room, spotting Eridan there and plopping himself down bonelessly at the other end of the couch. Damn, that was comfortable, too.

Eridan looked up from his book with a smile, albeit a tight one, when Gamzee returned, and then went back to his reading, before his brow furrowed and he set a bookmark in. "Your hair's a fuckin' disasterpiece," Eridan remarked as he set the book aside. "At least you're lookin' a little bit more like yourself. Let me get the brush," he said, standing then patting Gamzee on the shoulder as he walked past. He returned with the brush after a minute and stood behind the sofa, shaking his head with a sigh. "I can't believe they let you get your hair this long." It looked all right on Gamzee, at least, even with as messy as it was. But to his recollection, the guy's hair was always a goddamn mess. He started at the ends, working one lock of hair out at a time, his method learned from Kanaya.

Gamzee looked up at him, giving him a mildly perplexed but good-natured little smile. "Man, what are you even doin', fuckin' takin' care'a me an' shit? Thought you'd have some kinda matesprit by now keepin' you occupied between business runnin'. Not complainin' or anything, just got me all up an' motherfuckin' curious." He winced at a tug of the brush through a nasty little snarl then laid his head back, starting to really enjoy the treatment.

With a scoff, Eridan shook his head. "I don't have time for that sorta shit. I took a couple weeks off here to get you settled in but then it's back to the office. Shit's goin' in a direction that I'm probably going to wind up livin' out here. Usually, I'm in Tampa," he explained as he eased up on the tangles, being gentle as he could without getting impatient with the task. "But they're sendin' my division a the company out here to set up a pretty huge project." He pursed his lips. "They need me headin' this fuckin' thing up. Pretty fuckin' sure I'm the one dealin' with it 'cause I'm the only fuckin' troll with VP on my business cards. That or they really needed a pretty face on the press junket. Who the fuck even knows." He licked his lower lip as he worked his way down to the hair at the nape of Gamzee's neck. "Jesus fuckin' christ, Gam, why's your hair so goddamn thick."

"It's motherfuckin' miraculous, ain't it? Hella warm when it gets all fuckin' chilly outside. Never did care about cuttin' it back short again anyway." Gamzee's head tipped forward to let Eridan at the rest of his hair. "Well I think if they wanted a pretty face they went to the right motherfuckin' guy and hell, you got some fuckin' brains on top'a that so it's no motherfuckin' wonder they picked you outta however many motherfuckers they got workin'."

Eridan's smile grew as he relaxed somewhat. Gamzee was mellow, and that was good. "So I gotta fuckin' ask, Gam, what the hell did you even fuckin' do at the hospital? Must a been bored to tears." He finished brushing out the other's hair and set the brush down nearby before walking back to his side of the sofa, settling on it to face Gamzee. Shaking his hair back down into his face some and scratching at the back of it, Gamzee shrugged again and settled back against the arm of the couch with one leg stretched out along the couch, the other foot tucked under his thigh.

"They had me in this real nice little motherfuckin' communal place, everyone in their own rooms always with their doctors n' shit. Constant surveillance and nice fuckin' soft walls like I was gonna start runnin' into the fuckin' walls tryin'a kill the rest'a my pan." He poked himself in the temple at that, then continued on, starting to get a little more lively as he talked, waxing somewhat poetic when he talked about a few of the people he'd met. He was in a recovery program on the long term with other substance abusers with additional mental hangups. He was allowed to start learning how to cook after letting them know he used to bake, and allowed outside if he had constant escorts. "No motherfuckin' privacy but otherwise they treated me real fuckin' good. Shame Equius had to bust in all motherfuckin' mad. Didn't even give me a chance to say I was motherfuckin' sorry before he nearly leveled the fuckin' place. Don't even remember how Vriska just fuckin' showed up out of thin air but man, she all up and motherfuckin' scooped me on outta there 'fore I knew what was really goin' on."

Eridan listened and smiled faintly. Well, at least they were keeping him somewhere that wasn't nearly as dramatically bad as he'd imagined. "Yes, Eq did seem to be fuckin' hellbent on turnin' you into a mirthful fuckin' clownburger, if what they were sayin' on the news is correct. Half the damn buildin'? Jesus." He furrowed his brow as he thought it over. He knew for which disorders the medications were made, and one was clearly a rational, Occam's Razor med; Gam was prone to manic psychoses and the antipsychotic was for that. He'd read the effects of the drug, and actually somewhat wished he'd had back on the meteor. The second, however, was a drug he _wasn't_ familiar with. "You get curious about shit, so I'm guessin' you know what all those meds are. I know about the tranquilizer an' the antipsych shit, but that other pill, what's it even fuckin' for?"

"Yeah, you gave me the tranq earlier an' I'm pretty sure I don't need the other shit yet but that? They never really gave me a clear explanation about that, just sayin' that it was the most important motherfuckin' pill and I had to take it every motherfuckin' morning with my breakfast. Can't really tell if there's anything different off 'em but I guess they knew if I forgot one 'cause then out comes the motherfuckin' needle." Shaking his head, Gamzee laced his hands together, looking down at his palms for a moment then brought them up and over his horns then settled them behind his head. "Man I feel pretty motherfuckin' bad for the other residents. It was a nice fuckin' building, now they gotta find somewhere else for 'em to stay."

Well THAT was disconcerting as shit. Eridan honestly hoped that whatever it was they did wouldn't be affected by not being taken for a day. He noticed it was starting to rain as they talked, the large wall of windows giving a prime view of the hills and ocean, at least they usually did when it was day out. "I'm sure they'll find a way to get that shit squared away for your bros," Eridan assured him. He looked distractedly out the windows, getting a queer feeling. The forecast didn't call for rain, nor was the air quite humid enough for it. He huffed as he stood, scowling a little out the window before walking around back to the kitchen. "Well, since it's been a long trip, how about you come get somethin' to eat." Eridan was no kitchen wizard, but he managed to get by on his own cooking. "Your choice, since you got the great fuckin' displeasure of spendin' a few days hangin' out with Vris."

"Aw man, for real? Fuckin' sweet." Gamzee grinned and followed him into the kitchen, acting as if he honestly couldn't tell that anything was off. He rubbed his hands together, looking around at the cupboards then starting to pull them open to see what Eridan had available then following suit with the refrigerator, bending to peer inside. "I could really go for some motherfuckin' eggs right now, man but you don't gotta cook for me or anything. Shit, I can make you somethin' if you want, long as you don't got some kinda fuckin' food allergy I gotta worry about. I know you weren't really able to stomach much on the before."

Eridan shook his head, waving away the offer. "No no nono. I'm just fine makin' my own food, Gam, I wouldn't hear of you makin' anythin' for me." He tucked his hands in his vest pockets and bowed his head with a chuckle, "I mean shit, you just got here. No fair puttin' you to work right off the bat." He had considered giving Gamzee chores to do, just to give him things to do over the course of the day, but that was something he was going to bring up the next day.

Gamzee grinned at that and hopped up onto the counter to watch Eridan do whatever it was he intended to do for their late dinner, his ankles crossed and swinging back and forth. "I didn't even know you could cook, bro. That's pretty motherfuckin' cool. When we're done here I can wash shit up so we don't gotta worry about it in the mornin', how's that? You got that dishwasher but you can't really put a pan in one'a those motherfuckers."

"Thanks," Eridan said with a tight smile, still distracted by the rain, and by the unsettling warning about the pills. He set to work, gathering up ingredients and the dishes. He pulled out a package of fresh penne from the cupboard and another of fresh cut greens, onions, and tomato. He started to work on steaming those while he heated the shrimp in a separate pot, filling Gamzee in on what everyone was doing, at least from what he gleaned over the course of the past week. He wasn't terribly in the know about every detail, only who was in what quadrants with whom, the big, overreaching goals of everyone, and how everyone seemed reticent to speak about how absolutely fucked up the situation under the calm facade was. He'd been feeling like the pillars of hope were crumbling overhead, and he wasn't very easy about letting the others know about it. Karkat included. He simply set his jaw and bore through it, passing it off as mere paranoia. After all, shit had been all sorts of wrong for the rest of the group before and they were used to this kind of fuckin' weirdness, and maybe it _was_ just paranoia. He certainly hoped so. Inviting in the danger was something he was definitely not on level ground about, but rather than letting the havoc coalesce into a huge gaping clusterfuck, he personally thought that spreading it out would keep everything from going sideways. He still just couldn't shake the uneasy feeling of the proverbial ground starting to give into the weight.

Gamzee listened to it all with a vague smile, his elbows on his knees with his chin in his hands. Dave and Karkat, he could see coming even when they were still just bickering at each other back on the meteor. Bro and Sollux was pretty out of left field, but he was able to make assumptions when he saw them in the same window, especially given Vriska's mood when they were sitting in the parking lot. He was impressed by Dave's film endeavor, interested in seeing just how it would come out even with the vague detail that it was about the story of the Signless. He took a deep breath of the steam that wafted his way as Eridan moved. "Mmm-mm that smells like motherfuckin' nirvana, bro."

"Thanks. I really don't cook for anybody but myself," Eridan explained, "so I tend to cook to please myself alone. As someone with high standards, though," he said as he plated up the food, setting a larger portion before Gamzee, "I had to strive to get just as good at makin' food as I am at bein' critical a it." He settled down to eat. "That an' my lusus couldn't cook for shit, so I had to make do." He turned to Gamzee. "Tomorrow, we'll figure out what you want to do around here so you don't get bored to shit. I got a pretty good feelin' you'd go stircrazy if all you did was wander around pokin' at things all day." And that was just the last fuckin' thing Eridan needed, a stircrazy clown prone to psychosis wandering around his pad like some overgrown stoner nightmare.

"Man, I'm sure I could find somethin' to do," Gamzee shrugged then hopped down off the counter, straightening up some and more or less looming over Eridan's shoulder as he looked down at the plates "Looks fuckin' amazing, bro." He grinned and wrapped his arms around Eridan's shoulders before grabbing the plate that had been set aside for him, opening a couple of drawers then coming up with a fork and going to eat in the living room, sitting on the floor in front of the couch with his legs crossed in a full Lotus. Eridan stiffened at the hug, but managed, if just barely, to reciprocate with a pat on Gamzee's shoulder. He sighed and grabbed his own fork and plate, following down and having a seat on the sofa.

"I'm sure you'll find plenty a fuckin' ways to keep yourself occupied, I just don't want to come home and have to fuckin' yell at you about some a them. 'Cause let's face it, I know how you operate, Gam, an' you might just be the single most fuckin' messy person I've ever met in my life." He took a bite of his food and nodded his approval before continuing, "No offense a course, you just suck at cleanin' up after yourself."

Gamzee looked up with a mouthful of pasta, looking unsure of what he was referring to for a moment, then swallowing his food and giving him a small smile. "Yeah man, sorry about that shit ahead'a time. They tried to fix that shit at the hospital but it never really held for too fuckin' long. I'll try though, keep this motherfuckin' spiffy-ass place lookin' nice."

"That's all I ask outta you," Eridan said as he tucked in quietly. After the dishes were brought back to the kitchen and washed, Eridan and Gamzee spent a little while talking before Eridan's eyelids started drooping and he had to keep himself from drifting off while sitting up. "Fun as all this is," he muttered as he stood and took off his glasses to rub his eyes, "I gotta get some fuckin' sleep. You should get some, too. Who even fuckin' knows how much you got on the road, with Vris fuckin' messin' with your head." He held his hand out to Gamzee to pull himself up with. Gamzee took hold of it and pulled himself to his feet, stretching his arms up over his head, his shirt riding up on stomach until he put them back down. Eridan had apparently thought to get them oversized, which had been a damn good idea. He laid a hand on top of Eridan's head and ruffled his hair companionably before ambling off in the direction of his room, yelling "Night, bro!" behind him before peeking into the cocoon and reaching a hand in to run through the slime. The temptation was there that he'd been separated from ever since he'd been committed, but he'd already promised Eridan he wouldn't eat it. He crawled in, leaving his clothes in a heap on the floor beside it, stretching out then putting his arm over his eyes and quickly dozing off.

In the morning, he was in the kitchen in a pair of the slacks Eridan had provided him, slung low on his hips as he sleepily poked at a pan full of scrambled eggs, little flecks of green mixed throughout, the insides of a bell pepper scattered on the counter beside him.

Eridan slipped off to his own cocoon after tidying from the evening's adventures in clownsitting. It was still raining when he woke up, and his nose wrinkled at it, before he padded quietly off to his salinated bath, rinsing off the slime and the strange feeling of restlessness and disquieting hopelessness that had crept in on him over the night. He watched the news as he got dressed in his room, hearing the weather report - the storm wasn't going to let up, and in fact, was much worse in Simi Valley. There were alerts for flash floods in the north valley, and closer to the west, where Thousand Oaks and his kismesis were. He smirked faintly at that, knowing that it'd definitely make Sollux's life miserable.

He came out of the bedroom, in a pastel polo shirt and khakis, and raised his eyebrows to the scent of breakfast. "Smells good," Eridan said as he passed Gamzee in the kitchen, and cleaned up the little mess that he'd made. "Good mornin'," he added as he tossed the seeds and membranes of the pepper away. "It's going to be rainin' all fuckin' day up here. I was plannin' on showin' you around the property, but I guess that'll have to wait."

"Mornin'," Gamzee yawned as he turned the eggs in the pan then turned off the heat, putting the pan to one side and grabbing a pair of plates. He separated the portions as he'd seen Eridan do the night before, the majority of the huge pile of fluffy yellow mush going onto his plate. He looked toward the window at the rain streaking down it, nodding some with a small smile. "Yeah, been goin' like that all motherfuckin' night. Kinda nice, reminded me'a home. Nice to have some motherfuckin' white noise that's not on a CD." He handed Eridan's plate back to him then took his own back to where he'd sat the night before, watching the rain from his seat in front of the couch, his plate in his lap.

Eridan smiled in thanks, before going into the locked cabinet to get out Gamzee's morning meds. "At least the rain's cool up here, it's fuckin' ridiculous when it rains in Tampa. Fuckin' warm rain, who ever heard a that shit?" He walked with his plate of food in one hand and the pills in the other, handing them over to Gamzee. "An' I don't know how you an' the others could live as far north as you do. Fuckin' bitter cold winters? Ergh. I don't even like goin' up there on business in the winter." He quietly ate, before grabbing the remote from its place on the side table, turning on the TV to continue watching the news. Gamzee sat back against the couch to watch as well, keeping quiet so that Eridan wouldn't have to get upset over him talking through the weather. There had been a few minor floods earlier in the morning that had swept down the beach close to Thousand Oaks, and the wind had knocked over a few of the trees in the vicinity. It looked like a tropical storm in nature, cutting short the end of spring break for the remaining students. There was an emergency warning scrolling along the bottom of the screen and a smaller report in the corner talking about an apparent landslide on the edge of the apartment complex in which Sollux resided. There had been structural damage, the foundation slipping and sending part of the building sliding out from the rest of the complex. When the report switched to that, the image was blown up, a very wet, harassed-looking reporter yelling to be heard over the wind about having heard nothing about the people inside.

Eridan slowly sat up and back, silent and shocked as the realization started to sink in. "Shit," he murmured, grabbing his phone to text to Sollux on the off chance that he wasn't home. "Shit, that little fuckin' peon had better be..." He muttered to himself, jaw jutted in sudden distress. He looked up to Gamzee and then at the TV again. That was no fucking landslide that did that shit. Just looking at it, it was clear that it looked more like something had _shoved the apartment down_ forcibly by the roof. "Fuckin' shit," he hissed as he discarded the text and simply just called. "Pick up you fuckin' peasant," he muttered, his eyes darting around the room as he tried to figure out what the fuck he was going to do if Sollux _had_ been home.

"Gam, you gonna be okay on your own if I make a trip to the valley? There isn't much to do, but I really need to fuckin'..." He got an automated message that the phone he was trying to reach could not be found, and his stomach dropped. "... Fuck."

Gamzee frowned some at the news report then nodded up at Eridan. "Yeah man, I got this shit for a little while, no fuckin' sweat," he replied, his fork laying across his nearly emptied plate. He waited until Eridan had moved before finishing his breakfast, taking both of their plates to the kitchen then tossing his pills back into his mouth one by one, taking a few long swallows from the tap then going back to keep an eye on the tv. He wasn't the most interested in the news, but the storm was starting to knock out the signal as it got more severe.

"Fuckin' CHRIST," Eridan yelled as he went looking for his shoes, and then stomped off to the door, "Stay inside, Gam," he shouted as he left, and growled as he got into his car, speeding off to the valley, griping into the air all the way that Sollux had better have been at work or down in LA instead of fucking around at home.

Once he got to the valley, shit had, as he expected, hit the whirling device in an impressively bad way. He had to park his car two miles up from where Sollux's apartment had been, but he could see where he had to go. He shucked out of his shirt, socks and shoes as he left his car, and waded out into the murky waters. Urgh, he knew he was going to wind up getting sick from this shit, he just fuckin' KNEW it. He dove in and swam rapidly against the current towards the waterlogged complex.

Debris splayed out around the damaged structure, pushed by water and wind until there were bits of it headed out to sea. A hundred yards away from the building's remains a new yellow BMW sat on its hood, half-crushed. There were people inside, trying to shift the collapsed wall and yelling to anyone they could see, trying to figure out who was there. Most of the people in the building were unhurt, one was missing, two were confirmed to be at work still, more or less trapped inside by the rain. Eridan had a mission to find his kismesis, but the people that were trapped and injured were of a slightly higher importance. Sollux was likely fuckin' dead, and this was more of a rescue mission of his corpse than anything. Eridan did what he could to help those who were trapped get to safer ground, before he dug around the wreckage until he found a computer tower in yellow and black. At least he was close.

He spent the next fifteen minutes throwing large pieces of rubble out of the way with the energy he collected in his rings and hand, and once he saw a river of yellow coming out from under a particularly large piece of wall, he winced. "You fuckin' slacker asshole, you just HAD to be at fuckin' home when all this shit came down," he growled as he strained to pull the wall away, using both his physical self and the white energy to get it off of Sollux's body. "You fuckin' dumb shit little asshole shit-for-pan douchebag, you'd better fuckin' BOW before my fuckin' hero ass when you resurrect," he growled as he hauled the limp body of his kismesis up over his shoulders, and started swimming back to his car. 

The drive home was similarly growly and loud, his shouting at Sollux unabated in spite of the fact that the guy was about 140 pounds of gray ground chuck at that point. He walked in with Sollux's body slung over his shoulder, dripping wet and sincerely fucking pissed. "Don't evven fuckin' ask," he said before Gamzee could even think to say anything. "Just grab me some fuckin' towwels an' lay 'em dowwn on the sofa," his quaver returned with the stress.

Gamzee looked up from what he was watching sprawled out on the couch to stare at Eridan for a second, then got up to retrieve the towels from the bathroom cupboards. He tossed them onto the couch and spread them out in haphazard layers before moving forward to help Eridan lay the body out.

"Shit man, is that Sollux? Looks like he went through a motherfuckin' meat grinder," he said as he crouched down beside him, prodding at the dead troll's side with two fingers and looking up at the bright yellow wounds.

"Yeah, it's Sollux, and he might as wwell fuckin' have. That apartment buildin' you saww on the newws is wwhere he livves." He clenched his jaw at how obnoxious he sounded and took a few deep breaths to calm down. "He's godtier, so he'll resurrect eventually. For now, we've got to play babysitter for his dumb ass." He gingerly brushed Sollux's bangs into place with his fingertips before stepping away. "Fuckin' asshole just couldn't a been at work like he shoulda been."

"Can't blame a motherfucker for wantin' to take a personal day when it's all motherfuckin' wet out like this," Gamzee shrugged then stood and went to fetch something from his bedroom, coming back with a change of clothes for when Sollux did come back. He sat down beside the body, completely unbothered by it as he flipped back to what he'd been watching with the volume turned down. He looked over at him after a little while, shaking his head. "Man, everyone's gettin' all motherfuckin' tall and grownup on me, what the fuck is up with that?"

Eridan settled into a chair and watched TV, more or less trying to ignore his kismesis' body as he grit his back teeth tight around another torrent of dramatic swearing. "What do you mean, Gam? It's kind a how people do. We're all fuckin' adults now. Kinda how the steady march a time works."

"Man I know that," Gamzee sighed, his lips pulling to one side, "But you know it's kinda motherfuckin' weird for me after havin' not seen none'a you motherfuckers for the last few motherfuckin' years. Like this whole time I kept tryin' to visualize all you motherfuckers an' all that'd come up was the cute lil' grubfaces. You got all fuckin' chiseled and shit. Sollux...well, he don't look much fuckin' different, thinner in the face and shit. Man, his matesprit's gonna be fuckin' mad he finds out Solbro's dead."

"You got pretty handsome, yourself. Too damn tall." Eridan sighed, "Sorry Gam, I'm just sort a stressed is all. Fuckin' horrorterrors," he grumbled as he toyed with his rings. Once Gamzee brought up Bro, however, he looked up and then buried his head in his hands "Fuckin' hell, Bro's gonna fuckin' kill me if he finds out I didn't get to him in time," he groaned and looked over at Sollux, "Shit, and his place is trashed, there wasn't anyfin worth salvagin'." He rubbed his forehead and then looked over at Sollux's body, grumbling, "You just _gotta_ be the biggest pain in my chute, don't you." He flopped back in the chair and looked up at the vaulted ceiling of the living room.

"He's gonna be so pissed when he wakes up and finds out his computer's fucked," Gamzee said thoughtfully, leaning over Sollux as if looking for some sign that he'd be coming back soon. "Where's he gonna stay? I saw this other spare room on the other side'a the house a little bit ago an' I don't mind cookin' for him too."

"Urgh, no, I'm not havin' him livin' with me, I already got you here. I'm used to bein' alone." He leaned over to swat Gamzee lightly away from Sollux's body. "He can stay just long enough to get his shit sorted, an' then I'm sendin' him off. I'm sick a this complete fuckin' bullshit situation." He wanted to go for a long swim out to a deep trench and just curl up and not deal for a while. This shit was wearing him down quickly. "How the fuck do they all fuckin' deal with this shit?" He stood and patted Gamzee's shoulder, before walking to another room to get away from the corpse.

Glancing around at Eridan as he left, Gamzee poked his tongue from the corner of his mouth, then crawled up over the body and pressed his ear to Sollux's chest. He had cooled down over the course of his trip back with Eridan, but he wasn't quite corpse cold. There wasn't a pulse that he could hear, but it was obvious he hadn't been dead longer than an hour; apparently he hadn't actually died until Eridan had been well on his way. He sat up between Sollux's legs and watched him, just waiting for him to move, sitting perfectly still.

Twenty minutes later, the wounds started to close up and Sollux arched up hard, taking a deep, choking breath then twisting and leaning over the edge of the couch, hacking up a wad of yellow something onto the floor. Gamzee sat back with a grin as he crawled upright and looked down at himself, then around the house, obviously confused over where he was until he turned to finally see the highblood sitting there on the couch goggling at him.

"Oh. Hey Gamzee," he wheezed, dragging a hand back through his hair then scratching at it with both hands as sand and dirt fell out of it and onto the floor.

"Bro, you need a motherfuckin' shower," Gamzee pointed out casually, looking down at the mess Sollux was leaving then glancing back in the direction Eridan had gone. He had to have heard by now, and he would absolutely have something to say about the yellow stain in front of his couch. Standing, Gamzee put his hands on Sollux's shoulders and ushered him toward his room, putting him in the bathroom like a pet he wanted to keep a secret. Sollux was still mildly bewildered, standing in the middle of the sparkling clean room looking like a homeless man until he'd finally gathered enough of his faculties to strip out of his ruined clothes and toss them into the trash and step into the shower stall. Eridan had calmed reasonably by then, but once he heard voices in the front room, he walked back out, just in time to see Gamzee ushering Sollux into the bathroom. He followed in as well and pulled Gamzee out of the bathroom once the shower was turned on.

"Give him some privacy," he said, closing the door behind himself as he let Sollux get clean. "C'mon, let's give him some space. Gettin' back to life takes it out of a guy." He patted Gamzee on the shoulder as he breezed out to go gather up the towels, only to find the yellow mess and growl a little. "Ugh," he sighed and used one of the towels to wipe it off the hardwood and the front of the leather couch, glad that it hadn't stained noticeably.

Gamzee tucked his hands into his pockets as he wandered back to the kitchen, peeking into the refrigerator. No doubt Sollux would be hungry after all of that. He'd never died or been resurrected, but he knew that healing up usually took a lot of energy. "Man, you have any idea what Sollux eats? I don't think I ever actually saw him each much of anything before. Explains why he's so motherfuckin' skinny."

Eridan leaned against the wall nearby and tucked his hands into his pockets, sighing out of relief and frustration both. "Basically anythin' you set in front a him, from what I saw this week. He eats a lot, actually. Almost as much as Strider the Big." He scratched through his hair with a vague smile. The fact that he knew that was indicative that it was caliginous between them, and not just platonic hate that they'd gotten confused. "You and he both got some pretty fuckin' high metabolisms, actually. All wiry and tall." He considered silently about alerting Bro, but he was still nervous about that; Bro would have his head if he'd heard Sollux had died. And he wouldn't be able to live with Sollux under the same roof as him. He'd want to steal away into the night and choke the life out of him, sure as shit. 

He huffed a sigh and looked up when he heard the shower finish. "Fuckin' finally."

Sollux came back out with a towel around his waist, another being ruffled through his hair as he looked at the others as he passed, arching an eyebrow at them then curling his lip at Eridan. He passed them by and went back to the couch where Gamzee had left the spare clothes for him to wear, pulling them on then coming back to ask for a belt, as the slacks were too big around the waist for him. He looked between them then just shook his head and went to sit on the edge of Gamzee's cocoon, his hand rubbing over his face irritably. "When you two are done do you think I could uthe a phone?" He muttered, his voice hoarse.

Eridan looked back behind him to Gamzee as he stood, arms crossed. "You stick here a minute, Gam, I gotta talk to Sol." He gave a brief smile to Gamzee before walking into the room and closing the door behind him. "What the fuck were you thinkin', not fuckin' tellin' me that this shit was gonna happen?" He yelled, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. "I woulda fuckin' done somethin', you wouldn't a had to fuckin' die!" He growled as he stomped up to Sollux, prodding him in the chest with one claw. "I should a let you just fuckin' float off into the ocean, you fuckin' useless ingrate! Do you know how many tons of rubble I had to clear out to get you outta there? An' all I wanted this mornin' was a fuckin' quiet day!"

Sollux winced then slapped Eridan's hand away, shoving him back tiredly then standing up in front of him and baring his teeth. "For your fucking information, Ampora, I wathn't aware it wath thuppothed to happen today. I didn't _know_ when it would happen, jutht that it would and now that you've got chucklefuck here running around you have other shit to worry about," he snapped, still holding the pants up with one hand as he prodded Eridan with the other. "If you haven't notithed, I'm perfectly fucking fine but I need to make a goddamn phone call."

Eridan glared daggers at Sollux as he slipped his belt off and shoved it at his kismesis. "Put yourself together, you uncultured ass." He pulled out his cell phone, and handed it over. "For the fuckin' record, if I get sick because I saved your ass, I'm going to ruin your life in such intricate, subtle ways, you'll wish you hadn't ever been resurrected."

"Good luck with that, fishdick." Rolling his eyes, Sollux thumbed through Eridan's address book, knowing he'd have Bro's number tucked in there by now, wedging the phone between his shoulder and ear as he pulled the belt around his waist and cinched it tight. He started to pace the longer he heard the ringback, tapping his fingers against his side nervously. The only reason that Bro wouldn't answer a call from one of their phones would be if his was off (which was unlikely), he'd lost it (also unlikely), the battery was dead (slightly more likely), or something had happened and his phone was out of commission. Given how Bro had reacted just to the news that he was about to die, he could only imagine what was happening in Houston right now. "Jethuth chritht, Thtrider pick up..."

Eridan threw his hands back up, giving up, letting out a frustrated little sound as he stomped back out of the room. "I can't believe I got fuckin' detritus stuck in my gills for that piece of shit!" He growled as he went to grab himself a bottle of saltwater, glaring off at the rain pouring into his pool. 

Gamzee glanced back at the room then followed after Eridan, leaning a little too close for comfort and peering at his gills. "Gonna have to get that shit washed outta there quick," he said thoughtfully, laying a fingertip against Eridan's neck and lifting the skin gently.

"That's what- Hey!" he swatted Gamzee's hand away from his gill and stepped away, "That's what I was doin' while I was waitin' for him to stop bein' a lump of decomposition on my sofa!" He hadn't gotten it all - he could still feel bits of debris in there - but it wasn't any worse than swallowing some sand. It'd come out eventually. "I'll be _fine_ , Gam, don't fuckin' worry about me."

"If you say so, man. Don't get all motherfuckin' stressed or you'll make yourself sick," Gamzee shrugged then went back to the kitchen to dig out something to offer to Sollux, having decided that he had permission to do so. He wasn't sure what to do from there though, having no idea what Sollux wanted or what Eridan wanted to keep for himself. He scrunched his mouth to one side and went to the cupboards instead, grabbing out a boxed dinner and starting on that instead. If what Eridan said was true and Sollux would eat just about anything given to him, it should be completely fine.

Sollux himself stomped back out of the room and threw Eridan's phone against the back of the couch, sitting down with his elbows on his knees, his hands over his face. "Fuck thith... Fuck thith whole thtupid goddamn reality."

"Jesus fuckin' christ, would you watch how you handle that thing?" Growled Eridan, who picked up his phone and set it back up on a table. He set his bottle of water down as well before rubbing his forehead, stressed to the hilt. "Listen, I'll get you a fuckin' plane ticket to Houston. Your matesprit'll be there, and you can figure out what the fuck to do from there. Just so long as it gets you the _hell_ outta my fuckin' house, and keeps you from buggin' out an' makin' MY life miserable by proxy." Eridan thought about spending the entire rest of the day in his indoor pool, at the bottom of it, away from every fucking person making his life a living hell.

Sollux looked up at him, gritting his teeth then sighing heavily and rubbing his hands into his eyes. "Thankth, fishdick." He wouldn't say it, but he knew he owed Eridan for this. All of it. He hated the idea of owing him anything, and would repay it in grand fashion later on but just now, he wanted to curl up, go to sleep, then catch a flight to Texas and never move again. There was nothing salvageable in the ruins of his apartment, of that, he was certain; one of the only details the prophecies had seen fit to make clear was that he would be losing everything. He sat back, letting out a harsh, frustrated growl then looking back over at Eridan. "Did you thee my car anywhere?" He asked, knowing what the answer would end up being.

Eridan took a deep breath and sighed it out, coughing slightly when a sand-fine piece of drywall caught against the filaments in his gills. "Yeah, it was overturned and fuckin' totaled. Sucks to see a good beemer go to waste," he muttered, settling down against the back of the sofa, rubbing his temples. "Gam is makin' you some food, then you can nap while I get you a flight." He lightly took up his phone and sent a text to Bro, telling him not to keep freaking out like he had been when he'd seen him the night prior. Shit had gone down, but now it was in the clear.

He took his water and took a drink of it, still trying to get himself to calm down. Why the fuck did today have to be going so absolutely fucking sideways? He looked up at Gamzee and was stunned that the other was so fuckin' calm in all of this. It was sort of admirable, in its own way. He was stirring the sodium-ridden food in the pan with a serene smile on his face, his head bobbing gently with whatever song was playing in it. He put a lid over it after a couple more minutes and fished a bowl out of a cupboard after a moment's searching, then peeked into the fridge again for something to give Sollux to drink. Again he was a bit at a loss as to what would be off-limits and drew a glass of water from the tap instead. He poured the steaming food into a bowl and stuck a spoon in it then grabbed a bowl of shredded parmesan to put over the top of it to hopefully improve the flavor a little before coming back and handing the bowl and cup off to Sollux, who looked up at him as if only noticing him then for the first time then down at the dinner he was holding out.

"Jutht paid that thing off last month, too," he muttered as he dug into the food without caring that it was fresh off the stove, ignoring the stinging of his burned tongue as he shoveled it down ravenously. Gamzee went back to his room to get out of the way, figuring this was between them.

Eridan smiled and murmured thanks to Gamzee as he left the room, and turned to Sollux, brow furrowed as he tried to imagine how Sollux felt, losing everything. "If... look, I am not givin' you a fuckin' handout here, but if you need anythin' between now an' when you leave to go be a pain in Texas, you just let me fuckin' know. Seein' you fuckin' take a shot like this makes me think you're not gonna be much fuckin' fun to dick with for a while." And where the hell was the joy in that?

Sollux rolled his eyes, swallowing his mouthful then washing it down with a few long gulps of water. "How nithe of you," he grumbled but let it go and finished his food, emptying the glass and carrying them both back to the kitchen to put in the sink. He came back and crossed his arms over his chest, crossing his ankles as he pulled his legs up onto the couch in front of him, curling up loosely against the arm. "If you really wanna do something, can you jutht...leave me alone for a minute?"

Eridan nodded in understanding once Sollux asked and slipped away, before walking up the stairs through the hall to the sparse room he'd decided he was going to put his library once he got all his things moved from Florida. He settled down in the chair he'd put in there and scowled down at the cliffs of the canyon, looking down at the trees with a furrowed brow. What a fuckin' day.

Gamzee peeked his head out after a little while, looking around at all the silence then creeping back over to the couch. Sollux had fallen asleep some time after Eridan had gone upstairs, his face turned into the arm of the couch, the frown still frozen on his face. Frowning a little himself, Gamzee moved around and started to rub along Sollux's shoulders until he'd untensed, then set about wandering the house and looking at everything. It was still pretty bare for the time being since Eridan had only just moved in, but it would get more homey in time. He stopped in a hall where one wall was mostly window and leaned against the opposite wall, looking out at the view of the hills leading back toward the city, still contently bobbing to the music in his head.

Eridan slipped out of the library and saw Gamzee lingering in the hallway, and he padded up to his friend, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Sorry for all this fuckin' drama just after you got here. It's fuckin' rude'a me." It was no sort of housewarming, to have to deal with corpses and screaming.

"Nah man, it's all good," Gamzee shrugged, looking back at him with a soft smile and returned the gesture, gripping Eridan's shoulder briefly then letting his hand fall away again. Outside, the rain was letting up slowly, the occasional flash of lightning illuminating the sky overhead and turning the leaves of the trees far-off silver. "Everyone's got their own motherfuckin' burden to bear and right now, this just happens to be yours."

"It's not a fuckin' burden," Eridan corrected, smiling faintly as he looked out the window then down the hall. "What the fuck good is havin' a kismesis when he's been taken down by somethin' out a either of your control?" He turned and walked back towards the stairs. "An' you're not a burden, Gam. You been nothin' but a good friend ever since we met. You might have your shitty moments, might be too fuckin' weird for your own good some a the time, but you're no burden." He smiled over his shoulder, then walked downstairs. "C'mon, you need your meds."

Gamzee's eyebrows arched up some as he followed Eridan back downstairs, glancing over at Sollux as they passed. He leaned his elbows against the counter until the meds were handed over, closing his hand over them then grabbing a glass and fishing the milk from the refrigerator. He turned the carton over in his hand, tilting his head some; he'd never had lactose-free milk before. He assumed this was what Eridan used to cook for alfredo or cream sauce dishes. He poured his glass half full and put the rest back then washed down the pills with it, opening his mouth for inspection in case Eridan intended to look again.

Eridan smiled and waved it off. "I trust you right now," he murmured. "Don't worry about keepin' shit in there for me, neither. Only thing that's really off limits in the kitchen's your meds and the alcohol, since we really don't need to be drivin' your lanky ass down to the fuckin' hospital to get your stomach pumped." He looked over at Sollux asleep on the sofa, and sighed. "Fuckin' pain in the ass Captor," he murmured, though the tone wasn't as filled with animosity as it could have been. He was just tired of shit happening so much around these crazy people. "Man, two weeks ago, shit was solid," he murmured to Gamzee. "Had my fuckin' life together. Runnin' into these idiots again, Gam, I dunno. It burst my fuckin' bubble. All I had hoped to accomplish seems so fuckin' complicated, now that I know the truth." He turned to Gamzee, then, and tilted his head. "Why would you preach all that, and try and break people outta the dream?"

Gamzee closed his mouth and looked over at Sollux again then back at Eridan. He couldn't say much about having his life together, even if it was improving slowly over time. He thought about the question for a second, then shrugged, his palms upturned. "If shit starts all up n' rainin' from the sky, I want people duckin' an' coverin', or fightin' back instead'a lookin' up to see what the deal is."

"It's way fuckin' easier to ignore it when you don't know it's there," Eridan pointed out, grabbing another bottle of saltwater to flush the crud out of his system. He already felt sick to his stomach and irritated around his gills and throat, but kept it under wraps. He really didn't need to worry Gamzee, or give Sollux even an inch of ground to insult. "I think the more fuckin' people pay attention to the shit that shouldn't be seen, the more hold it has over 'em. Just fuckin' look at Rose for a clear example." He had waxed black for her for a hot minute, and once he'd heard about her having gone grimdark, it simply made him feel pity. Nobody should have to go through the distinct hell of being a puppet for those Outer Fucks.

"They'd get noticed eventually anyway. This has been a long time comin'," Gamzee sighed and wrinkled his nose some at the thunder as it crashed over the house. "Eventually people are gonna notice that the foundation wasn't what fucked up in Sollux's place. It's pretty hard to miss a big motherfuckin' toothy grin comin' at ya from the sky. At least if people are prepared, fighting back becomes more of a motherfuckin' option."

"Hn." Eridan didn't like agreeing with that, but it was true. "From what I gathered, at least from what the others were sayin', we're not all equally prepared. I'm pretty fuckin' sure our session is the best prepared for this bullshit, and even then, we're not fuckin' prepared for a clusterfuck onslaught like you're sayin'," he sure as shit wasn't, at least. "Most'a the people here probably didn't even get outTa the Medium. I'm guessin' a lot of 'em didn't even get shit prototyped." He shook his head. "We kinda broke the fuckin' rules, Gam, broke the game and got out. And most'a us, myself infuckin'cluded?" He shook his head. "Most'a us didn't get a fuckin' happy endin' with no death. Dunno about you, dude, but I ain't so up on the idea of puttin' up a fight against the big an' spookies."

"Yeah man, I know what you're sayin'. I met a guy, nicest dude you could think of, started tellin' me what he could remember in one'a the off-times, the only fuckin' chance we had to be by ourselves. He never made it to his quest bed. He was supposed to be a motherfuckin' Lord of Time. Most powerful motherfucker you can be, just about. But his session went terminal from some motherfuckin' outside influence and his friends didn't even make it out. Nothin' left to put in the bubble with 'im. Got some severe motherfuckin' post-traumatic shit from it and started doin' some real hard shit because of it. 's why he was in there with me. He told me once, he got to look into the eye of an Outer God. It was the last motherfuckin' thing he ever saw."

Eridan listened to the recounting with a grimace. "Sounds almost as bad as the shit we dealt with. Kinda makes livin' on a meteor with you crazy, uncouth fuckers sound almost enjoyable in comparison." He grinned up at Gamzee and shook his head. "How I managed to stay sane as long as I did is a miracle in itself, I think." He actually had to chuckle a bit about that. At least he and Gamzee managed to keep their cool until about the same time; it was Gamzee's rampage that made Eridan lose all hope. "Just as long as you'n me can keep our shit together this time around, I think we're gonna be just fine." He turned to Sollux. "... Okay, with a little bumps in the path here an' there. Bro's not too bad, he'll take care'a Sol, get him back on his feet in no time."

"Soon as I know what to do with my own motherfuckin' self, I'll get outta your hair, let you go back to your swank motherfuckin' lifestyle, let you get your relax on when you can. We'll be alright, man. Just gotta keep lookin' straight ahead." Gamzee clapped his hand down on Eridan's shoulder, giving it a squeeze then rinsing out his glass and heading back toward his room. It was getting rather late in the afternoon and he didn't want to wake Sollux up with the tv, nor did he want to end up overstaying his welcome and manage to upset Eridan again. He could figure out what he wanted to do with himself until one of them decided to make an actual dinner.

"Hey, Gam?" Eridan said before Gamzee could make his way out of the line of sight. "I'm glad you're here, bro. Don't start thinkin' a yourself as some sorta weight around my neck." He gave a reassuring, albeit slightly disconcertingly toothy smile, and went to settle back down and read while Sollux napped. He'd already reserved a seat on a flight out of LAX to Houston, and would be taking Sollux there in about three hours. For now, it was time to hope that his kismesis wouldn't pitch the biggest fucking fit until then.

\--

When Sollux woke up maybe half an hour before they would be leaving, he was quiet, sore and stiff as he sat up, pressing his hands into the small of his back and arching it until it popped. He was still tired and it showed in how he moved when he got up to use Gamzee's bathroom rather than bothering to ask Eridan where another one would be. He arched an eyebrow at Gamzee as he passed him then stopped, backing up a couple of steps. Gamzee was sitting perched on the edge of his cocoon, his back leaning against the corner with a notepad in his hand apparently scrounged out of a drawer, and an inkpen that he was doing... _something_ with. He wasn't sure what it was, but it wasn't writing and it didn't look like drawing. He occasionally licked his fingers and smeared them over the paper, caught up in his own little world. Sollux left him to it, using the bathroom then coming back out after a couple of minutes with his hands in his pockets. He sat back down at his end of the couch, a bit uncomfortable in the silence.

Eridan finally looked up and then at his watch, sighing. "I suppose we should get goin'," he murmured before standing. "I'll get you some shoes, we're about the same size." He had a pair of sandals that would fit, at the very least. He dug those out of his luggage and then knocked on Gamzee's door. "Gam, I'm goin' to bring Sol to the airport. You can come along if you want." He walked back to Sollux and handed him the sandals that looked like they'd only ever been looked at before. He pulled on a jacket and his loafers and grabbed his keys from the hook near the door.

Sollux pulled the sandals on, arching an eyebrow about Eridan's footwear, then jumping badly when he looked back and suddenly Gamzee was _right fucking there_. He hadn't heard the other move at all between the room and the door. Eridan was startled, albeit far less than Sollux had been, just barely twitching at Gamzee's sudden approach, before smiling up at him with a tight, sharky grin.

"Fuckin' ninja clown," he teased, before leading them out the door.

"Alright man, at least it's stopped all that motherfuckin' rainin'. Should be a real clear day for flyin' out," he said serenely, smiling to himself as he laced his hands together behind the back of his neck under his hair, which had been twisted up around itself out of the way again. Sollux sighed and stepped out behind Eridan, looking back as Gamzee ducked through the doorway.

"Can he even fit in your car?" He muttered at Eridan, looking a little more awake after the startle. The seadweller had set the security system and popped the top of the Bugatti so Gamzee didn't have to worry about his horns banging into the overhead. It'd be a bit of a tight squeeze, all three of them being taller than average, but they'd make it work somehow.

Once on the freeway to the airport, Eridan stopped driving quite so cleanly and carefully as they'd been doing in stop and go traffic, weaving between cars with a dancer's grace. He wasn't as reckless as Sollux in his driving, but what he didn't have in deathwish maneuvers, he made up for in agile turning and a strong desire to get Sollux the fuck out of his hair.

Gamzee leaned back in his seat and let the wind whip his hair back, sinking down comfortably with his eyes closed. Sollux glanced at him every now and then, somewhat disconcerted. But as long as he was here, in plain sight, not destroying anything or anyone, he felt a little more at-ease. And Eridan would be safe from a freakout if only because he was royalty and regardless of how much Gamzee didn't care about the hemospectrum, he still recognized Eridan's authority. Besides, nobody else was allowed to hurt his kismesis but him.

When they pulled into the multi-level parking garage, Gamzee and Sollux both sat back up, Sollux doing so with a relieved sigh. He was that much closer to getting his life back.

"You don't have to thtay," he muttered at them, glancing back at Eridan as he climbed out of the car. "After the plane ticket'th confirmed, I'm fine on my own."

Eridan wasn't planning on seeing him off, anyway. He slipped out of the car anyway to let Gamzee out and into the passenger seat. "You got my cell number, right? If you hit a snag, just call me from one'a the pay phones collect and I'll come settle shit up." He pulled out his wallet and handed Sollux a fifty. "That should get you from the airport to wherever it is Bro lives." He settled back down into the driver's seat and looked up at Sollux with a browarch. "An' one more thing, Sol? Don't ever fuckin' make me have to rescue your stupid peasant ass again."

Sollux pressed his lips into a thin line, scowling at Eridan then reaching down and giving his hair a hard ruffle before starting toward the airport. He looked back around once Gamzee had gotten situated in the front and raised a hand, then disappeared inside, hoping to be through this as quickly as possible. "You athholeth better take care of each other," he muttered under his breath as soon as the car was gone.

Eridan's sharklike grin went slightly less edgy at the hair ruffle. His hair had been a mess since he jumped into the nasty landslide water, so he wasn't terribly upset over it getting more fucked up. He watched Sollux go inside and then started out of the parking area, and back to the freeway.

"Man, I always did know you guys would end up bein' black as fuck for one-another. Couldn't stay one-sided forever." Gamzee smiled as he sank back in his seat, smiling quite contently and watching the freeway traffic through half-lidded eyes.

"As you would say, Gam, it's a fuckin' miracle," he responded with a lopsided smile. "Let's grab food on the way home." 

After they got to Brentwood from the airport, Eridan stopped at an upscale grocery store and nudged Gamzee. "Since you're the one so hellbent on makin' the food, you get to do the shoppin'."

Gamzee looked up at the place, his face lighting up. Any time he was allowed to go shopping to feed himself, he always insisted on going to a Whole Foods market. He traded grins with Eridan before hopping out of the car, completely uncaring how he had to have looked, barefooted, slacks and a plain tshirt, hair flying every-which-where as he twisted it back up. He jogged into the store and glanced around, immediately going for the fruit and spending time lifting, squeezing and smelling the melons with the biggest smile on his face.

With a content little smile, Eridan grabbed a basket at the entrance and followed behind with a casual stroll, head tilting in amusement as he watched Gamzee go ape over produce. He'd never seen anybody take such sincere pleasure over such small fuckin' things. It was refreshing as hell to see a more pedestrian chore like shopping actually become an _experience_. Gamzee moved almost constantly, with an odd sort of grace as he picked up, rolled and touched and evaluated everything before slipping it into produce bags, stocking up on all of the staples he could think of that he hadn't seen in Eridan's refrigerator. He checked the price on the apples and dug into his pocket to find some change that he'd managed to pick up here and there over the trip across the country with Vriska, having kept it on-hand in case he got a chance to stop and find something to snack. He counted out what he had, then sank his teeth into a large green apple, walking with it in his mouth as he picked through vegetables, then moved on to spices. He picked up a small collection of glass bottles that would end up being rather expensive, but that would last him months if necessary. He glanced back at Eridan as they approached the meat counter, scanning over the selection with his hands in his pocket then pointing out a couple of different things, different available fish, communicating with his hands more than his mouth with the man behind the counter so that he could keep the apple where it was.

Eridan kept a mental running tab of the expense of the items so he could make a note of it in his ledger later. But that was second on his mind to watching Gamzee, seemingly in some fluid dream state as he walked around. He was the one carrying the basket, but at the first empty cart they spotted, he switched over, now that he realized that they would need it. He chuckled to himself as the man behind the counter seemed to be just as amused as he was that a highblood was so dressed down and casual, and throwing pantomime instead of sharp orders. The man was used to people more like Eridan than he was with people like Gamzee coming in, and it showed. The man looked up at Eridan as he worked to get what Gamzee had pointed out, and Eridan raised an eyebrow as if to say "well, you saw what he wanted, get it for him."

Finally Gamzee took the change out of his pocket and put it on the counter to pay for the apple in his mouth before biting out that chunk, spending some time looking at the fish again until he'd swallowed then going into detail what kind of fish he wanted, then taking a second to ask about a couple substitutions, knowing that a couple of the things he cooked probably wouldn't sit well on Eridan's stomach. Knowing Eridan as long as he had, he could more or less tell what would make him sick, or at least what had made him sick when he was a kid. He grinned as he was handed over a few different wrapped packages and a receipt, flipping the man a quick wave as he continued through the store happily masticating his snack. At the register, he let Eridan in front of him, setting the groceries on the conveyor while the other paid.

Gamzee's attention to his eating habits - which were very much set in stone before the game - made Eridan pause. He hadn't been expecting Gamzee to remember something like that. To be honest, he'd always underestimated Gamzee's memory due to his usual flippant and flaky behavior. He smiled to himself as they worked their way to the register, and then slid his card to pay for everything, rather proud that his estimate fairly close to the total, over by only a few cents.

Once everything was bagged and settled into the back seat of the car, Eridan drove them back up through the hills. "Your attention to detail's fuckin' incredible, anybody ever tell you that?" He briefly turned his head to look at Gamzee.

Gamzee lifted his head off the back of the seat, giving Eridan a rather blank look, then smiling faintly and shrugging a shoulder. "Back in McLean they said it was some kinda disorder," he replied, as if he really couldn't have cared less. "I don't really know much'a nothin' about any of that shit, rather just keep on doin' what I'm motherfuckin' doin', y'know?"

"Psh, more like a fuckin' blessin'." muttered Eridan. "A lot of shit you do's pretty fuckin' bizarre, I'll give 'em that, but it isn't... Well it never struck me as a bad kind a bizarre. Well. Up to a point." Even killing wasn't that terribly disproportionately bad, all things considered; it was just how things went on Alternia. People fuckin' killed. People didn't usually take such perverse joy in it like he had heard Gamzee did, but he wasn't about to hold his friend in a poor light for that.

"You're probably not half as fuckin' nuts as those guys wrote you down as. How much do human doctors know about troll psychology, anyhow?" Regardless, the medication kept Gamzee level, and it seemed to be working, so he'd keep at it.

"Man, I don't fuckin' know, but I met some pretty fucked up humans in there just the same as the trolls. Dude I told you about? He was a motherfuckin' human. The way I see it, we really ain't all that motherfuckin' different. We may have it in our genes, but they come across it just as motherfuckin' easy other ways." Gamzee turned to face the scenery as it went by the further they went up into the hills, enjoying how few people he seemed to see out here, especially after having been surrounded by other people nearly every waking moment for the last few years. He'd finished his apple some time ago, palming the seeds for lack of anything better to do with them but unwilling to just throw them out the window.

Eridan nodded at the deep insight. "I suppose that's true." Once they got back up to the house, he put several bags on one arm, and three more in hand, before hanging a couple on his other arm, which he used to unlock the door and open it for them. He helped put the groceries away, and then looked around at the fairly bare house with a sigh. "Gonna fuckin' get borin' as hell around here without my books and art. Gonna need to call my housesitter in Tampa, get him to call in some movers and get some of my things out here." He tucked his hands in his pockets and looked over at Gamzee, then realized it was time to give him his meds again. "You know, you'd think I'd take pleasure in dolin' this shit out, but I'm not really trustin' a many of these lab-created chemicals," he said as he shook out the pills, handing them one by one to his friend. "They work like poison."

Gamzee took the pills and washed them down with a glass of water, no longer bothering to prove to Eridan that he'd swallowed them. He looked around the place himself, nodding thoughtfully. "Yeah man, walls're lookin' pretty motherfuckin' sparse but since you just moved it's only natural. So is this really gonna end up bein' your permanent place or just like for business shit when you have to come out this way for meetings? Since you live all the way over in Florida that'd be a hell of a motherfuckin' commute."

Eridan scratched at his irritated gills lightly as he grabbed a bottle of saltwater. "They're movin' my division out here 'cause they want to start workin' on settin' up somethin' to get our reproductive shit back together. You probably haven't had a chance to notice the lack a wrigglers around, but that's somethin' that'll wind up bein' pretty fuckin' necessary for the lowbloods if they don't want to go extinct." He wasn't personally very passionate about carrying on the troll race - he'd live far longer than most so it really didn't matter to him personally - but it was the first huge leap forward in troll society in this world to really make their situation more cohesive. "So it's gonna be a full move within a year. But with the ease of signin' off on fast-trackin' the divisional move, I could cut that down to four months. Put two months of vacation time down, so I don't have to put up with whiny bitches, put my assistants in charge of hires and layoffs 'til I get shit square here." As he talked, Eridan stretched his arms out by crossing one over his chest, pulling it close, before doing the same to the other. "I'm gonna be in the pool. If you need anythin', throw somethin' in it, I won't hear you otherwise."

Gamzee's head tilted as he listened. He hadn't really had the chance to register the lack of grubs or young trolls around, now that he really thought about it. He supposed it all had to do with this reality's status as an endgame refuge. He didn't ask many questions when he didn't have to. He nodded when Eridan decided he would spend time in the pool, figuring he would find something for himself to do to keep occupied until he decided on dinner. He had ideas what he wanted to try and do, it was just a matter of putting it together later on. He left the kitchen to head back to his room and grab his stolen notebook and pen then slouched out on the couch with the tv on, turned to one of the black screen music channels.

Eridan slipped away and out of his clothes, pulling on his trunks only because of company, before he took off his glasses and headed down to the indoor part of the pool. He'd had it drained and refilled with an artificial seawater, and had them put in far higher quality filters, to keep the pool conditions as close as he could manage to an ocean. He remembered a time when he absolutely abhorred swimming, preferring rather to stay above the water and hunt from above, but his time on the meteor made him realize how much he truly had missed out on the opportunity. Now it was his refuge. He dove into the pool and swam to the bottom, the dots of bioluminescence down his arms and back coming to light. He took seat against the pool wall, simply to breathe deeply through his gills and dislodge the last of the detritus that had caught in his filaments. It took a while, and as he sat, he started reflecting on the day, and wondered if Sollux had even thought to buy renter's insurance. He huffed to himself as he stretched his legs out and rolled his head, popping a few tense joints, knowing that was probably something that Sollux was currently kicking himself over if he hadn't.

It was well over half an hour before he resurfaced to turn on the stereo. He figured if Gamzee needed anything, he'd come in and bother him for it. He dove back under the water and started doing a few laps, the sound of the music reverberating in the water through specially made speakers that had been installed on the sides of the pool. By then, Gamzee had wandered into the room, sitting down at the poolside with his pantlegs rolled up, his feet hanging in the water. He could feel the reverberation of the music against his legs and it was...interesting. Sort of soothing. He listened to the music still playing inside as he sketched on another page of the notebook, turning it this way and that as he worked. It was fairly aimless scribbling, shapes barely distinguishable unless they were actually pointed out. He tuned out the quiet splashes when Eridan happened to break the surface, completely content for the time being.

Once Eridan bothered to notice Gamzee, he had to wonder exactly how long he'd been there. He surfaced nearby and swam up to his friend, hauling himself halfway out to prop himself up by his elbows, rubbing the water off his face. "Drawin'?" He asked, a little breathless as he flushed the water from his gills. "May I see?"

Gamzee scooted a little bit away from the water running off of Eridan's arms then held out the pad. Most of the page was ink scribbles, but where details were visible there were disturbing, fantastic shapes that seemed to squirm on the page if they were looked at too long. "It's not much of anything, just fuckin' around."

"Content or lack thereof aside," Eridan murmured as he squinted, having to let his eyes adjust without his glasses, "You got some fuckin' talent. Always did have that artistic bent to you." He looked up at Gamzee with a grin. "Lesser people might get jealous of that, but I feel fuckin' blessed to have a talented friend." He pushed away from the edge again and lazily drifted off to the other side of the pool, where he'd put the pile of towels.

"Ain't a thing to be jealous of anyway," Gamzee shrugged, putting the pad aside and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his fingertips dipping into the water. "It's just one'a those things I do. At first they wanted me to draw other shit, but then I was like 'nah man, this shit helps me more than drawin' any motherfuckin' flowers does' so they left me alone after that about it."

Eridan raised his eyebrows to the explanation, then pulled himself up out of the water, padding over to the towels to pat himself dry. "A way to get the nightmares out. Doesn't surprise me." It was a better coping method than *he* had, which was really nothing more than distracting himself and reading. He shook his head as he dried his hair slowly. "But you're much too modest; you possess a great deal of fuckin' talent, in a real fuckin' way." He dabbed the water off his face and neck, then worked it off of his shoulders. "You have a keen eye for line weight and focal balance, even if you don't know you do. That shit doesn't come easily."

"Didn't know there was names for this shit, I just know what I think looks better dark and what looks better light." Learning the technical aspects of anything wasn't his style. He'd never really been able to follow recipes either, his doctors and mentors had found that out fairly quickly. Books and instructions weren't his thing. He pulled his feet out of the water and shook them a little before standing up and grabbing the paper again, heading back inside to get a start on dinner. "Hey bro, I got an idea earlier. How's about, since you can cook pretty motherfuckin' good, we just take turns at this shit. Like I do it a couple times, you do it a couple times. Works out that way pretty motherfuckin' well I think."

Eridan nodded to that, "That's a wonderful idea. And to add to that," he said, walking around to catch up with Gamzee, "When one cooks, the other cleans up. That way, it will all get taken care a, and neither a us will get fuckin' bitchy about havin' to do all the work." He draped the towel over his shoulders, although it briefly got caught at the tips of his horns, which made him huff in petulance. "Damn things," he muttered, "Always just slightly longer than I think." He too had had a bit of a growth spurt when he went God tier, and had not yet quite gotten used to the length of his horns. Gamzee's horns had always been long, but as he'd grown taller, they'd grown in proportion and only exacerbated his height. He glanced at Eridan's horns and the very slightly blunted places at the tips where he could tell that they'd caught, scraped or chipped on doorways or walls, wrinkling his nose some and rubbing his thumb over one of the slightly chipped places. "Yeah man, had to learn to start duckin' through doors all over the motherfuckin' place. Probably lots of score marks on the frames of my old door. I can probably file that down a little for ya but it'd set your teeth right on motherfuckin' edge."

Vain as he was, Eridan immediately perked up at that. "I wouldn't object to that. Shit looks like a trainwreck back there, I'm fuckin' sure." He swung a left into his own bedroom. "I'll come help you in there just as soon as I get dressed," he said as he walked into his room, turning to close the door.

Gamzee nodded as he went, starting to search out supplies. He'd need knives, which he hadn't found in his last sweep around the kitchen. "Hey bro, where you got your sharps hid? I'm gonna need a knife and a peeler," he called, leaning to peer back into the living room in the direction Eridan had gone. He busied himself getting out everything else while he waited, a couple of different squash laid out on the counter, one of the packages of fish in the sink. He washed his hands as he began to bob and sway gently to a song on the tv, very chill, very Gamzee. Eridan returned shortly in a pair of pajama pants and an undershirt, his hair combed back out of his face, and pulled the knife block out from the cabinet above the sink, and then pointed to the drawer where the peeler was.

"When Vris called, she wasn't real fuckin' clear on where your mental state was, so I was prepared for the worst, and hopin' for the best. Tell me if you need help with anythin'." It almost sounded like an apology from the tone. He settled on the edge of a stool and propped his head up by an elbow on the island counter, watching Gamzee move. It was almost mesmerizing, watching the lazy grace of his friend. He caught himself in his thoughts and turned away, to look through the notepad that Gamzee had pilfered.

"Nah man, I never did deal in sharp shit," Gamzee snorted and eased the cover off the chef's knife, laying it aside then running a little water over it in case of dust. He laid it to one side of the cutting board he'd scrounged up, grabbing the peeler and starting to skin the squash, the ribbons of bright skin flipping into the sink. "But I don't really motherfuckin' blame ya, all things considered." He fell to work in silence, turning his attention to the stove which had started to warm up as he worked, laying a couple of pans on it, each one with a thin layer of oil in the bottom. He'd found another, thinner cutting board, the fish sitting on it waiting to be cut up.

The notebook was one scrounged out of Eridan's things during one of Gamzee's explorations of the house, that didn't have much of anything written in it. There were a couple of pages that had been similarly blacked in with his disconcerting little designs, but one held a detailed, slightly ghoulish rendering of a face that seemed to be trying to push out of the page itself, the mouth wide open in a pained scream. By the shape of the teeth, it was supposed to be human. Eridan pushed the notepad away after a few moments of looking at the face, blinking and shaking his head. He looked over at the cutting board and fish, and stood to take care of that. He idly wondered, if Gamzee didn't deal with sharp things, how he managed to decapitate people. He decided it was probably better if he didn't start wondering about the particulars, even if they were morbidly interesting, and he was curious on a objective level. He looked up when he heard a song on the TV that he recognized and turned to see it was being used as background music for whatever show it was that Gamzee had on. He went back to cutting up the fish, then set the cutting board aside.

"Is there anythin' else you want that I can get you, Gam? I'm goin' down to town tomorrow, I can pick some stuff up for you."

Taking the cuts from the board with the spatula that he'd left sitting beside the pan, Gamzee laid the fillets in the oil and took a moment to season them before answering, "Well, I was thinkin' about how I'm pretty sure you'd all up n' flip all your shit if I accidentally got my paint on anything, so maybe some sealer? There's a powder that works real well for this shit. Other than that I don't really think there's much of anything I need but what I got here right now." The smile he cracked was less toothy, softer but not quite his usual lazy little barely quirked lips stoned-looking expression, but an honest, somewhat disarming smile. He turned back to the squash and finished peeling the second one, slicing each one into discs that he laid in the other pan to start sizzling, dusting them with salt. He finished cutting the vegetables then laid the knife in the sink and grabbed a fork to occasionally poke the squash in the pan.

Eridan had never seen that smile before. He did a subtle double take, before quietly laughing under his breath. "Sealer for your face paint. I'll remember that." He was constantly surprised by Gamzee, and the other's seemingly infinite calm was starting to become infectious. He felt himself growing more at ease, less paranoid that Gamzee would go from his usual, calm, genuinely kind self, to that personality that he'd only heard about, and still knew to fear, despite knowing that his friend wouldn't harm him out of respect of his status. Eridan stopped carrying his shoulders quite so tight and just reminded himself that keeping his friend's meds on schedule was going to keep anything unexpected from happening.

He noted that the oppressive lack of hope started to dissipate once he left Sollux at the airport, and Eridan wondered if it could have been that Sollux was a Doom player fuckin' with his perceptions, or if it was because of this stoned motherfucker that was standing in his kitchen. He didn't know quite what to think. All he knew was that he was feeling much better, despite the small, painful pit in his stomach that was obviously on account of swimming through the water of the landslide. He was going to be sick for certain, but he would the make the best of it, and definitely make sure Gamzee wouldn't take that as a reason to be even more fuckin' helpful.

With one hand in his pocket, the other poking at the food, Gamzee seemed to drop back into his own little world, his head bobbing to the music in his head as the show in the living room changed. He went for a couple of plates after a little while and laid them aside, continuing to saute the slices of squash and lay them aside until there was a mound of lightly steaming vegetable on top of a paper towel-lined dish. He poked the fork into the fish and twisted it to check the inside, then turned the heat off and put a lid over the pan to help it finish cooking with the residual heat. He poured a couple of glasses of juice that he'd insisted upon at the store, sliding one glass down the counter toward Eridan and sipping at his own as he plated their meals.

"Bon apetit, motherfucker," he said amiably then rinsed the oil from the pans, leaving them in the sink for Eridan whenever he got around to it.

"Thank you, Gam, it looks and smells very good," Eridan said, deciding to eat where he'd been perched on the stool in the kitchen, twisted slightly around to see the TV and what was on it. It was some extremely loud, vapid reality TV show that he would never consider watching on his own, but Gamzee had the remote over by him, and Eridan really couldn't be bothered to care. He ate silently and quickly and started the dishes only moments after he finished, knowing that his roommate would be back in with the dishes once he was done with them. Gamzee ate leaning over the counter, standing as he watched the show without really seeming to see it, barely chuckling at parts that would have been perceived as funny. When he was done, he handed his plate and glass over then headed to the couch to sprawl on it and watch tv there instead, leaving his makeshift sketchpad on the counter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The shooting that Eridan mentioned is here](http://princeofmelodrama.dreamwidth.org/2904.html).  
> [Also here, have some back-story on Eridan and his part here in Asylum](http://princeofmelodrama.dreamwidth.org/2606.html).
> 
> [AND THEN THERE'S THIS MOTHERFUCKER, being mutual headcanon amount of unnecessarily pretty.](http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/192/9/9/augamzeewip_by_miyabidreams-d6cyyn3.png) Needs corrected to come up to more recently developed headcanons, then inked, but that can come after work.
> 
> This was Meebs' first official time writing Gamzee seriosuly outside of playing on Pesterchum, and the first interaction between any iteration of Gamzee and CH's Eridan.
> 
> We were not prepared for how much we would enjoy writing these purple idiots.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cars!

A few timezones away where it was later and markedly noisier, sharp knuckles rapped loudly on Bro Strider's apartment door, then fell away to wait. Sollux was tired more than relieved when he arrived and had leaned heavily against the wall beside the door, his head down against it with his eyes closed. He'd lost his glasses and felt horribly out of place wearing Gamzee's clothes and more than anything, he just wanted it to be over and done with. It had only been an hour prior that Bro got home, careful to set the flash drive on a thumbtack near his computer, setting all his luggage down behind his couch, including Cal, and dropped tiredly into the sofa's cushions, crashing within a minute of sprawling out. He'd gotten Eridan's text, but didn't quite know what to make of it. It was so vague, he had to wonder what the hell the royalblood had meant by it. 

When he heard the knock on the door, he growled at the offense of waking his exhausted ass up, and got to his knees on the cushions, before pushing himself up and shuffling heavily to the door. He unlocked the chain and deadbolt, before opening the door with a tired glare at the offending party, only to have his expression soften. He felt all the weary, heavy heartache lift, and leave him feeling dull and aching from his brawl; on his way back from California to Houston, he had to go out and let off some steam, knowing that shit had definitely hit the fan when a video call with Sollux had gotten knocked out of commission. He had stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and found a shitty dive bar that needed some cleaning of house. His hair's cowlick hid a line of stitches on his forehead, and it was obvious from the bruising under both eyes that he'd gotten his nose broken again, and with a myriad of other cuts, bruises, and scrapes, he looked like hell warmed over.

He put his hand on Sollux's shoulder and huffed a tired chuckle of relief. "You look like shit."

"Thpeak for yourthelf," Sollux muttered, laying a hand on Bro's arms and reaching up to turn his head gently with his fingertips. "Hate to think what the other guyth look like." With a soft, tired smile he straightened up and stepped past Bro into the apartment, glancing around the place. This was the first time he'd ever set foot in it, but it was recognizable enough from the numerous calls between them. He settled down into the sofa with a tired, sore groan, his hands up over his eyes and digging the heels into them. Bro closed and locked the door once more, and moved back to the sofa without sitting down. He looked over at Sollux, glad that he'd made it back, though he had to wonder how he'd gotten here, knowing from what Sollux had said days before that he'd just lost everything.

"C'mon, we'll get into details after some sleep." He helped him back up before he led the way to the bedroom. The room itself was painted a rich, dark blue, and was bereft of any particular nuance of irony, save for a shelf above the door that had a few smuppets dangling off of it. The bed was larger by far than any hotel bed that they'd shared, draped in satin and holding about five too many full-size pillows. He stripped gingerly out of his shirt as he walked to it, dropping the shirt down onto the floor before simply sprawling out on top of the covers.

Sollux took a second to appreciate that he was probably the first outsider to ever see the inside of Bro's room as he stripped out of the clothes in kind and left them on the floor, crawling over the soft, beautiful material to lie gingerly against his matesprit's side. He tucked his face against the other's shoulder, yawning quietly then turning his eyes back up to look a little closer at the bruising. It had been attended to, he already knew, and it would continue looking like a mess for a while, but it barely detracted from the fact that he was here and able to rest. With a mutter of "Get some rest, Captor," Bro wrapped his arm around Sollux, and pressed a firm, but sleepy kiss to his matesprit's forehead. He fell back to sleep, not even bothering to take off his slacks. He was much too tired from the past couple days' events, made only more exhausted by the prior week's constant needing to look after the rest of the group. He was just happy to be home, and happy that Sollux somehow managed to make it here after...whatever happened, happened.

His bedroom had a window, but the light that would have come into the room through it was cut off and denied access by a pair of black drapes, which kept the room dark as night. The only way one could tell what time it was in the room was via a projected digital clock on the ceiling. When Bro woke up, his eyes immediately looked up to see the time. It was eleven. He didn't believe it, and muttered wordlessly in protest of even being conscious as he wrapped himself around Sollux, burying his face against the other's shoulder and neck.

Sollux took a deep breath as he stirred, eyes fluttering open briefly then closing again as he leaned back with his arm laying over Bro's, unwilling to try and focus enough to see what time it was. It didn't matter anyway. He pushed away the initial thoughts of what he'd have to tell his boss when it would come time for him to actually go back to work. "Suffering from another slight case of death, had to relocate. Sorry I couldn't exactly give you two week's notice." didn't really seem like the best way to end a job he'd been working for two years now, but he didn't have much of a choice. He tucked his face against one of the less damaged portions of Bro's chest and groaned deeply, stiff as hell and pretty sure in some small part of his mind that he was actually still dead and this was just some fabrication.

Bro smiled against Sollux's skin once he moved, and brought his fingers up to start working out the tension in his matesprit's shoulders, more idle movement than a dedicated massage. "Hey mornin'," he whispered, the two words running together seamlessly. He was reluctant to get up, to get started on the day, but he was sure that eventually the both of them would be too hungry to lounge around in bed for much longer. Sollux's only response was to groan quietly, his shoulders rolling slightly into the touch. He cracked an eye open, the very faint red glow illuminating Bro's face enough to see the contour of his nose and cheekbone. He let a soft sigh and closed it again, tucking himself closer to the other's body, trying to be careful of his injuries where he could remember them.

Bro wouldn't have cared if Sollux accidentally brushed against them, or even intentionally poked at them. He was just glad that Sollux was _there_. He continued to work out the bundles of tense muscle in silence, moving one hand away after a while to brush his fingertips against his matesprit's cheek. "Lost your place," he whispered, having figured that much into the 'lost everything' scenario, in addition to Sollux being there. "Guess that means you're home now." He slipped his hand away from Sollux's cheek and squeezed his shoulder lightly. "Welcome home." He was still mostly asleep, but Bro knew that Sollux needed that kind of reassurance, even though he never would admit to it. Sollux melted some into the touch and wrapped his arms around Bro's middle, holding onto him as he finally relaxed and let a shuddering, exhausted but above all relieved sigh. It hadn't even been a question of whether he could stay, it was just immediately made what would happen, and so it was. He'd lost every material possession, yes, but it didn't matter so much anymore.

"Thanks," he whispered then dozed back off again.

By the time he turned back over to look up at the ceiling it was nearly four in the afternoon and he was still stiff, sore and now, extremely hungry. Bro had spent as long as he could, laying there and attempting to get back to sleep, but after about an hour of laying in the dark, holding Sollux, he decided it was time to get up and be alive. He snuck out from under his matesprit and pulled out some clean clothes from his dresser, and got on with the day, showering and shaving, before he went to grab breakfast, which really just amounted to cereal in the afternoon. He threw his dirty clothes in the wash and unpacked from the vacation before he settled back into the swing of work. He cut out cloth for several smuppets, getting to work on sewing one while overlooking his sites and putting together a shopping cart of top-end computer components. He knew that once Sollux was awake, he'd be able to drag him out to get some clothes and a new phone, but for the moment, he let his matesprit sleep.

Sollux crawled out of bed and pulled on one of Bro's shirts, unwilling to put the dirty clothes back on, leaving the bedroom and shutting the door behind him more out of respect than anything. He stopped behind Bro as he worked, still half-asleep and paying very little attention as he ran his hand across the other's shoulders on the way to the kitchen to find something for himself to eat. Bro smiled up at Sollux as he walked past, turning to leave a quick kiss on his matesprit's arm before he could get too far away. He stood there looking into the cupboards blankly for a minute, then went back to the living room and settled onto the couch to mentally take stock of his life as he knew it. No car: check. No phone: check. No computer: fuck. Everything in and around his apartment was gone. He quickly recounted the frustrating, overly-tiresome flight to Texas and looked back at Bro again, who looked quite content sitting there hand-sewing the smuppet at his computer. Today, he would curl up and try not to feel like shit about things going just as he'd expected, then he would figure out what to do from there.

Once Sollux dropped onto the sofa, he turned and nodded to the screen. "Settin' you up with a custom build," he explained, as he took his leave of his chair to let Sollux have a look at the shopping list of computer parts. He was not the type to buy a stock computer completely built and pre-installed with an OS, and he knew Sollux wouldn't dream of it either. "Go ahead and replace some shit if you want, I know you like doin' how you do." He'd even pulled up a few cases in which to house all the overpowered, ridiculous, easily replaceable components, the cases themselves all riffing off either the yellow and black theme, or red and blue. "If you don't like any cases you see, I can build you somethin', no big. I have the materials and tools. We'll get you back on your feet in no damn time."

The computer system that Sollux normally ran took up a large amount of wall space that he really didn't think would be feasible in this apartment, but at least getting something up and running would make him feel a good deal more at-ease. He perched on the edge of the chair and started opening tabs to his preferred sites for parts, finding the majority of what he needed for custom builds without really seeming to think about it, his fingers flying across the keyboard. He slowed down when he had a few things narrowed down in each window, then reduced the tabs to containing only what he needed for a single tower that would run as well as he needed it to for his normal endeavors that didn't include speed hacks and high traffic. The list came down to some fairly expensive parts, but he also knew how to maintain them and rebuild as seldom as possible while maintaining maximum efficiency. He stood when it was done, letting Bro decide what to do from there. "The thooner I can at leatht let Ray know I had to jump ship the better. At leatht there are thingth I can do from home inthtead of completely ditching my job."

"Don't forget we've got plenty of space in the crawlspace upstairs, that's where my servers are," pointed out Bro with a little nod up to the ceiling. There was no tower over by the computer desk, and a bundle of zip-tied cords going up the wall into the ceiling. "That'll be good for a daily, but if you need somethin' bigger, all y'gotta do is ask." He took a seat again and rubbed his jaw, nodding before ordering the setup. As he did, he offered up his phone to Sollux to call his boss. "There's a branch of IBM in Dallas, but that's a shitty commute, halfway across the fuckin' state," he thought aloud as he pulled up another few tabs he'd bookmarked of sites that had clothes not unlike what Sollux usually wore. In fact, he'd had a whole bookmarks folder set up with sites for clothes, glasses, computer parts, cells, and a couple of car ads. there was a subfolder he labeled 'later', that was of other, unnecessary purchases that he'd be making, spanning from an mp3 player and headphones to launchpad and 3D fighter sample boards, to a few pairs of suspension cuffs that he'd have to compare at a later date. He had Sollux sit back down to browse over them as he walked to the kitchen to make them both some lunch. He decided on a pair of freezer pizzas and tossed those into the oven, setting the timer so he wouldn't space out and forget. Sollux stared at the screen as he flipped through the tabs, glancing back at Bro then slouching back in the seat with a small, lopsided smile. He'd be back to his life in a matter of days at this rate.

After narrowing down a few things and putting together a list of what he'd settled on in a note document, Sollux stood and stretched, the shirt still managing to cover most of him, but he knew he'd have to find something better if they were actually going to go out to get anything. They could easily get everything he needed and the extra, nonessential things online and he wouldn't have to leave the apartment for a while, which suited him just fine. Bro came back around with a large plate of pizza slices for Sollux and took a seat once more, buying everything that Sollux had chosen without even thinking about how many thousands of dollars he'd already spent that day. It wasn't even a question of money. His matesprit needed his life back, and Bro was capable of giving it back to him without batting an eye. He turned back towards Sollux with a smile, chuckling faintly as he tugged the bottom of the shirt, teasing, "I never fuckin' wear this." He leaned back and took a bite of his pizza, spinning the chair back around to kick his feet up on the window ledge, looking out at the city.

Taking the plate, Sollux stood with his shoulder against the wall, looking out over the unfamiliar city as he slowly ate through the stack of slices, chewing at a crust when he went back to the kitchen to rinse the plate. He lingered there, flipping a misplaced throwing star around in his fingers. It still felt surreal and most likely still would for a while even after he'd been set up and settled in, but like all of the messed up shit that came his way, Sollux knew he could deal with this too. The biggest upside was that at least this time not only did he not have to do it alone, he was with the single most capable person he'd ever met.

Bro had finished up the smuppet he'd been working on when Sollux came back, so once he was finished with his pizza, he set the plate aside on the computer desk and just looked out the window, arms behind his head, off in his own little world. He wondered idly what they'd do while Sollux was temporarily technologically handicapped, and then looked over at the TV and large stack of video games he had yet to play, and then around the rest of the fairly messy apartment that he could see from his seat.

"So hey, since you're livin' here, feel free to push the stuff around or whatever, I'm not too particular where shit is, so long as it's able to be found again."

Sollux took a seat on the arm of the couch, then let himself tip backwards until he was laying down with his legs still slung up and over. He looked up at the ceiling, then around the room, his hands laced together behind his neck. "I'm pretty thure I'm good with your current thetup, Thtrider," he replied quietly, smiling some to himself. "Could uthe thome muthic though. Too fuckin' quiet even with the traffic noithe."

"You got it," Bro said with a sly smile, and he reached over to press play on his keyboard. It didn't take long before the discreetly hidden speakers - as well as the rather obvious, larger ones - made themselves known by playing Eisenfunk loud enough where it was likely that the downstairs neighbors, if he actually had any, would have been pissed right off. He got out of his seat and stretched, before looking down at Sollux with a smirk, standing just between his legs, and then he nudged them apart before walking his plate to the kitchen. Sollux's foot started to bounce some with the music, tilting his head up to watch Bro for a second then rolling off the couch and following after him. He hooked his fingers through the loops of Bro's pants and pulled him back, leaning against him and hooking his chin over his matesprit's shoulder.

"Thankth for all thith... Jutht tho you know, I'm really fucking grateful."

With a small, sincere smile, Bro leaned back a little and ran his hands down Sollux's forearms, resting them over his matesprit's hands. "No need to thank me, dude. You'd do the same for me if the situation was reversed." He turned his head to press a lingering kiss to Sollux's cheek. "I'm just glad you're safe again." Sollux bumped his head against Bro's gently and slipped his arms away, going back to the living room and sitting down, only to stand up again, picking up one of the smuppets lying around and turn it over in his hands. He was restless, getting fidgety, wanting to stay occupied but having no real idea what he actually wanted to do with himself. He looked back at Bro with the thing tucked under one arm, looking like a photoshop image of a child that had been stretched on the vertical axis to an absurd height. "You thtill look like you went through a meat grinder," he mentioned offhand, arching an eyebrow up slightly as he surveyed the damage to Bro's face.

Bro rinsed off the plate and left it in the sink to deal with later, and walked back to the living room, smirking at the amusing sight of his matesprit. "If this," he said, gesturing to his face, "is meat grinder, I thing the other guy is paté, then." He pressed his fingertips to his nose, wincing subtly with a murmur of 'oof', before he settled down beside Sollux. "I've had shitloads worse. Dude put up one hell of a fight, though." He recounted how it wasn't too damn hard to take out a few of the drug runners; they were easy pickin's, until one called out their muscle. The guy was as tall as he was, and built like a fridge, fought dirty, and once he brought out a weapon, Bro decided to end it, keeping from pulling one of his fast, hard punches to the guy's jaw, knowing that it was likely shattered. He'd strolled out of the bar with men stepping out of his way, and went back to the motel room to stitch himself up. "It was pretty fuckin' grim to look at, had blood pouring out of my forehead, my nose was gushin'," he said with a lopsided smile, and he untucked his shirt to pull it up and show off his other cuts on his chest and abs. "These weren't too bad, in comparison."

"Man, I liked your nothe the shape it wath," Sollux pouted some then cracked a small smile and scooted a little closer to take real account of the damage that he really hadn't paid much attention to the night before. He ran a finger along the slightly rough stitching, then shook his head and sat back down, pulling his legs up and crossing them at the ankles. "Well, whatth another few thcarth, right?"

With a slight gasp at Sollux's touch, Bro chuckled a little, "It's not gonna change that much," he said, putting his hand over Sollux's again, leaning down to press a quick kiss to his matesprit's lips. "It's been broken six, seven times already." He closed his eyes and settled back a little, looking a little sheepish. "I know you don't like me going out and doing that shit, but..." He sighed and shook his head. Yeah, he had no excuse.

"I know," Sollux sighed, laying his hands on the sides of Bro's neck, pressing into a firmer kiss then sitting back again, lounging against the arm of the couch and propping his foot up on the other's knee. "Jutht know that if you come back with more damage while I'm here there will be wordth," he said casually, though from the way his eyes flashed and sent a crackle of colored electricity down the lengths of his arms, it was obvious those words wouldn't be all.

Bro leaned over Sollux, putting his arms on either side of his head on the armrest, brow arching at the threat. "Now you know I'm gonna take that as a challenge," he teased, though it was lighthearted, and once he said that, he shook his head. "Nah, I'm just glad you're here. I don't care about anything else right now. I'm glad it's fuckin' over, that's all."

"It'th not gonna be over for a while. But at leatht I know I'm not gonna get any more fucked up than I wath." Sollux draped his arms around Bro's neck loosely, pulling him down into a deeper kiss, his fingers curling into the back of the other's shirt.

"This part of it, then," he corrected against Sollux's lips, before dipping deeper into the kiss, bringing one hand down to brush his fingers over Sollux's cheek and then his neck, trailing down to his chest. He curled the fingers of the hand that was propping him up into the sofa's arm, and he teased his tongue's tip against Sollux's lower lip, before slipping out of the kiss, looking into his matesprit's mismatched eyes, his own expression unreadable, but positive.

"Y'know, I almotht wish I'd been there to thee you play vigilante," Sollux murmured, the end of his nose brushing against Bro's lightly. He had no doubt that seeing the fight would have been brutal and impressive as hell. The sensitive set of his nose being even lightly disturbed made Bro gasp quietly, tensing from the pain, though he smiled as he leaned down to leave a long trail of firm kisses from Sollux's jaw, down his neck.

"Wouldn't put you into that kind of situation, bro," he muttered.

"Wish you'd actually care that much about yourself too." Sollux huffed and tilted his chin up, enjoying the slow, easy touches. He dragged his nails up the back of his matesprit's neck and scratched at his hair some, cradling his head as he moved.

Bro faltered momentarily at that, and shook his head with a small smile, going back up to kiss Sollux's lips lightly. "I have _you_ to care that much about me," he nearly whispered, and then he sat back up, settling beside Sollux as he raised a brow and made a subtle motion towards his bedroom with a nod of his head. He was in no rush to move, but the sofa was confining and there wasn't much room for him to move and explore and enjoy as much as he wanted. With a soft, breathy chuckle Sollux stood, hooking his fingers around Bro's and leading the way back toward the bedroom. He pushed the door shut with his foot then crawled back into bed, sitting up in the middle of it then reaching up for the other's hand again, pulling him down after.

"Just let me know what hurtth too much," he whispered against his matesprit's lips as he pressed back into another slow kiss. The darkness of the room generally made Bro need to adjust momentarily when he walked in during the day, but with Sollux's eyes as guides, he found his way beside him, slipping down as he wrapped his other hand around his matesprit's waist, kissing him gently. He moved his hand down, drifting his fingers along the hem of the borrowed shirt as he slowly pulled it up, only to get to more skin. His movements were still calculated and meticulous, but he was in no rush to whatever end. He simply wanted to touch Sollux, grateful and relieved that he could. Sollux stretched out on his back with his arms up over his head, content to let Bro do as he pleased, likewise thankful that he could be here at all. He drew in a slow breath and sucked in his stomach as his back arched up.

While he was in a slow, comfortable mood, and wanted very badly to praise every inch of Sollux's skin with his hands and his mouth, Bro was also far overdressed. He paused after kissing that sharp arc of his matesprit's ribcage, flashing out of his clothes fast enough where he was back between Sollux's legs before his shirt hit the floor, and he bowed his head down to brush his fingers through his matesprit's hair and leave another gentle, lingering kiss on his lips. Sollux's head moved some into the touch as his eyes closed, lips parting briefly then closing again around Bro's upper lip, sucking at it gently. He rested his hands against the other's shoulders then ran them back up along the lines of his neck to rest just under his ears, his fingers scratching gently at the back of his hair. One of his legs stretched out to hook around Bro's thigh, pulling him down until their skin met, feeling the scratching of the stitched places here and there. Moving one arm under Sollux's shoulders, Bro brought the other down to run up across his matesprit's thigh that wrapped around his hip, and he let out a quiet murmur of contentedness into the kiss as he languidly rolled them so Sollux was on top and his back was against the soft, decadent cloth. He leaned up to kiss Sollux's neck, then trailed his lips across the curve of his collarbone, kneading against the nape of his matesprit's neck. Drawing his lower lip back into his mouth, Sollux kept his head up to let Bro do as he wished, his hands coming to rest on either side of the other's head. He pulled one leg up to return the roll of hips, a soft sigh breaking the relative silence. Pressing his lips to the center of Bro's forehead, Sollux eased down to return the gesture and mouthed along the line of Bro's collarbone to his shoulder.

Bro brushed his fingertips lightly across Sollux's temple as he made his way over his collar, letting out a murmur as he moved his fingers up into his matesprit's hair, brushing up against Sollux's horns on that side before slipping back to run down his shoulder. He arched his hips forward just slightly, and brushed his erection against Sollux's sheath, teasing across the entrance of his nooks as well. A tiny, quiet sound left Sollux once more at the tease, his hips moving down a little more insistently. He swept his hands back through Bro's hair and pulled his head back to go back to focusing on his lips, more careful of his nose this time around. His mind had slowed and quieted, and all that he had focus on was right there with him.

Bro let out a breathy murmur into Sollux's mouth, brushing his tongue against his matesprit's before he caught Sollux's lower lip between his own, sucking it gently. He moved one hand between them to coax Sollux's bulges out, and guided them around his cock, wrapped his hand around all three, then proceeded with a slow, firm pumping, slicking himself over in the process.

Sollux's teeth pricked at Bro's lip, his hips moving up into the touch. His fingers curled into the blankets beneath them as he sent a light wave of energy down the length of his body to envelop them both in the pulsing, lightly tingling sensation. The slight energy surge made Bro chuckle warmly with mild surprise. He leaned into his matesprit's kiss, deepening it with a low sound then, teasing the tip of his tongue in the fork of Sollux's. His hand slipped away and slicked Sollux's chute over, brushing a knuckle against it and teasing with a firm push, though he didn't breach. Bro shifted his position, putting both hands on Sollux's hips to get him into place. Sollux braced his knees on either side of Bro's waist, lifting himself up and letting the energy fade off. He reached down behind him and held the other's cock in place as he slid down over it, giving a quiet hiss at the breach then pushing down slowly until he could sit astride Bro's thighs. He took one of his matesprit's hands and laced them together loosely, his bulges winding in between them.

With a low groan at the start, Bro squeezed Sollux's hand, pulling him slowly closer, running his other hand up his matesprit's side and over his back, rocking his hips in a slow roll. His eyes slipped closed with the sensation, and his back arched, while he let out another quiet sound, lips parted to let out little huffs of breath. Sollux let a quiet sigh as he moved with it, his head tucking against the side of Bro's neck. His breath shuddered against the other's chest as he moved and the sweet-smelling fluid began to drip slowly over Bro's stomach. Bro murmured and arched into the wetness as it started to pool in his navel and drip onto his blankets, and he moved his fingers down between them to slick them through the yellowy mess, before bringing then back up to his mouth, groaning as he licked his fingers clean, while his other came down to pump Sollux's bulges in tandem. Sollux caught the scent coming up on Bro's hand and smiled faintly, slipping his tongue back between the other's lips. His bulges twisted around one-another to give Bro something more solid to stroke, his hips moving up into the hand and rocking back down slowly and deliberately.

Groaning into the kiss, Bro put his free hand up around the back of Sollux's neck as he sped the pace of his hips, his breath caught in a shallow rhythm through his nose. He broke the kiss to murmur that he was close, before he dipped his mouth back down against his matesprit's throat. Sollux's free hand wound into Bro's hair and cradled his head as he moved up with the thrusts, squeezing down some and rolling his hips in tandem. He let out a soft sound in Bro's ear then bit down on the arch of it, sucking at the droplets of metallic blood. The bite to his ear won Sollux a pleasant grunt, and a sharper buck before going back into his regular pace. It wasn't much longer until Bro's back arched dramatically as he came, his grips on the back of Sollux's neck and his bulges tightening as the pleasure bolted through his body. More of the fluid started to roll down the other's sides and into the sheets, surely leaving a stain that would be noticed and sighed over later. Sollux gasped sharply at the grip around him that kept him from coming straight away, keeping him at that slightly painful peak until it lessened and he was able to straighten up, glancing around for a bucket or some equivalent thereof.

Bro had already reached down and picked up his garbage basket, which was the only thing even remotely bucket-like in the room, and nudged Sollux's arm with it, catching his breath with grit teeth and sharp breaths. Before Bro could pull out Sollux started to move again, letting a quiet groan through gritted teeth when he finally came, shuddering hard. He put it back down on the floor when it was half filled and laid down against the other's chest, his eyes falling closed as he tucked his face back against his matesprit's neck.

While he wrapped his arm around Sollux's shoulder, his other hand went around his matesprit's waist, and Bro smiled faintly. He brushed his lips against the top of Sollux's head, careful of his horns. It was a few minutes of silent comedown from their respective orgasm highs before the fluid that had dripped down from his chest and stomach started cooling and he wrinkled his nose - which he immediately regretted from the soreness - and chuckled. "That's gonna stain," he murmured. He decided that he was going to need to invest in some black sheets and a mattress guard.

"Yeah, thorry," Sollux murmured, his cheek laying against Bro's shoulder. He dozed for a bit before sitting back up again, easing off and looking up at the ceiling. It was getting rather late in the evening and they really hadn't done much. "I should probably give my boss a call to let him know what happened," he sighed, but made no move to get up and find a phone.

"Mm, probably should put stuff this in the wash." Bro likewise made plans, and no move to follow through with them, shifting off the wet spot but making no other move to leave. "I'll move when you do," he said with amusement. "If you call now, you'll just get his voicemail, anyway, unless he stays at the office longer than five." He looked up at the clock, seeing that it was nearly seven.

"Usually he doeth, yeah. It'th altho around four in California tho he wouldn't be off for another hour anyway." Stretching his arms up over his head, Sollux groaned and let his head fall back with a long yawn, gaining some of his energy back and swinging his leg over to step off the bed, reaching to take Bro's hand and pull him up after. "I think food'th in order now. That pizza didn't latht for shit."

"We're central, dude. It's five there," Bro corrected, before he peeled away from the bed to tug the sheets and blankets off moments after, leaving them in a heap on the floor. "There's a pile of menus on the kitchen counter, by the safety pins and the shuriken." He smiled over at Sollux in the dark, and then reached up to turn on the fan light to air out the bedroom and get a little light in on the situation. "Go ahead and pick somethin' for me, I ain't all that picky. My phone's on the desk."

Shaking his head, Sollux pulled a shirt on and headed back out to look through the menus Bro had stashed, settling on a chinese place that he'd heard delivered in large portions. He glanced around for the phone and took a moment to thumb through the address book to the place, slowing down to speak clearly as he placed the order. When that was done, he lingered in the kitchen and sent Karkat a text explaining the situation as simply as possible, rolling his eyes at the capslocked demand to know why he hadn't said anything sooner. In the meanwhile, Bro changed the sheets and hauled the dirtied blankets into the laundry without bothering with clothes just yet. He pulled the things he'd put in the washer earlier that day out and tossed them in the dryer, before stuffing the blankets in and adding an unmeasured amount of detergent, starting both. He walked through to the bathroom and stepped into the shower to clean himself off, and rinse out the wastebasket. He'd have to buy a bucket, as well. He cemented the items 'sheets, liner, bucket' in his mind after a few murmurs of the words to himself, and walked out with a towel around his waist.

"What're we gettin'?" He asked once he rejoined Sollux, grabbing a beer out of the fridge that looked like a regular pantry.

"Our weight in fried rithe and noodleth," Sollux replied then settled back against the counter with his hands laced together behind his neck, glancing toward the fridge, then toward the one that acted as a regular closet, trying to keep them straight to avoid an avalanche of shitty blades later. "I let Dave and Karkat know I wath here. They are thuitably pithed off at thingth in general."

"I'm sure Dave's going ballistic," Bro said with a smirk, popping the bottlecap off with the underside of the countertop. "He nearly had a meltdown at the airport because of it. And he's not one to let shit go. He's probably been mindfuckin' it ever since." He didn't blame the little dude. That was just how Striders did. He wandered back to the bedroom to grab his pants and pulled them back on, strolling back to the living room as he zipped them up. "So you're free to watch whatever. The DVDs are in that filin' cabinet," he said with a nod over to a tall cabinet that was converted to be a sort of lazy-susan that held all his movies in their cases. He rubbed his eyebrow with the thumb of the hand that held his beer as he continued, "The games that ain't in that pile are in that cabinet in the entertainment center. Albums are under the turntables, CDs are in the other filin' cabinet over there, Books are in the other room, got shitloads of books, just don't keep 'em out here, it'd get cluttered." 

As if the apartment wasn't already cluttered.

"Yeah, wouldn't want that," Sollux snorted and went to collapse back on the couch again, figuring catching up on the news wouldn't hurt, in case there were developments on either his end or Equius'. He didn't even want to think what Eridan and Gamzee were going to do, living in the same house. One would kill the other before the end of the month, he was sure, or else Gamzee would be handed a bag and told to walk. He shook his head at that and focused back in on flipping through the different news channels in the hopes that one would have something for him.

\--

Over the course of the next two weeks, there were near daily deliveries to the Strider doorstep, all addressed to Sollux. In that time, Bro had taken Sollux down to get him acquainted with the area; he showed his matesprit the best grocery store in the area, the best places for food, and a few places that it was clear that he'd made his mark, whether figuratively or literally. He showed his liquid-cooled servers off in person - something he'd already done on camera, but it was something he'd wanted to really show Sollux. Up in the crawlspace was also the 'stage', so to speak, for his recorded puppet acts for the sites.

It was a fairly easy transition - at least it was for Bro - having Sollux with him. He'd already felt as if they'd been living together forever, and the mellow, casual way they went about life was just about as comfortable as he could ever assume it'd be.

During one of their outings, out toward the north of the city, Bro drove at near breakneck speeds. His attention was distracted momentarily and he pulled a vicious u-turn, starting down a side-road. He killed the engine in front of a parked car that had a slightly faded for sale sign stuck in the front windshield.

"Holy shit," he muttered as he looked over at Sollux with a sly, conspiring smile. "Only thing you don't got is a car. Could fix it up. Make it good as new." He grinned, rubbing his chin with a smirk. Sollux looked at the rather, elderly Shelby, his eyes widening slightly as he turned back to Bro, then to the car again. He got out of the car and walked around it, bending to peek underneath then peering through the driver's side window. The upholstery needed redone badly and the mirrors were all gone, but the more Sollux walked around looking at it, the more excited he was.

"Dude. Thtrider can we keep it? I promithe I'll feed it and play with it and take good fucking care of it," he grinned as he found the latch to peek under the hood, nearly bouncing on the spot. It would need a LOT of work, but between the two of them, it would be nothing. Bro got out and pulled out his phone, calling the number that had been put on the windshield, looking through the windows at the dash and components, and then spoke to the man on the other end, getting a laundry list of shit that had gone to pot on the car, and listening to how it was more or less junk in the guy's eyes.

"Look, if you come down here with the title and an empty wallet, I'll get this thing offa your hands." He swiped his fingers over the chrome accents, dusting one off with a smile. "Yeah okay, we'll be here." He hung up and tucked his phone back into his pocket, smirking over to Sollux. "He'll be here in twenty. Says the motor's shot, but I know a guy who can get us a 302 no big."

"Thith guy better have a damn good reathon for jutht letting it go thith bad," Sollux muttered, reaching into the engine to pull one of the fuses. Of course it was shot, he wouldn't have expected anything else. He tossed it on the ground behind him and wiped his hand on the seat of his jeans then turned back to Bro, wrapping his arms around his matesprit's neck and drawing him into a brief, hard kiss. "Have I ever told you how much I fucking love you?" He murmured without pulling away.

Bro smirked down at his matesprit and left another quick kiss on his lips. "You may've mentioned it once or twice." He slid one hand back to goose Sollux before going back in to look at the rest of the engine, taking inventory of what was going to need to get replaced or refurbished. "At least it has all the right dash parts. Can't find an 8K tach for cheap these days, that'd drive me up a goddamn wall," he muttered, nose wrinkling at the sheer amount of dirt and dust that had accumulated in the engine.

"We're going to have to replathe pretty much everything," Sollux muttered, bending to get a closer look further back, then wrinkled his own nose at the battery, disconnecting it and laying his fingers on either contact. Completely dry, of course. "Dead weight. Everything'th fucking shot. I may shove my foot up hith ath for letting it get to thith."

"Be nice, the guy's practically givin' it away. He was tellin' me he got it for his brother as a fixer before the economy tanked. He's sellin' it to us for less than the dash parts in it would cost, dude." He tossed his keys to Sollux. "Get out the tools from my trunk, we'll leave the parts that are shit for him to deal with. Don't need to be towin' this thing across town with more weight than it needs to have in it."

By the time the man arrived to sign the title over to Sollux, he and Bro had half gutted it and started to rig it to the back of the Camaro to tow back to the garage Bro owned nearby the apartment. Hands were shaken and vague pleasantries exchanged, Sollux confirming that he intended to rebuild the thing from the ground up if he had to, and that yes, they had the money and time to do just that. When they parted ways after decidedly little hassle, Sollux was nearly vibrating in the passenger seat of his matesprit's car all the way to the garage. Bro had been using it to do his other, larger build projects of a non-vehicular nature, a half-finished server tower sitting on one side while a large abstract metal sculpture swooped and arched up towards the ceiling in the corner. He had Sollux help push the Shelby up over the lift before he climbed down into the bay below.

"Oh fuck me," he grumbled at the damage to the undercarriage. "This fuckin' thing's going to take a fuckin' minute." Bro's useage of 'a minute' generally meant 'a really fucking long time.'

Sollux grimaced as he joined him and looked up into it, reaching up to rub some of the caked filth away from the axle. "Minute and a half," he muttered in kind then lifted himself back out, glancing around then turning back to Bro. "Firtht thing'th firtht, we really need to see if anything internal ith too badly fucked. I don't want to replathe every latht thing. A lot of thith ith thtock."

"I'm guessin' we can refurbish a lot of this," said Bro, hauling himself out of the bay to fetch his tools, which he handed over to Sollux. "Shouldn't be too bad. Could be worse." He cleared off the large worktable to the side to make way for the parts that would be coming out for cleaning, and then turned on the stereo, knowing they'd be there a while.

"Hang on, before you take anything off of it, lemme get a couple pics. Gonna document this baby, 'cause I didn't think to do that with mine 'til too late."

"Definitely putting pictureth on my perthonal blog." Sollux grinned and followed along, setting up their workspace then grabbing for a notepad to make a list of what they would need. Already he had an image in his head of what his car was going to be and it made him giddy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so yeah this one is short, but it was separate from the prior and the next chapters enough that it could stand on its own, more or less.
> 
> Sollux is a typical nerd with a typical nerd boner for muscle cars. His first car that he told Bro about when he was telling him about his death was a [1970 Buick GSX](http://www.hdwpapers.com/walls/1970_buick_gsx_stage_i_hardtop_coupe_wallpaper-normal.jpg), but after it was destroyed, he got himself a [BMW M3](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4hd4f70Pv1qmdneao1_500.jpg). This rebuild is a [1968 Shelby GT500](http://mustangattitude.com/mustang/1970/1970_00093_01.jpg).
> 
> Pretty cars.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Erigam are officially a Thing.

Gamzee had settled into Eridan's home as if he'd come with it, ambling about the place and getting acquainted with the property. In the time he'd been there he'd started getting an allowance with which to do what he pleased as long as it didn't damage their setup and had started to use that intermittently between ordering a few cases of soda online. He had the house to himself on occasion and spent a lot of time by himself, filling up page after page of his makeshift sketchpad with his personal brand of surrealist art, leaving it wherever he stopped drawing only to return to the same spot and pick back up hours later.

The walls of his bedroom became a target as well eventually, the longer it went on. He was running out of paper and hadn't thought to ask for more and had decided that his wallpaper needed more than just its repeating white noise pattern. He had a couple more pens at his disposal now after he'd been caught pilfering them from Eridan's desk more than once, the top drawer of his dresser slowly gathering writing utensils. There was an mp3 player hookup that he'd found in the side of the tv and after Eridan had gotten a player for him and loaded it with music of his choice, he'd taken to playing his music at top volume while he did whatever he felt like at the time around the house.

They'd slowed down or stopped his medication regimen in some cases, replacing it with a seemingly healthier alternative; there was a standing pipe in his room that was dragged out every now and then to sit outside on the ground, Gamzee sitting cross-legged beside it enjoying the sunshine on his face as smoke drifted from between his lips and was whipped away by the breeze. Eridan had, in addition to buying the hookah, bought a fan to go in Gamzee's window, reminding him - less sharply than he'd usually been prone to - that he was made ill by too much smoke in the air, and that the fan had to be put on when he smoked. Otherwise, it was business as usual between them. He'd seen the first inklings of art on Gamzee's wall once, but wrote it off; it was easy to paint over. But when he came in to tell his roommate that he'd be going out on business, and saw the art starting to sprawl and curl over his wall, he got it in his mind to go to an art supply store first thing after his meeting.

That evening, he'd returned with an easel under one arm, along with several canvases, and in his hand was a bag that held paints, sketchbooks, markers, and pens of various widths. He set them all down at the door as he locked it behind himself and toed out of his shoes, glancing around the room. He didn't see Gamzee in the kitchen, but heard the mellow rap blaring from his TV, and figured that his friend had wandered off and forgot to turn off the music. There was a pot bubbling on the stove on low heat beside another one containing noodles that had been put on to boil some time before Eridan was due to come home.

Gamzee, meanwhile, was sitting outside at the edge of the swimming pool with his feet dipped in the water, his pipe beside him as he watched the sun going down over the ocean, the light draining slowly out of the sky and leaving it a bruised-looking purple. He didn't seem to be doing much of anything other than watching the sky and the stars starting to peek out of the dark.

Eridan went to the stove and took the noodles off the heat, before he walked out to the pool, crouching down beside Gamzee to look out at the sunset. "Got you a gift," he mentioned quietly, knowing that there was about a 50% chance that Gamzee would react as if he hadn't noticed he'd come home. "Whatever you're makin' tonight smells very good." He stood smoothly and grinned, patting Gamzee on the shoulder before walking back inside. He decided to get dressed down before he ate dinner, not wanting to stain one of his better suits. Gamzee grinned after him as he went back inside, then lifted the top of the hookah to scrape out the ash and stickiness, flicking it off into the grass then toting the pipe back inside to put back in his room. He went back to the kitchen to prepare the bowls before Eridan came back and put the lid back on the soup. There would be leftovers for a couple of days, meaning they wouldn't have to cook for a little while unless they wanted something different. He stood at the counter over the top of his helping, stirring the soup and waiting for it to cool.

Eridan returned in a more casual pair of pants and shirt, tapping Gamzee on the shoulder for his attention then pointing over to the pile of art supplies by the door, smirking as he took the filled bowl to the stool that he usually sat on to eat. "Thank you for dinner." His tone was quiet and thoughtful as he picked up his spoon to eat in silence.

"No problem, bro," Gamzee replied with his own small smile, blowing on a spoonful then putting it into his mouth as he looked toward the supplies, his head tilting. "Man you didn't have to do that shit for me. That's real motherfuckin' nice'a you." He turned his smile back on Eridan then left his bowl on the counter, moving around it to go and dig through the gifts, running his hands along the edges of the wrapped canvases. He propped them up against the wall and dug out the pens, turning them over and uncapping them, making a couple of marks on his finger then putting them back in the bag, returning to the kitchen and wrapping his arms around Eridan's shoulders carefully to keep from spilling his soup. He went back to his own dinner after that, his head bobbing with the music still playing from the tv.

With a slightly uncomfortable smile Eridan patted Gamzee's arm. "I figured that it'd keep you from fuckin' drawin' on the wall in your room," he said, his voice more tense than he'd hoped it would sound. He pushed around the mail of the day, sorting it idly as he ate, looking over at Gamzee momentarily as he thought about what kind of things might wind up on those canvases. He hadn't seen his friend's painting, but if it was on par with his ink work, he'd be willing to bet that he'd be able to get it into an exhibit, if that was what Gamzee wanted.

"And anyway, I'm sure others would like ta see your talent. Keepin' it all ta your fuckin' self has got ta be lonely work."

Gamzee seemed to consider that for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't know about that, man. I kinda like keepin' my work around. I mean, if someone wants to look at it then they can motherfuckin' look, I just don't want it gettin' moved all the fuck over the place, you feel me?"

There was a nod to that. Fair enough, the art would stay where Gamzee could see it. "I'll only say one thing ta sway you an' then I'll let it go. The stuff you make, it's fuckin' amazin', okay? You could make a fuckin' livin' out a the shit that's in your head. I'm not even fuckin' goin' ta lie." He sipped his soup again, before getting up to grab some wine to go along with it. He didn't usually indulge, but the spice of the soup definitely called for it. He pulled out two wine glasses, and, knowing that what meds Gamzee was still on weren't affected by it, he poured his friend a glass as well. "But that's my last word on it." He poured the wine and handed one glass off, before taking his own back over to his stool.

"Glad to know you like it at least," Gamzee shrugged then took one of the glasses, standing with his usual slouch as he sniffed at the drink, then took a swallow, shrugging internally then taking a bigger one before going back to his dinner. He refilled his bowl when it was nearly emptied and mostly drank it, wiping his mouth on his arm when he was done then running the water in his bowl to rinse it out. He washed his hands again before returning to the art supplies and toting them back toward his room.

Eridan shook his head. Strange highblood. He finished his bowl of soup and went to do the dishes, including the pots after he poured the leftovers into microwavable containers and set them in the fridge. He thought that perhaps he'd offended Gamzee somehow, and he couldn't exactly pinpoint what would've made his friend shuffle off so quickly. But then he reminded himself that Gamzee simply was the kind of guy who just fuckin' wandered wherever he wanted, and there really wasn't reason or rhyme to it, half the time.

Once he was done with the dishes, he settled down in the corner of his sofa with his book, pushing his glasses up over his forehead, resting them lightly at the front of his horns as he delved into the book on the French and Indian Wars, wrapping his hand around the bottom of his face, covering his mouth as he became entirely ensconced in the recounting.

About half an hour later, Gamzee reappeared carrying one of the canvases and a bag and the easel, the mp3 player plugged into his ears as he set himself up where the indoor pool was, returning to grab a stool and tow that outside as well. He didn't even bother to sketch a concept onto the canvas before starting to squeeze paint directly onto it and drag his fingers through it, fanning it out and blending in colors slowly. He switched to a brush after a broad area had been completely covered, swaying gently on the spot with his music. He was in an old set of clothes, the shirt ripped and hanging loose around his neck, one bare shoulder protruding from it, feet bare, old pajama pants sagging on his hips, only held up by the worn out boxers underneath. He'd pulled his hair up behind his head in one of the hairties Eridan had gotten for him after the third day having to brush it out and untangle it, the curls sticking out messily from the tie and around his face. Eridan raised a brow as he watched the blurry figure walk back out and towards the pool and he grinned as he realized what was going on. He set a bookmark in his book and followed out, glasses still perched on top of his head, before he settled down into a lounge chair to read in the same general area as his friend while he painted. 

It was only about twenty minutes before he piped up with, "Maybe next time, if you'd like, I'll take you ta the supply store I got all this from, you can pick out some shit I mighta missed." He looked at his book, then back up at Gamzee, and then to the pool. He set his book aside and walked to the changing screen in the far corner, grabbing his trunks from the drying rack after pulling off his clothes, and then stepped out, sans clothes and glasses, to dive in and swim. Gamzee didn't seem to have registered his presence or the fact that he'd spoken up at all, the paintbrushes in one hand bristling from his fist as he changed nimbly between them, the paint tubes from the other hand uncapped, one or another being squeezed every now and then where it was needed. There was a face coming together, or at least a vague suggestion of one, the details having not been added yet. His hands up to his wrists were covered in colors, all of them of the cooler variety. Not that Eridan could particularly tell from as far away as he was, even when he swam closer after a few laps. He pulled himself out of the water and squinted, standing fairly close to his friend as he worked. "You're makin' a mess a yourself," he teased.

Shrugging his shoulder up to knock the earbud out, Gamzee looked around at him then back at his hands, only just seeming to notice the streaks of paint that had nearly made it up to his elbows. "Oh hey, I am," he chuckled, as if it was just an amusing coincidence. He put his elbows down his knees, slotting the paintbrush he'd been using behind his ear and consequently getting a smudge of purple on his cheek and near the corner of his eye. He looked back at the canvas and the smooth transitional shading from black to deep violet into grey, the contours of a face plainly obvious now even without details like lips or eyes. "When'd you get there, bro? Didn't even motherfuckin' notice you gettin' your swim on."

Eridan smiled at the smudge of paint on Gamzee's face, wiping it away with his thumb. "Oh, I followed you in," he said, finally squinting to see what was on the canvas. The familiar jawline made his brow quirk, but he mentally waved it aside. "You work quickly," he said after a moment's deliberation on what he could possibly say that didn't sound conceited or over-affectionate. "But it certainly doesn't fuckin' show; that's some pro shadin'."

"Yeah? Thought I was out here for a long time," Gamzee shrugged then turned back to the the canvas, squeezing more of the bright purple into a side and starting to drag it out with his fingers, making a clear edge with it when it got out far enough. "Maybe you're just not keepin' good track'a the motherfuckin' time, bro."

Eridan walked over to grab his glasses, and looked up at the clock, and it was a _little_ later than he'd expected, but nothing very drastic. "No, no, it's only been an hour and a half since you came in here," he said, setting his glasses back down before he grabbed a towel and started patting off. "I should turn in, though. If you have trouble sleepin', I'll leave a pill on the kitchen counter for you." He smiled as he gathered his clothes and made his way to the kitchen to do as he said, and then back to his bedroom to continue drying his hair off.

"Alright, you have a good night, man," Gamzee called after him, going back to the painting until the playlist had started to loop on itself again. He yawned and glanced around for the clock, his mouth scrunching to one side at the time. Spending another hour on it wasn't really the plan, but then very little he did was planned anyway. He took his brushes back inside to wash out in his bathroom sink, staining it with the same streaks that decorated his hands and arms. He left the brushes there to dry and washed his hands, scrubbing the majority of it away easily, thankful that Eridan had thought to pick up acrylic as it was easier to clean up, even if it was a bit of a pain to blend. He looked back out toward the kitchen, debating on getting the pill then shrugging it off and stripping down then crawling into his cocoon.

By morning he was snoring quietly, one arm over his eyes, his foot propped up on the rim of the cocoon.

Eridan woke up to the alarm and got ready for the day in his usual fashion, before he went out to the kitchen with his sleeves rolled up to make breakfast. He made enough french toast for both of them, using the soy milk and egg whites, and settled down in front of the news to eat. He had a long day ahead of him, having been called by the CEO directly to oversee the reproductive labs' - really more like a plant with vats and such - progress. He didn't like dealing with anywhere that wasn't the office, but since he refused to go back to Tampa to look after the little office drones, he had no other choice.

He realized, belatedly, that his book was still poolside, so he went to retrieve it, and wound up managing to sneak a peek at the painting. It wasn't quite finished; there were still fine details to be added, but it was wholly recognizable even as it was: the seadweller's face upturned with his eyes closed against a faded, ashy purple and black background, with hair long enough to stretch down past the bottom of the canvas. It had been left where it was in the easel before Gamzee had gone to bed, drying overnight. Eridan stepped closer to look at it with a lopsided smile, holding his book close to his chest. His brow furrowed as he wondered, idly, why Gamzee had thought to make his hair long, but otherwise, was overwhelmed by a sense of joy. He slipped out of the room with a shake of his head, still smiling as he went to get his briefcase and phone. He unrolled his sleeves and pulled on his jacket. He took his roommate's meds out and set them on the counter, putting the sleeping pill back, before knocking faintly on Gamzee's door as he was about to leave. "I'm off to work," he called through the door. "Back tonight." The only response was a slightly louder snore that cut off as Gamzee turned over in the sopor.

He didn't wake up for another three hours, moving sluggishly as he dragged his feet to the shower, washing the slime out of his hair then heading back out with his towel around his waist, glancing around then noticing his pills sitting out on the counter. He took them with a few swallows of milk straight from the jug that had been designated for him after the third time Eridan had caught him doing so. He dug out one of the melons they still had left and cut it in half, saving the seeds with the rest of them that he'd taken to hoarding. He only needed a few more different kinds before he decided he would suggest planting them to Eridan, having found a sizable empty plot a short distance out from the house. He'd already buried his apple seeds and took a little bit of time every day to check on the spot in the ground, watering it and poking some at the dirt. He returned to the painting after fetching his brushes and sat perched on the stool in the towel, his hair held back in a scrunchie.

That evening, there was seared salmon sitting in the oven for when Eridan made it home, Gamzee already having eaten and now swimming lazy laps back and forth in the indoor pool as the sun had already gone down. When he came home, he was still in a peculiarly good mood. He smiled at the scent as he walked in, setting his briefcase aside and shedding his jacket, to go tuck in shortly thereafter. He sorted the mail as he ate, and after he did the dishes, he walked through the house to see if he could locate his friend.

Once he found Gamzee, he smiled faintly, leaning against the door to the pool room, just shaking his head before he walked inside and knelt beside the pool, whistling to get Gamzee's attention. "You have a good day, Gam?"

Gamzee surfaced with his hair hanging in his face, his hands on the edge of the pool. He tilted his head until the hair could slide to one side and looked up at Eridan. He'd washed his paint off before deciding to swim to keep from damaging the carefully maintained pH (though he only really thought about it now after he'd been told off once before over it). He cracked a lazy smile and nodded some then lifted himself back out of the water, turning to sit on the edge beside Eridan. "Food's in there on the counter if you haven't eaten yet."

"I ate, thanks," Eridan averted his eyes once he realized that Gamzee was nude. "Saw you had the paintin' near finished. Looked good this mornin'." He said as he pulled off his socks and rolled his pants legs up to dip his feet in the water. He didn't know where to go from there, so he left it at that, although he still had to wonder about the long hair.

"Oh yeah? I finished it after I got up, took it inside before I started swimmin' so it wouldn't get all motherfuckin' wet n' shit. How 'bout you though, you look like you had a pretty motherfuckin' good day," Gamzee smiled, poking at Eridan's cheek lightly. The lines around his jaw and brow had softened somewhat, indicating that he hadn't spent his entire day scowling at everything.

"Yeah, it went pretty well. Shit's not half as bad as I was expectin' at the lab they've got set up there," Eridan explained as his cheeks warmed slightly at the touch. "Yeah, so I just got up on the right side a the cocoon today or somethin'." He looked over at Gamzee briefly with a smile and then remembered, oh right. Nude. He turned away again. "I'm goin' ta go be in the office, got ta pay the bills an' shit."

"Yeah man, gotta keep the motherfuckin' lights on," Gamzee nodded, then ruffled Eridan's hair some and slipped off the edge of the pool back into the water to resume his swim. Eridan fussed his hair back into position with a petulant scowl, and got up to go to his office.

He didn't take much time in settling up the bills; really it was all a matter of simply checking the balance on them and tallying it down in his ledger. He settled in to work on some things that the office had sent over for him to review, before he got bored of that, and started texting to Karkat about what Gamzee had painted, and his ongoing struggle not to choke to death on his drinks with the surprises that the highblood set before him on a daily basis. Karkat didn't seem to be surprised about any of it. More like he was amused that Eridan hadn't expected it after how long he'd known Gamzee. He'd gotten over the initial sighing at Eridan's taking Gamzee in in the first place, understanding the reasoning and coming to terms with it. Privately, he was laughing at Eridan's near constant spazzing about whatever Gamzee did. He asked if Eridan could snap a picture of the painting with his phone just so he could show Dave. Eridan texted back that it was in Gamzee's room, but he'd ask to take a photo of it soon. He rubbed his forehead and looked at the clock. Shit, it wasn't even midnight, why was he so damn tired? He sighed and peeled out of his chair, plodding back downstairs to go read in the living room. He was practically curled up into a ball as he read, chewing on the earpiece of his glasses lightly. He didn't have work the next day, so he could afford to stay up, no matter how tired his mind was.

While he was absorbed in his reading, Gamzee had gotten out of the pool finally, walking behind the couch to his bedroom to pull on a pair of boxers and a tshirt, coming back out ruffling a towel through his hair to help dry it. He peeked out from under it at Eridan and padded up behind him, feet silent on the hardwood floor. He leaned over with his elbows on the back of the chair with his hands coming together in front of Eridan's chest, his chin settled between the other's horns.

"Still readin' that old war history shit?" He murmured, reading a paragraph from where he perched. "Thought you'd have that shit all motherfuckin' memorized by now."

Eridan's cheeks shot purple at the touch and he cleared his throat, "For your information, there's a lot a wars that don't get much written about them, an' I just happen ta like the knowledge. With the addition a human wars ta learn about, I've been keepin' myself well-read," he could feel his blush getting so bad that the bioluminescence in his cheeks started to light up. "An' it gives me a good sense a what to do if I ever have ta go up against some particularly fuckin' underhanded fuckers in a board room, I can use the tactics I glean from these," he tapped the book's cover.

"That's pretty motherfuckin' smart," Gamzee nodded, standing back up straight and laying his hands on the back of the chair, looking down at the top of Eridan's head then glancing at his horns. There was a tiny crack from one of the chipped places where they'd scraped against door frames, which was worrying given such things were just as likely to get infected as a cut anywhere else. Gamzee stepped away with a small smile at the patterns of faintly glowing dots along the seadweller's cheeks, wandering in the direction of Eridan's bedroom. Eridan looked up from his book once Gamzee left and sighed out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. He shook his head and went back to reading, turning a page before his roommate returned with the file. Gamzee stood back up behind Eridan and took the end of one of his horns in hand, starting to run the rougher grain over the cracked and slightly damaged edges.

The crack in his horn was something he'd been meaning to get fixed professionally, but he hadn't had the time to do it. He twitched vaguely as soon as Gamzee started to file away, the sound and sensation of it going through his skull into his spine. He muttered, "Careful, Gam, shit's fuckin' weird as hell feelin'." He sat still, however, and jutted his jaw out with a pout. Well, this was awkward _and_ uncomfortable on a number of levels. After a moment, still staring straight ahead as Gamzee worked, he said, "Kar wants ta see your paintin'. I said I'd ask if you'd mind if I took a fuckin' picture a it ta send."

"Shit, yeah he can see. Been a while since I drew anything for Karbro now I think about it," Gamzee said thoughtfully as he flipped the file over to the fine grain and started to even out the end so at least it wouldn't look wonky when it was done. He licked his thumb and rubbed the yellow dust off, tilting his head some to look it over then starting on the other one. "Hey man, you got any'a that lacquer shit? Crack's kinda deep, gonna need to stay sealed 'til it grows on out."

"In my medicine cabinet in my bathroom," Eridan said, squinting one eye at the change in sound and sensation from one horn to the other. "You know you don't got ta do this, right? I coulda gotten it done professionally." He knew grousing probably had no effect, but still. This wasn't something a platonic bro would do for another. At least not in _his_ mind.

"I remember we talked about it before but you never did stop n' get it fixed so I figured might as well since I'm all up n' thinkin' about it." Gamzee shrugged as he finished filing down as much of the damage as he could, blowing the dust off of it then going to fetch the lacquer to seal off the remainder of the crack. "Besides, this way you don't hafta fuckin' pay for it right?"

Eridan started to protest again but cut himself off before he could get a word out. "Yeah, I fuckin' guess," he muttered, before standing up and walking to Gamzee's room to take a picture of the painting on his phone, before shooting it off to Karkat. He didn't take long, and went to meet up with Gamzee. "Have you found it? It's right next ta the concealer an' pomade," he called as he rounded the corner.

He had the bottle in hand and had been about to step back out, colliding with Eridan then stepping back with a crooked, apologetic smile. "Sorry about that, bro. Found it though." He held it up to show him, then shooed Eridan back out toward the chair where he would have light to work by. Eridan stepped back and looked up at Gamzee with slightly narrowed eyes, as if he was the one completely to blame, though his expression softened and he carefully turned around to walk out back to the chair, pouting once again since he hadn't asked for this, and certainly wasn't going to be happy about being pampered like this. He settled back down in the chair, tucking one foot under him and propping himself up against his knee, looking straight ahead. "You know, I probably wouldn't put up with this kind a babyin' bullshit if it were anyone but you?"

Gamzee chuckled quietly as he shook and uncapped the bottle, starting to brush the clear coating over the tops of Erida's horns over the damage. "Don't you be all up n' givin' me that, motherfucker. I bet you'd let Karbro do it. He's got more experience takin' care'a you anyway. Takin' care'a both of us really." He blew on the lacquer some to dry it before applying a second coat then capping it and leaning over Eridan again. "Besides, maybe I motherfuckin' want to, ever think about that?" He smiled and straightened back up, running his fingers back through Eridan's hair then ruffling it before heading back to his room to put the stuff away.

And just when he thought he'd gotten the blush under control. Dammit. Eridan scowled and curled back against the back of the chair as he thought about that. Well sure, Kar would get some allowance in being a little touchy and shit, but not to the same degree as Gamzee had. He figured it was on account of Gam just not acting like he knew what personal space was, while Kar knew full well and enjoyed it to the same degree that he did.

He wrinkled his nose at the scent of the lacquer and huffed. What the hell was Gam even trying to play at? When Gamzee returned he flopped down into the couch with his music player plugged back into his ears, his hands laced together behind his head as he stretched out comfortably. He would likely stay there until either he got tired enough to go to bed, or else Eridan told him to push off.

Eridan's phone buzzed before too long with a reply back from Karkat, though it wasn't asking why the picture of him had long hair. It was more of a warning for Eridan to get Gamzee paints that easily washed out of things if he hadn't figured that one out already. He obviously knew how Gamzee worked, as messily as possible without literally slinging paint. With a quiet "tch," Eridan replied that he'd _thought_ of that, already, and that he'd even gone so far as to make sure that Gam had hair ties so the paint wouldn't wind up with in his hair. He looked up at Gamzee with a brow arch, then back to his phone, sending another text that he might be the next on Gam's list of people to paint. He uncurled a little to nudge Gamzee's foot with his own to get his attention. "I got some recent pictures of Kar if you need reference material," he said, instantly reminded that he'd been sent photos taken by Dave and Bro during their vacation.

Gamzee looked back at him with arched brows then grinned and sat upright. "That'd be pretty motherfuckin' sweet, bro. Haven't seen his face for a few motherfuckin' years now, probably grew up hella fast just like the rest of us," he chuckled then laid back again, draping his arm across his eyes.

Eridan unfolded from his seat and slipped away to grab his husktop, walking over to settle down on the edge of the sofa near Gamzee's horns as he brought up the folder which contained the photos. There were photos not only of Karkat, but of the entire group. He handed the husktop down and leaned down a little to have a look at them as well. The ones taken by Dave were unsurprisingly more artistic and had some forethought into framing and lighting, whereas the ones from Bro were simple snapshots that anybody would take. Gamzee propped himself up on his elbows as Eridan flipped through the photos, going back once or twice then continuing to the end. Every so often he made a comment about how tall someone had gotten, or how pretty the girls were, pointing out how much happier Karkat, Dave and Sollux seemed to be at least in the photos. What few photos of Eridan there were, he didn't seem to be enjoying himself very much, but when he thought back to what Eridan had said about them all just having dropped on him when he'd least expected it, it wasn't surprising.

"Good to know everyone's tryin' to get on with their lives in spite of knowin' what's up there."

Eridan shrugged and set the husktop aside on the coffee table before leaning back against the back of the couch. "What more can we do?" He asked, shaking his head. "Shit, it's not like we got much a fuckin' choice. Rollin' over an' dyin' ain't like us. Not a single one a us would just give up." He licked his lower lip before standing and going to the fridge to get some water. He was feeling parched.

"An' even if they did, it wouldn't last for too long. We got too much motherfuckin' support on all fuckin' sides. We take care of each other." Gamzee smiled as he laid his head back against the arm of the couch, his arm laying over his eyes once more. He pushed his headphones back into place and started the mp3 player again, tapping his foot in the air to the music.

With a sigh, Eridan looked down at Gamzee as he walked past the couch to grab his book. He shook his head and walked up to his bedroom, where he stripped down and settled into his cocoon, leaning against the lip of it as he read against the light of the bedside lamp. He tried to put the thought of horrorterrors out of his mind, and simply focus on his book, and mostly succeeded. He wound up dozing off, his book still held tight in his hand as his head rested on the edge of the cocoon. He often fell asleep like this, although if anyone ever asked, he did no such thing.

After a couple of hours, Gamzee started to grow restless, and when he went to check, he realized that Eridan had gone without setting out his sleep medication for the night. He couldn't get to his meds without breaking off the lock on the cabinet either and, while he could easily do it, he wouldn't out of respect for Eridan and his home. He still couldn't bring himself to think of it as his own place, sure that eventually he would have to leave it. He wandered the house and the property for another hour, growing tired but not quite sleepy. He came back and finally decided he should just try to wake Eridan up to get the key but when he saw him dozed off there, he changed his mind. He stepped into the room silently and eased the book out of Eridan's hand, laying it on the nightstand then lifting himself to sit on the edge of the cocoon. He reached out and brushed the hair away from Eridan's forehead with his fingertips, looking back at him as he pulled his legs up, propping his feet against the side of the cocoon then bending the other arm and wedging it between his cheek and his leg. After a while in which Eridan hadn't moved, Gamzee turned and eased him down further into the slime then crawled in after him, turning off the light then stripping off his shirt and tossing it out.

Come morning he was spooned up against Eridan's back with his arm lying dead weight over the top of him, snoring quietly against the back of his neck.

It was the breath against his earfin that woke him up. His eyes peeled open and he found himself pinned by a long, lanky arm, with a slightly warmer body pressed against his spine and he mentally panicked. He reached up to the edge of his cocoon where he had his phone and pulled it down to him to look at the time, still trying to maintain a sense of calm, although it was very obvious that it wasn't working as he felt the heat grow in his cheeks and down his neck. He sent an urgent text to Karkat.

**wwoke up wwith gam in my cocoon wwhat the fuck do i do im pinned and cant get out this is literally the wworst fuckin thing that could be happenin right noww**

He set his jaw and clung to his phone with one hand, turning around slowly to see if his stirring had awoken his... fuckin' friend, or whatever.

Karkat woke up grumbling at the buzzing of his phone half an hour before he had to be up for school, turning over and groping for it over Dave's shoulder then picking it up and squinting at the message. "Oh my fucking god, Eridan," he groaned, putting the phone back down and rubbing his fingers into his eyes. He picked it back up after a moment and sent a message back before setting his phone to silent and going back to sleep.

**YOU'LL GET USED TO IT.**

Gamzee still hadn't moved an inch, out like a light.

Karkat's text message was impetus to scowl and throw the phone away and out of his reach, mentally cursing out Karkat for being SUCH a fuckin' great help. He curled his arms up under the slime and scowled a little as he tried to delicately remove Gamzee's arm from his person. Gamzee sucked in a deep breath when Eridan started to move him and rolled half over, his arm drawing back and laying across his body as his head turned the other way, making it possible for Eridan to move when he settled again. Eridan sighed in relief and climbed out as quickly and quietly as he possibly could, goggling into the cocoon before shaking his head. What the actual fuck... He closed the door to his bathroom and finally allowed himself to panic quietly, burying his face in his webbed hands with a whimpering groan, before he went to draw a bath to clean up in. While in there, he sunk down into the water up to his eyeballs and scowled at himself for panicking and likely waking Karkat up, scolding himself mentally for overreacting like a fuckin' child.

After a while, Gamzee hauled himself out of the cocoon, staring around owlishly for a moment before remembering he'd crawled in there the night before. He crept out again and went back to his own room to shower off the slime, leaving a trail in his wake for a few steps. When he came back out he was dressed down in a pair of loose jeans and a tshirt that was falling off his shoulders, pouring out a huge bowl of cereal for himself then going to the living room to eat with his music plugged into the tv again. Eridan finally emerged from his bedroom after an hour, dressed down and looking intensely pissy, sending another text to Karkat to apologize for the panic attack. He stepped in the slime on the floor and grumbled, turning back around to grab a towel and mop up the mess, tossing the towel in the laundry on his way through to the kitchen. He skulked around as he made himself a salad for breakfast, tossing mandarin oranges and raspberry vinaigrette into a bowl with spinach leaves and sunflower seeds, and went to eat it on the deck. At least there, he'd have some fuckin' privacy.

After gulping down the milk from his cereal Gamzee wandered outside, touching the back of Eridan's arm to get his attention then gesturing back inside, reminding him about the medication he still had to take in the morning. He offered a sheepish, somewhat apologetic look at having interrupted the other's breakfast, prepared to go back inside to wait. With a glare, Eridan spun around to look at Gamzee, before he blinked. Right. Fuckin' meds. Goddammit. Even if he was pissed enough at Gam to want to throw him down the hill straight into oncoming traffic, the lack of medication could spell trouble on a monumental scale, and that wouldn't be very fuckin' good for him or, for that matter, anybody.

He stood and stomped in, passing by Gamzee with an unintelligible grumble of Alternian curses, and over to the locked cabinet to grab the pills out. He took out the two that were necessary for everyday existence to go on without threat of vague danger, and the one that kept Gamzee from spacing out to a point of absurdity, and set them on the counter with a rough click of his nails. He narrowed his eyes at his roommate, and walked back outside to his salad to fume silently some more. After swallowing the pills down, Gamzee went to walk the property again, carrying a glass of water with him and using it to water his tree. It was a tiny green sprout by now that he had to kneel down close to see, but it was there, and it was growing. It wouldn't be big enough to bear fruit for a few years, but it was something at least. He sat out there with it, his chin resting on his hand as he talked to the sprout about whatever was going through his mind at the moment, sometimes doing so in rhyme form.

After a while, Eridan finally cooled down. His caliginous attentions were drawn back to Sollux and his freakishly oversized matesprit, and his mind was set at ease over the morning's little incidents. He brought his bowl in and washed all the dishes that had been left out over the course of the evening and morning, before drying them and setting them back in their spots. He tidied up for a little while, just to get out the last of that excess energy, and then strolled down to where Gamzee could be found, hands tucked in his pockets as he walked the stone path to the little area Gamzee had planted a seed. He came down to apologize for being so overdramatic and terse. Gamzee didn't mean any harm by it, and honestly, if he was being completely earnest, it _was_ kind of nice to wake up next to somebody for a change.

Gamzee was lying on his back in the grass watching almost painfully bright blue sky overhead beside the patch of earth, his hands behind his head, bare feet in the grass. He didn't say anything when he heard Eridan approaching, figuring if the other wanted to talk to him he'd say something. Eridan sighed as he approached, and settled down beside Gamzee, careful not to tread on anything that wasn't grass. He looked out at the ocean, or what little of it he could see through the treeline, and then over to Gamzee.

"I'm sorry I got fuckin' pissy at you earlier. It's just kinda fuckin' weird wakin' up with you right fuckin' there, ok?" His lips tightened into a thin line before he continued. "Probably pissed Kar off pretty good though, I called him freakin' out because I didn't know what to do."

Gamzee sat up with his hands on the ground behind him, looking back at Eridan and shrugging a shoulder. "Shouldn'a come in on ya without askin', all up n' invadin' your space like that. Sorry bro," he replied quietly, "just didn't wanna fuckin' wake you up because I couldn't sleep, y'know?"

Eridan buried his face in his hand, groaning, "Fuck. Sorry, Gam." He sighed and shook his head. "I'm not fuckin' cut out for this babysittin' bullshit, I mean, I'm fuckin' barely good enough ta take care a my own fuckin' self." He looked over at Gamzee and shook his head. "Fuck man, I'm really fuckin' sorry."

Gamzee shook his head and sat forward with his elbows on his knees, looking down at his seedling then back at Eridan. "Nah man, it's fine, shit slips your mind. I know I'm kind of a fuckin' handful. Don't you worry none, a'ight?" Pulling half a smile, Gamzee stood back up, shoving his hands into the pockets of the low-slung jeans then offering one to help Eridan off the ground. He took Gamzee's hand and stood, careful not to tread upon the seedling as he did.

"I wouldn't say you're a handful, it's just that I really don't know what to make a you sometimes." He wasn't _used_ to people like Gamzee anymore. He wasn't used to _Gamzee_ anymore, and that didn't sit very well with him. He'd known the guy since they were practically grubs, and he'd all but eliminated the guy from his life. He gave an apologetic smile to his friend, and then started back to the path. Gamzee followed behind him at a bit of a distance, glancing back again then picking back up, breaking off from Eridan when they'd reached the house, heading back to his room then dragging his hookah and the little bag he was dipping from out to the patio, figuring it was safer to smoke out there than in his room even with the fan. He lit the coal and loaded the little plate then uncoiled one of the hoses and started to work at it until the smoke was filling the water chamber. He let out a lungful of it and leaned against the rail around the outside of the patio, his legs hanging over the edge of it.

Even though Eridan felt compelled to curl up and read until the tension melted away, or to blow up dramatically at someone, which tended to work, he knew that there was no justification for being distant. He came back out with a bottle of water in one hand and settled down in a chair near Gamzee, nose wrinkling at the cloying, heady scent of the smoke. "How's that been workin' for you, anyway?" He asked, taking a sip from his bottle. He'd noticed that Gamzee stayed levelheaded even after the switch, but he knew his friend would know better than he did on its effects.

Gamzee let out the smoke after a moment's thought while holding it in, blowing it away from Eridan in a thin stream. "'s pretty alright, I guess. Doesn't make me all motherfuckin' sick to my stomach like the other shit did." He thumbed the end of the hose then put it back between his lips, taking another long drag off it. It just sucked that he had to keep downwind to keep from making Eridan sick.

"At least there's that," Eridan agreed, nose still slightly wrinkled. "Now all I gotta worry about is havin' its stench permeate every porous surface in a mile radius a it." His tone was mere teasing as he slipped closer. "Still way fuckin' better for you than slime ever was. I can't tell you how fuckin' nasty I thought that shit was." And how worried he'd been that Gamzee would eventually just go braindead from eating it.

"Y'know they make this shit in flavors now? Or the tobacco at least. The stuff you can actually get in the stores," Gamzee mentioned then let out the smoke he'd been holding again in the opposite direction. He nodded some at the comment about the slime, muttering, "yeah, you and everyone else."

"Why did you do it?" Eridan could never figure that out. "I mean, aside from your fuckin' lusus never bein' around to tell you not ta, you coulda listened ta one a us when we said it was bad for you." He finally resigned himself to settling down beside his friend, not really caring if the smoke got to him. He wouldn't get too sick from a little of it. Besides, he had his water, that'd flush it out if anything were to get too much. "It isn't like we were sayin' it 'cause it was nasty, although it was."

Sucking thoughtfully on the hose again, Gamzee leaned his head forward against the patio rails, letting the smoke out through his nose in a circular breath. He looked down at his knees then leaned back, starting to gesture vaguely with his hands. "I didn't know it would do it at first, I was just puttin' shit in my mouth when I was a kid, but... Y'know those whispers, the mutterin' of the motherfuckin' terrors? How the sopor's supposed to tune it out and help us sleep? Just like...imagine that shit, but with zillysantas laughin' in your fuckin' head an' hearin' your dead bloodline tellin' you to kill your best motherfuckin' bros every time you talk to 'em. It drowned all that shit out. Problem was that it got where I needed it just to keep my shit in order, couldn't up an' motherfuckin' function without it."

"Fuckin' christ," Eridan murmured, his brow furrowed heavily. "I know it's fuckin' tough, keepin' those chatterin' teeth away from your fuckin' ears, believe me, dude, but _fuck_. I didn't even fuckin' know." He looked at Gamzee, his eyes searching for something. Well, at least the art made sense now. Didn't make anything _better_ , but at least it made sense. "No fuckin' wonder you snapped." His tone was quiet and thoughtful as he turned away. Gamzee didn't say anything to that, just turning back to his smoke and taking a long pull, cycling it into and out of his lungs in the same circular breath, letting it stream from his nostrils. They'd already talked about the time he'd dried out and had his crisis of faith that triggered the killing spree, there wasn't any need to go any further into it. He looked back at Eridan, meeting his eyes easily even as his own grew somewhat bloodshot, the smoke settling into his system and easing his mood.

"Don't gotta worry about it so much now, with the extra meds at least. Better than livin' my motherfuckin' life in the hospital too."

"Nah, I don't worry about you now," what a line of bullshit, "just... hearin' it outta your mouth. Jesus." He quietly seethed that nobody bothered asking until they got to this fuckin' dream bubble semireality place, at least not to his knowledge. "Yeah, you can stay here as long as you wanna, too. Just so long as you know I'm goin' ta stop thinkin' about it like I'm fuckin' babysittin' your dumb incoherent ass." He leaned back and looked at Gamzee again. "You're a fuckin' grown ass guy, you can take care a yourself for the most part. I only fuckin' keep the shit locked up on account a they said I should."

Gamzee cracked a small smile at that and pointed his hose at Eridan, narrowing his eyes in mock suspicion. "Is that your roundabout motherfuckin' way of askin' me to stay permanent?" He asked with a sly look, or at least as sly as one stoned out of his gourd could manage.

"No!" Eridan said, sitting up straighter as he brought his chin up. "I'm simply fuckin' statin' that you can stay as long as you want ta. There was _no_ fuckin' mentionin' of how long." He looked around quickly before grabbing the pipe from Gamzee and setting it aside. "You're fuckin' baked, dude, I think you're good for now." Yeah. That'd show him.

Gamzee blinked as the pipe was taken away from him, pouting a little then leaning close to Eridan until his nose was nearly brushing the other's cheek, his eyes wide and slightly dilated then closing as he pecked Eridan's cheek. He got back up afterward and grabbed his pipe to put out the coal and clean the tray out then take it all back inside.

Eridan stopped cold at the quick kiss and then scowled. What the actual fuck was that? Well no, he knew what it was, but the entire situation was starting to spiral into incoherency at an alarming rate. He pulled out his phone and texted Karkat again.

**no seriously kar  
i need your fuckin help here  
youre the fuckin expert ok  
you got this shit down to a fuckin science  
he fuckin just kissed me on the cheek an left**

He scowled at the phone and then stood up, walking in to his library and closed the door, settling down behind the desk and dropping his head down onto it. He had more poise than this, goddammit. This was fuckin' juvenile.

In class Karkat jumped badly as his phone buzzed in his pocket, thankfully nearly inaudible over his professor's voice. He glanced around to be sure that he wasn't bothering anyone before scrolling through the sudden barrage of messages, having to stop himself from groaning out loud.

**YOU REALIZE HE WANTS YOU TO GO AFTER HIM RIGHT?  
HE'S HAVING FUN WITH YOU.  
HE KNOWS YOU'RE WAXING RED.**

Eridan pulled the phone up where he could read the replies and then glared at the last one, replying, **i am not wwaxin red you ass** and then he pounded his forehead down on the desk again. Yes he was. He fucking was. He grumbled and sat up in his seat, looking up at the door. Fine. So Gam was being a crafty fucker. He didn't have to know he knew that. He sent Karkat another message with a far calmer **i knoww wwhat im goin ta do thanks** and then set the phone down, smirking darkly as he stood and straightened out his shirt. So the clown was playing some fuckin' game with him? He could do that.

Eridan strolled back down the stairs and dug into the fridge, getting out one of the microwave containers of soup to heat up. While he waited for that, he looked out into the living room to see if Gamzee was there, or if he'd absconded to his bedroom and didn't come back out. Once the soup was heated, Eridan wandered down the hall to the pool with it and a spoon, and walked to a seat and table, settling down with the soup as he looked over at Gamzee with an unreadable expression. He turned his attention away to eat, smiling to himself at the taste of it. It really was amazing, for something that he knew Gamzee simply made as an impromptu meal.

While Eridan had been seething in the library, Gamzee had actually made his way out to the pool again, sitting out there with his feet in the water, jeans rolled up to his knees, one of the new sketchpads in hand to doodle in idly, keeping himself occupied. He was testing some of the new pens that Eridan had gotten for him, smiling faintly to himself as he bobbed gently to the rhythm in his headphones. He was already working on blacking in parts of the page, then playing with the toning brush pens and experimenting in different areas of the page. There wasn't much in the way of real content, mostly suggestions of faces, teeth, eyes, other less recognizable things in the building shadows.

Eridan ate as he calculated and considered every strategy he could. Once he was finished, he left the container and spoon where they were before he stood up and dropped down heavily beside Gamzee, looking over at his drawing, before pulling the earbud out of the closest of Gamzee's ears. "Looks good," he said, "In that distinctly fuckin' scary way you got goin'." He looked over at the other and then back at the page.

Gamzee looked back at him, pulling a lopsided smile and shrugging. "Just fuckin' around again, tryin' to get used to these sweet-ass pens you got. Fuckin' cool for shading with," he grinned and flipped to a clean page, starting off with nothing but the toners and building a new image from the shadows up rather than outlines. "So, soup's better the second day isn't it?" He said, making idle conversation.

"The spices soakin' in ta the shrimp makes it more rich, I gotta say." Eridan shrugged one shoulder and watched while his friend started a new drawing, intrigued by the way a picture started to come together. He had decided earlier that he'd see how long Gamzee would let this game - if indeed it could be considered one - play out. Eridan had learned to be patient in similar situations, considering them something like a war of attrition. Wear the opposing party down through time. He knew, of course, that he never did manage to win that way, often running out of mental and emotional energy before he could see it through to the end, but he wasn't the kind to give up on the pursuit of it, anyway.

"Could ease up on the peppers next time around, though," he suggested. "Shit's potent." Gamzee nodded without really seeming to pay attention, building on the shadows until they'd darkened here and there into details, switching to finer tips until he was finally using a black liner to get spider silk-thin veins in the image that now looked like an orb held down by a stretched membrane. He switched to another toner to play with the shadows some more in places, occasionally nudging Eridan's arm with his own seemingly on accident.

"Next time you get an idea for dinner let me know if you wanna cook an' I'll get all up on out the way."

Eridan slid just out of Gamzee's reach, and continued to watch the picture build, and his smile went tilted. "We still have that tilapia in there, I think I'll bake that an' some a that sliced beef for dinner." Of course, it'd be plated with rice, tomato, and chilies, and the beef would be Gamzee's to eat. "Is this your way a hintin' you're hungry, Gam? You could just say so."

"Nah man, I'm good. Just puttin' it out there like if you have a motherfuckin' idea but it's my turn to cook, y'know?" Gamzee shrugged and capped his pen, looking back at Eridan with his small, more natural smile.

Settling back and propping himself up with his arms, Eridan shrugged. "Fair enough, then. Same goes for you, a course. It isn't like we got ta stick to a routine. Not that you really do stick to routines all that great in the first place." He looked out the large windows, at a flock of birds flying off in the far distance, then back to Gamzee. "Hell, so long as you keep up doin' good an' feel progressively more fuckin' stable, I'd say just do what you want ta."

"Man, every motherfuckin' thing I had to do before was routine. This? This is real motherfuckin' nice, bein' able to just go outside whenever I motherfuckin' want to, eat when I want, take care'a my own shit." Gamzee put his sketchpad aside and looked down at his feet in the water, just the hint of webbing between his toes showing the color of his blood. "Never got to swim while I was there."

"Didn't think you even fuckin' liked the water. You never seemed too fuckin' fond'a a it back when we were kids." Not that Eridan showed much interest, himself, until fairly recently. "At least you got that option now, though."

"Not all that hot on the ocean, bro. Little contained shit like this though, that's all motherfuckin' fine with me." He gestured at the pool then leaned back on his hands, kicking his foot through the water. "Pretty cool you got it seawater though. Better for ya than the chlorine shit."

"They had it chlorinated, an' I had them change that shit out," Eridan smirked, "Fuckin' hate that nasty shit, gives me fuckin' respiratory problems like you wouldn't fuckin' believe. Not ta mention, shit smells awful. I don't know how people can fuckin' deal with that. It makes my eyes burn." He looked back at Gamzee and then stood. "I'm goin' ta probably wind up turnin' that room over there into a greenhouse or some shit. Used ta be an exercise room for the last people who lived here." He motioned towards the empty room that had been built onto the pool room ages prior, and he'd seen it, figuring it to be a great place for some great air purifying plants, that would keep the air quality of this part of the house at its peak. He walked back to his seat to grab the dish and spoon that he'd left there, and started back to the kitchen.

Gamzee tilted his head some as he imagined that room filled with greenery and smiled some at the idea, standing up himself and grabbing his sketchpad to go back inside. After the tension that morning it was good to be able to sit and talk to Eridan about nothing in particular. He settled back down into the couch to lounge with his music, starting to rap along quietly under his breath, seeming to shift between languages every now and then.

Eridan settled into his seat to read after washing the container and spoon. After a while, he heard a vehicle coming up the drive and he raised an eyebrow, pushing his glasses back down to see what it was. "Oh, fuckin' finally," he said as he watched the large moving van come up to the large drive in front and park. "My books an' shit." He stood and walked to the door, squeezing Gamzee's shoulder on the way in a way that was far more amiable than he usually did, and went out to meet up with the movers. He berated them for taking so long, and that they were two days late, but then sighed and walked them through the house to show where his library was, and where they could set the statues, and where the clothes were supposed to go. 

It was about an hour of controlled chaos as the movers came in and out of the house and he settled back into his chair about halfway through, leaving them to their work. Soon, the artwork that he'd had brought in from Tampa was settled against the walls on which he wanted to hang it, and the sculptures that he'd had them move were set on either side the front entrance, looking majestic and graceful. They were a matching marble set of Endymion and Selene, in full size. The other sculptures that he had brought out were settled in the back patio and garden area to be dealt with later. But once everything was put in their respective rooms, Eridan shooed off the movers, tipping them graciously for getting everything there in one piece, and then sent them on their way. Gamzee had stayed on the couch the entire time just watching the process, giving the occasional "sup" to a passing mover until it was over.

"Finally fuckin' startin' to feel like home," Eridan said with a grin as he went to grab a hammer and nails to start hanging his paintings in the living room. Gamzee stood to move one of the statues over half an inch then took to lingering behind Eridan and watching him put up paintings, reaching around him to straighten them on occasion with his tongue poking from the corner of his lips. At the last one, he propped his chin on top of Eridan's head, looking up at the painting with an arched eyebrow.

"Y'know, I shoulda figured you'd be into all this fancy fuckin' museum shit," he said thoughtfully. "Looks good though. House feels a lot more motherfuckin' liveable now."

Eridan steadfastly refused to be flustered. He simply smiled his tight little smile and slipped away, tossing the hammer with a spin before catching it as he walked to put it away. "Don't see why you're so fuckin' surprised, dude, I've had a shitload a stuff like this most a my life." He set the hammer back down in the junk drawer and looked over at Gamzee with a level gaze, smiling just faintly. "An' I've found there's no fuckin' sense just hoardin' away like some fuckin' dragon, so when I get tired of lookin' at it, I put it up for auction or donate it to a museum."

"Makes sense," Gamzee shrugged, then went back to sit on the couch with his legs pulled up crossed in front of him. "I'm pretty sure I never actually saw the inside'a your hive so I didn't know either way. But I'm not really all that motherfuckin' surprised."

"Pretty fuckin' sure I bragged about it at least twenty times." Eridan settled back down on the sofa, nearer to Gamzee than usual, but only by just enough to make a pointed statement without saying a word, and leaned back, looking at the paintings with a small, pleased smile.

"Must'a been when I wasn't really payin' any motherfuckin' attention." Gamzee leaned back against the arm of the couch, one foot reaching out and nudging against Eridan's knee, testing the waters for just how much Eridan would allow before he would well and truly flip his shit again. He was the perfect image of poise even after the bump to his knee, though he acknowledged it with a brow arch.

"I know full fuckin' well that you pay more attention than you act like you do." He smirked as he laid his head back, eyes closed. "You got this wall you put up where you act like you aren't payin' attention for shit, but you got a low-flowin' tidal pool under all a that, takin' it all in, keepin' it all down." His smile went smug. "I don't even fuckin' pretend like I got you figured out, but I know you're fuckin' deep under all'a that paint an' babble."

Gamzee's smile stretched a little wider at that, his head falling back as he watched Eridan, crossing his arms over his chest with his music player in one hand. "Look at you, usin' your motherfuckin' smarts. I don't know if I'm really as deep as you seem to motherfuckin' think I am but I guess I'm not all that motherfuckin' up-front about shit, really. So what is it you really think's all up n' goin' on up in my pan," he asked, giving Eridan a challenging little smirk.

"Nothin' _I'd_ begin ta assume about," Eridan shot back, his smug smile still in place. "I'm not goin' ta start makin' assumptions based on shit you do, because you pretty much just do whatever the fuck you want as it comes ta you. You're wantin' me ta extrapolate on shit I don't even think about." He sprawled his arms out behind him on the back of the sofa, hanging his hands and forearms down, tapping the nails of one hand as he rested his ankle on his other knee.

Gamzee grinned and propped his head against his hand, elbow propped on the back of the couch, watching Eridan with a sincerely amused expression. "Bro, when's the last time you ever did somethin' just to do it, without plannin' every last little motherfuckin' thing about it? Not everything has to be all motherfuckin' scripted n' planned out n' shit."

"What the hell're you babblin' about? Maybe for *you*, that's a good way a livin', but that's not how I operate." He opened his eyes momentarily to look at Gamzee, and smirked again. "I need schedules an' plans just as you need fluidity in your fuckin' life. Sayin' I can operate like you would be fuckin' stupid."

"Man I'm not tellin' you to do how I do all the motherfuckin' time, but some things don't gotta be all fuckin' rigid and scheduled. I'm pretty willin' to bet this right here's all fuckin' planned out too in your head," he added, gesturing between the two of them. "Ain't been too often you just sit and motherfuckin' talk with me about nothin' in general. It's always somethin' real motherfuckin' important like my meds or what I can't paint or food or some shit."

Eridan's smile faltered, and he then shook his head. "Look, I got pissed at you earlier 'cause I didn't know what the fuck ta think a you slippin' in an' sleepin' next ta me, an' it got me ta thinkin' that I really stopped knowin' who you are. We were fuckin' tight back in the day, as close as anyone ever got ta me other than Kar, an' it made me realize it fuckin' pissed me off that I've been real fuckin' dodgy around you. Treatin' you like a fuckin' guest an' a fuckin' mental cripple, okay?" He turned to look at Gamzee, giving him the same level gaze that he did before. "You don't need ta be treated like that. An' I shouldn't a fuckin' assumed that you'd gotten any less fuckin' wily over the years just 'cause a what you've been through."

And all of that was the truth. It was beside the fact that Gamzee was _right_ , and that he _had_ planned some shit out, but it wasn't like it was a fuckin' show.

"What doesn't kill ya, right?" Shaking his head some, Gamzee leaned forward and laid his hand against the side of Eridan's neck above his gills, pressing his lips to the center of Eridan's forehead then heading for the kitchen. It was after noon and he still hadn't eaten anything but his bowl of cereal that morning. He fished around the refrigerator for the deli meat that had been picked up some time in the past week, tossing cheese onto the counter after it and before long, there was a pair of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches in the works.

Eridan had frozen again at the kiss and he pursed his lips in consternation. He did it _again_. But at least this time he knew what it was about and he wasn't about to throw a tantrum at Karkat about it. He stood and walked to the kitchen, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the counter, just waiting for Gamzee to notice that hey, he fuckin' followed.

"You want me to make you somethin'?" He asked, glancing up from the pan after a second to raise an eyebrow at Eridan. "You already had the leftover soup but if you're still hungry I got no motherfuckin' problem makin' somethin' else for ya."

"No, I'm not hungry," Eridan stated flatly, tapping his nails against his elbow. He stood there for another few moments, before walking to fridge and grabbing another bottle of water. "I'll be in the pool," he muttered once he lost interest in seeing what Gamzee's next move would be.

"Alright," Gamzee shrugged then finished the sandwich and plated it, washing, drying and putting the pan away before going to the living room and settling down in front of the tv with it. He wouldn't think too hard about any of this, he was just glad that Eridan wasn't just going to treat him like an invalid. They'd been friends for a long time and in his mind, they were still friends. Even when Eridan no longer acknowledged his existence he'd still believed that. When he'd finished eating he headed back to the pool with a new canvas and his paints, dressed back down in what was now his designated painting outfit, that same ratty shirt and pair of pajama pants, his hair tied back out of the way before he started. Eridan had made it into the pool already and had the stereo on, although he was nowhere really to be seen.

It was because he was at the bottom of the pool, grousing to himself that he was being impatient and obvious and not in the least bit covert about his intentions. At the surface of the water, he could see Gamzee setting back up to paint and he huffed, crossing his arms. Dammit, he wasn't going to assume that Gamzee was waxing flushed. That would be one HELL of an assumption, one that would be a hugely stupid idea to try and pursue. Last time - and every time prior - he tried to pursue anything outside of a casual fuckin' hookup that was in the red quadrant, it wound up killing what little tenuous friendship he had. This bullshit would be no different. So Eridan decided, fuck it, fine. Gamzee could lead the way, if that was what he wanted.

\--

The days rolled by with predictable frustration and controlled chaos. Eridan kept his calm, knowing that Gamzee wasn't just invading his space for shits and giggles, and that it was still simply a matter of his acting cuddly and too close because he didn't know better. He quietly flipped out only once more when he woke up under Gamzee's arm again, and needed to spend some time alone to get his head back on straight. All things told, however, things were going fairly smooth.

He was back to reading on the sofa one afternoon, on a day that they had no need for him to be in the office, having already tucked away work for the day. It was a mellow, lazy day, and he'd spent most of it quietly overthinking his work project, which was why he decided that it was time to submerge himself into his book. He had settled into his chair, almost curled into it, if it weren't for one of his legs dangling down, the back of his toes touching the floor as he chewed lightly at the earpiece of his glasses and tuned the world out.

Gamzee had taken to stacking his canvases against the wall in the swimming pool room out of the way after the third time he'd nearly tripped over them, unwilling to potentially damage them. There was one more finished portrait, this time of a familiar brown-blooded troll. His supplies were still stored in his room at least, which was becoming more and more cluttered over time with the things he had been finding and purchasing with the weekly allowance Eridan was still giving him. He'd gotten a new hookah with two hoses and a small collection of flavored tobaccos for the times he didn't need to medicate but still felt like smoking, sitting outside amid clouds of dragonfruit-scented smoke.

He came back inside after making another trip down to where his tree was starting to grow, still smelling of fruit as he settled down in front of the couch by Eridan's foot. He glanced over after a few moments' silence, then dragged the tip of his claw along the arch of Eridan's foot with a completely neutral expression.

"You'll find that I'm completely fuckin' impervious to your halfassed attempts to rile me up," muttered Eridan as he slid a bookmark into place, looking down at the Gamzee-shaped blur beside his leg. He smiled, however. He had done enough dancing around the point over the past few days.

"No you're not," Gamzee replied with a smile of his own, turning in place and propping his chin on Eridan's knee.

"No? You don't think you've made me calloused ta them over the past few weeks?" With a smirk, he set his book aside and put his glasses back on. "I'm pretty fuckin' sure you have. I don't see why you've even bothered, frankly. All it does is serves ta make me more flustered an' cranky, an' I know you don't like it any more than I do when I'm in a pissy mood."

"Well no. But I know you're not all motherfuckin' calloused to it. You still get those pretty little motherfuckin' dots when you blush," he pointed out, reaching up and poking at Eridan's cheek lightly.

Eridan took a calming breath and slowly brushed Gamzee's hand away. "You'd be better off gettin' a string of fairy lights if that's all you're after in this endeavor." He lightly ruffled Gamzee's hair and then huffed when it got tangled in a few snarls. "Do you _ever_ fuckin' brush your hair?" He groused as he set his foot down. "I'll go get the brush."

"Feels better when you do it," Gamzee replied with a lazy smile and stood to let Eridan up, sitting back down in his seat, one leg folded with his foot tucked under himself, the other leg stretched along the couch.

"That's because you don't do it enough and when you do, you don't take your fuckin' time," scolded Eridan, on his way to grab Gamzee's brush from his bathroom. He returned shortly thereafter and slowly started his way through each plait of hair, working from the tips up. "If you don't take care a it, it's goin' ta end up all dead an' broken, an' look like a fuckin' disaster."

"Pretty sure you're the only one that actually cares about my motherfuckin' hair," Gamzee mused, sitting back and letting Eridan do what he wanted, smiling faintly to himself.

"Pff, _clearly_ ," Eridan grumbled as he pursed his lips and worked through a particularly tough tangle. "Might as well cut it all fuckin' off if you're gonna let it get this bad. Or dread it up if you gotta. Your hair's fuckin' curly enough ta do that." He walked around to get the front of Gamzee's hair, since it was hard working around and between the other's horns. "Wouldn't look bad on you, actually. Might be one a the few who wouldn't look like a fuckin' trainwreck with dreads."

"Maybe," Gamzee shrugged, smiling a little more widely as he thought about it. He was honestly fine with his hair the way it was, just as he'd been fine with it when it was just its gravity-defying fluff as a kid. He looked back up at Eridan, reaching his arms back and in the way of his brushing, wrapping them around the other's middle. "You think I need a haircut?"

Eridan stoutly denied himself to show exactly how much he enjoyed that as he continued to work through the other's hair, serious as can be. "Not if you take fuckin' care a it." He looked down at Gamzee, looking him in the eyes. "It looks just fine when it isn't a huge fuckin' knot." Shit, it looked fine no matter how fucking messy it got, but he wasn't going to say that. He set his jaw in frustration as he couldn't get to any more hair to work, and crossed his arms, tapping the brush against his elbow, still in Gamzee's arms, waiting for him to let go. He stayed there though, just looking back up at him with an eerie sort of focus, then turned around in his seat and put his arms back around Eridan's waist before he could move away, sitting up on the arm of the couch with his knees on either side of the other's legs. He rested his chin against Eridan's chest, looking up at him still and giving him an amused little smile.

"You know what I think?" He murmured, "I think you like fuckin' with my hair as much as I like it."

"I wouldn't be doin' it if I didn't like ta," Eridan said with a small pout, looking down at Gamzee. "What's your point?" He rested his arms on his friend's and raised an eyebrow. "You keep tryin' to get me flustered, and it just isn't goin' ta work today."

"Thing is, I'm pretty sure I don't have to motherfuckin' try." Gamzee smiled up at him a little more widely, then stood up and pecked his lips playfully, leaning back and grinning.

Eridan raised both eyebrows to the quick kiss, and then reached down to wrap his hand into the front of Gamzee's shirt, his eyes narrowing. "Don't fuck around, Gam," he muttered, pulling the other closer again. "You can't just keep playin' this fuckin' game with me. Either you got a flushed thing for me, or you fuckin' don't. Make up your fuckin' broke-ass mind."

Gamzee bumped the bridge of his nose against Eridan's, his grin never fading. "Maybe I don't call it a motherfuckin' flushed thing," he muttered back, his arms tightening around Eridan's waist. "Maybe I do it because I fuckin' like you and I fuckin' wanna." He smiled widely once again then pressed his lips back against Eridan's, staying there a little longer this time before dropping away entirely. "'Course, if you want me ta stop all you gotta do is say so."

He had a chance to respond to the kiss, and did, his fingers uncurling from Gamzee's shirt to relax and move to his shoulder. He stepped back and shook his head, "Now you _gotta_ fuckin' know that's splittin' hairs, Gam," he said with an exasperated eyeroll. "I mean, that's pretty fuckin' much what matespritship boils down ta these fuckin' days, since it really doesn't have a fuckin' procreational slant." He dropped into his seat and rubbed his face. "What the fuck gave you the impression I wanted you ta stop? All I fuckin' want is you ta be fuckin' straightforward about shit."

"You spazzin' the fuck out when I did anything ain't the most motherfuckin' comforting," Gamzee pointed out, "And I know you're all up n' motherfuckin' scared of the relationship shit. Hell, I don't motherfuckin' blame you." He sat down beside Eridan with his hands together between his knees, leaning forward with his arms resting against his legs. "It don't have to be a motherfuckin' relationship if that ain't what you want. But hey, now we got the real talk out of the way right? You don't have to go around harassin' Karkat every time you don't know what to fuckin' do." He looked back at Eridan with an arched brow. He'd used the phone on occasion, sending a message to Karkat every so often, once in awhile seeing the last few comments of the precious conversations between Eridan and Karkat.

 _That_ got the purple to rise in Eridan's cheeks. "Fuckin' snoop," he quietly chided. He took a deep breath and sat up, putting his hand on Gamzee's shoulder as he spoke just above a whisper. "I'm not sure what I want, Gam," he murmured, pushing his glasses back up onto his forehead to rub his temples and the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "An' for the record, it wasn't that I didn't like the shit you were doin', it's just that I wasn't fuckin' sure how ta deal with it."

Sitting back up, Gamzee reached a hand back behind Eridan's head, scratching at it gently. "Just so you know, I'm not tryin' to all up an' motherfuckin' jerk you around. Never fuckin' was."

"Nah, I get that," Eridan said with a sigh, leaning into the light scalp massage. "Shit, I was the one doin' that ta both a us." He shrugged apologetically with a lopsided, weak smile. "I guess this is all fuckin' good an' dealt with, though. Just as long as you realize never once did I tell you no."

"Guess this means I got permission to do somethin'," Gamzee smiled back then moved the other hand up to scratch lightly at the place just above Eridan's gills that he'd taken to harassing every now and then just to see him blush. He leaned in before Eridan could object and sucked him into another kiss, lips parted but more or less chaste.

Eridan had only _just_ gotten his blush under control, and he lit back up again, both proverbially and in actuality, while he moved into the kiss, surprised that Gamzee was being so reserved. Well, he thought, he'd already said he only did it because he felt like it, and maybe that was all he felt like doing. He wasn't going to push things. Eridan dipped away from the kiss and muttered in a fairly pouty way how he was probably glowing down to his wrists. Gamzee smiled against his cheek then kissed the spots of luminescence. "Too motherfuckin' cute," he murmured then leaned back to drag the tips of his fingers along the faintly glowing spots, down Eridan's neck to the collar of his shirt.

"Yeah, they're just fuckin' precious," muttered Eridan as he averted his eyes, setting his jaw so he wouldn't shudder at the feeling, though he tilted his chin up for Gamzee as his fingertips traced down, and he put his hand on Gamzee's hip, if only to give his hands something to do other than clench into fists.

"C'mon man, I mean it," Gamzee murmured and dragged his fingertips along the spaces between Eridan's gills, nosing against the spots again then laying his forehead against Eridan's to look him in the face. "They were cute as shit when you were little, too."

Eridan huffed a chuckle, and poked Gamzee in the chest lightly, " _You_ weren't supposed ta see that, you sneaky fuckin' clown. I shoulda known you were spyin', too." He had kept his shit together when they were all together, except for the once. But it didn't matter. Eridan didn't mind that Gamzee had seen him glowing - no matter what the reason, of which there was only a few that could possibly be the case - and he leaned up into another light kiss to keep from wanting to ask what the hell he'd been doing at the time to warrant it. He could only guess.

"I learn shit, bro. An' I've seen you swim in the dark." Smiling some against Eridan's lips, Gamzee leaned back some, drawing him closer. "Seen some'a the patterns, too. Real motherfuckin' pretty to see at night. Like a straight up motherfuckin' constellation."

Eridan's smirk went lopsided as he slipped closer again, and he took off his glasses, as they really weren't necessary this close and only served to get in the way as he brushed his own fingers over the covered up scars on Gamzee's face. "I doubt it was 'cause I was swimmin' back then, there wasn't any fuckin' pool on the meteor, dude." He reminded, looking at his fingertips that wound up getting a little paint on them - though not as much as he'd thought he would. He wiped them off on his own pants and raised an eyebrow.

"Got good paint n' sealer," Gamzee muttered, reading the look on Eridan's face. "And nah, I know there wasn't any motherfuckin' pool on the meteor. Still saw a lot." He laid his hands against the small of Eridan's back, turning and stretching a long leg over the top of the other's to be able to face him more fully. "Been able to watch you swim here when neither of us could sleep. You never notice it when you're down there sittin in the bottom of the pool, but I guess that's the motherfuckin' point isn't it? Just ignore the rest of the world and get your fuckin' thoughts in order."

Eridan nodded to that, smiling faintly again, both at the correct assessment to his actions, and the distinctly intimate way Gamzee's hands were at his back. "It's the only fuckin' place I can get away from everythin' an' piece shit back together when it all falls apart. Can't even go around in the ocean, there's so many fuckin' highbloods here. Shit, I fuckin' miss how relatively quiet it was where me an' Fef were." He shook his head. That was beside the point. "But you fuckin' know how I get if I overthink anythin'."

"That's why I like it up here," Gamzee nodded in kind. "Never had any motherfuckin' peace 'til I got here. I'm pretty fuckin' content right now." He put his head back down against Eridan's, closing his eyes as he let out a soft sigh. "Yeah I know. An' I'm sorry for fuckin' with ya like I have been. Not exactly somethin' I know how to approach any other way y'know?"

"Gam," Eridan started with a huff, before his subtly shook his head. "Don't apologize, it isn't fuckin' becomin' a you. We were both bein' assholes. You saw how fuckin' well I handled it.An' since it's trivial shit ta begin with, we can drop it."

"Just glad we're ok." Gamzee wrapped his arms more tightly around Eridan's middle, his face pressing against his shoulder with his nose tucked against Eridan's neck, leaving a thin smudge of paint there below his gills.

"Yeah, we're okay, bro," Eridan confirmed, putting his hand through Gamzee's hair and pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "You're just fuckin' impossible ta get too mad at." All throughout the past few weeks, the only person he consistently stayed mad at was himself. Eridan slipped away after a few minutes of simple, silent embrace, and then offered up a hand to Gamzee to pull himself up with. "Time ta get your afternoon meds, an' then I'm gonna take a walk, see where I want ta put some a those statues still fuckin' takin' up space on the patio."

Nodding, Gamzee took his hand and pulled himself up after, standing up beside him and keeping ahold of his hand for a moment before heading to the kitchen for the pills, then decided to follow Eridan out to the patio, figuring he could be of some help with some of the heavier or more awkwardly-shaped statuary. He could hold off on getting stoned until that was done.

It took about an hour, and most of that was walking up and down the hill, placing the statues along the stone path, amidst friendly talk about nothing in particular. Eridan was no featherweight, himself, able to carry a statue like it was practically nothing, simply due to the fact that he'd had spent a good deal of his younger years wielding a rifle twice as long as he was tall, and never let that lean strength dissipate once he found himself in this world.

Once they were done setting up the statues - Gamzee was the one to place most of them, going on intuition rather than some sort of strategic plan - Eridan started back up to the house, looking at the clearing with a tilt of his head. "Next time I think a it, I'll grab some veggie seeds an' we can start that garden you've been hintin' about."

"Shit, dude you mean that?" Gamzee grinned and stood up beside him, looking out at the clearing himself. He'd continued to collect seeds from the fruits and vegetables he prepared, having enough to start a healthy-sized garden already, he was sure, but having some storebought certainly wouldn't hurt. "I got some seeds from shit I was told was grown around here so I know it'll actually live when we get it in the motherfuckin' dirt. Gonna need some tools n' shit, though."

"Do I ever joke?" Eridan said with a shake of his head, though his smile hadn't diminished. "I was goin' ta swing by the garden center ta pick up some plants for that room tomorrow, anyway. Yhey'll have what you'll need for all a that." He shrugged one shoulder and started up the steps to the patio, grabbing the bottle of water he'd set there and finishing it off. "It'll be nice gettin' some actual fresh veggies an' shit ta cook with, without payin' out the chute for them." He went inside and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin that was 80% bottles at any given time. Gamzee lingered outside for a moment, grinning to himself, internally doing a very happy little squirm that, for him, equated to jumping and whooping. He followed Eridan back inside and wrapped his arms around his shoulders while he was still walking. With the honk that came with the embrace, Eridan laughed softly and put his hand up to pat Gamzee's arm.

"Man this is gonna be so legit. Might even get to sell some shit if they get big and fuckin' healthy." He nosed behind Eridan's earfin then let him go and went back outside to mill around restlessly in the sun. Eridan shivered a bit, laughing quietly to himself and shaking his head; he couldn't deny how enamored of Gamzee's mellow, but genuine excitement he was. He settled back down in his chair and went back to reading, simply to pass the time before dinner, as it was his turn to cook. He'd already planned on making teriyaki eel.

After dinner, Gamzee had set himself up outside on the patio under a light slowly collecting moths, curled up in a chair with his sketchpad on his knee, sketching idly without really paying attention. It was cool out that evening and the breeze persistently tossed stray curls into his face, not that he really seemed to care or notice. He was happy to give Eridan a little time to himself to get whatever he needed to done, or to finish his book. He'd turned his music down low to be able to hear the wind rustling through the trees surrounding the property, the white noise starting to lull him into a doze.

After managing to fall asleep and nearly fall out of his seat facefirst into the stonework, Gamzee shook himself and went to the pool instead, laying his sketchpad aside where it wouldn't get wet then stripping to his boxers and slipping into the water silently. A few dozen laps would help him get through the hours until he finally went to bed.

Eridan had finished his book and wandered into the pool room once he looked outside to see Gamzee dozing on the patio. He hadn't been expecting to have Gamzee show up only ten minutes later, but as he was chilling out under the water, eyes closed, the water was disturbed by the waves of the highblood slipping into it, and he looked up. He smirked as he walked across the bottom of the pool to reach up to Gamzee's leg as he did his first lap, and wrapped his hand around his friend's ankle swiftly, easy as catching a large fish. He surfaced after letting go with a smug smile, inching out of Gamzee's reach.

Gamzee had twisted around in the water, letting a small cloud of bubbles from his mouth then grinning back, surfacing just long enough to take another breath then dipping back down after him, curling around him and turning over lazily in the water. He could stay under a good deal longer than one of a lower blood caste, that was immediately obvious as he approached with one hand outstretched, grabbing for Eridan's as he moved behind him. Eridan chuckled as Gamzee grabbed his hand, and he pulled the other closer as he expelled the air from his gills and started the slow process of breathing the oxygen he could get out of the water, instead. His pupils were slits as he watched Gamzee move, and he wrapped his arm around the other, gracefully moving up to him to nose against his jaw. He had been spending far too much time being on the receiving end of affections, and it was high time to repay in kind.

As soon as they collided Gamzee wrapped the other arm around Eridan's waist, his feet kicking lazily. He tilted his chin up some and laid his cheek against Eridan's head as he was half blinded by his hair drifting in the water around them. He laid his hands on Eridan's horns after a few moments and used them to lever the seadweller's head back, nosing at his cheek then taking his lips in a brief kiss, still smiling widely. With a chuckle into the kiss, Eridan slipped his fingertips across Gamzee's back as he inched backwards towards one of the pool's walls, bringing the other along with him with the unspoken but very tangible promises of more kisses if he came along. He lightly brushed his teeth against Gamzee's lower lip in one quick kiss, and then leaned his head back, luring him into another in which he flicked his tongue out. Gamzee very happily followed after him, moving through the water almost as naturally as Eridan himself did before he came to the wall, his hand resting against it as he pressed back into the kiss, his lips closing on Eridan's lower one then parting to flick his own tongue out in kind, just brushing the other's upper lip in a brief tease.

The tease worked well, as Eridan leaned forward to catch Gamzee's mouth with his own, slipping his tongue out to brush along the other's. His hand slipped around to the small of Gamzee's back, pulling him close enough where their chests were flush against each other. His other hand wrapped around the back of Gamzee's neck and he let sparks of white energy crawl down his spine as they kissed. Gamzee's back arched up some along the path of the energy and let out a small burst of breath, watching the bubbles float to the surface for a moment then drawing Eridan into a deeper kiss, his tongue once more seeking the other's out, his free hand coming to rest on the corner of Eridan's jaw.

With a low murmur at the back of his throat, Eridan leaned into the kiss as his tongue slipped out to join Gamzee's, and he sent another wave of energy down - smaller and more teasing - as he arched up against Gamzee's chest, lightly trailing his teeth over the other's tongue. He only noticed then that he'd been completely in the moment and hadn't thought very far ahead at all, and he let out an amused little sound at the thought. Gamzee had managed to bring him into a spontaneous moment with him, and he hadn't even realized it until well into it. What was more, Eridan didn't even mind, overmuch.

Gamzee was still absorbed in the kiss, his skin prickling some with the passage of the energy. He wound his fingers into Eridan's hair and closed the other hand on the edge of the pool, using it to pull himself up flush against Eridan with his feet braced against the tiles. He was only just starting to get lightheaded after having the breath surprised out of him at least twice, but he wouldn't pull away just yet. Eridan lingered for a few more moments before pulling away to brush his sharp teeth gently across Gamzee's jaw, then leaned his head back to look into the other's eyes. "Get some air," he said, his voice considerably different underwater, in that he had to find a different way to force the syllables into existence using only his vocal cords. It was easier in Alternian, but he managed with English as best he could. Gamzee pouted some at him but conceded and pushed off from the floor of the pool, surfacing and taking a moment to breathe before taking a long, deep breath and diving back down and wrapping his arms around Eridan's neck, one of his legs hooking around the seadweller's to be able to stay pressed back against him. He waved his hair back away from his face then leaned his head against Eridan's and grinned once more.

In that moment when Gamzee was above the water, Eridan took the time to settle down some. However, once Gamzee was back and his leg was wrapped against his, he realized he was having trouble _staying_ calm. While his bioluminescence was always a standard when he was underwater, never was it usually this bright, nor did it light up even the more faint spots that speckled his forehead and jaw unless he was very deep below the surface. He grinned right back at Gamzee, despite how worked up he'd gotten, and nudged his nose against the other's while he put his hand back where it had been resting at the small of his back.

Gamzee's hands came to rest on either side of Eridan's jaw, long fingers cradling it and tilting his head up to be able to take his lips in a lighter, brief kiss then peck his way along the pattern of spots across Eridan's cheek. He nudged his forehead against Eridan's, scratching gently at the place just above his gills. He wondered in the back of his mind if he might be welcome into Eridan's cocoon for the night, unwilling to eventually let go of him, but he knew better than to push just in case he triggered another spazz attack. Eridan smiled with the kisses to his cheek, though once the sensitive skin of above his gills was touched again, he let out a low sound and his fingers curled reflexively against the small of Gamzee's back, the tips of his nails lightly dragging against the skin. At that point, there was really no thought in Eridan's mind other than how badly he was doing at holding himself back from giving in to weeks' worth of fantasies - whether begrudgingly had or not - at the expense of the highblood. He leaned in for another kiss, but it only lasted a moment before he brought his lips close to Gamzee's ear and brushed against it, mouthing the words he'd _wanted_ to say. The murmur was muffled by the water to a degree that it only sounded like a groan in Gamzee's ear. It still sent a warm shiver straight south accompanied by the scratching across his lower back and made his hips roll forward in reflex, pinning Eridan to the wall and mouthing along his jaw to bite just above his gills, carefully sucking at the skin then drawing away to look Eridan in the face. His hand came to rest against Eridan's cheek and drag his thumb across the luminescent pattern standing out vividly against his flushed skin.

Eridan's jaw went slack as he tilted his head back as far as his horns would allow before they hit the wall. Once Gamzee let go, he caught the other's gaze, his own eyes gone dilated as he set his jaw once more, his lips parted so his teeth were showing. He ground his hips forward and leaned to catch Gamzee's throat lightly between his lips and then teeth, leaving tiny pinpricks where he very carefully showed restraint in latching on, his hands both moving to either side of the back of Gamzee's shoulders. One hand slipped down to settle against Eridan's hip and grip down, kneading slowly as he rocked up again in return. Gamzee was starting to turn a dark shade of purple along the tops of his cheekbones as he grew more worked up but he simply let it go on, completely unabashed at the blush. He bit into his lower lip with a soft smile and let out a thin stream of bubbles then ducked back down to capture Eridan's lips once more, the hand on his hip circling around to the lean muscle of his ass and giving it a brief squeeze, a playful honk leaving his throat and warping some in the water. With a chuckle at the back of his throat, Eridan slid his own fingers back down to pull Gamzee closer again by his ass, before he thought twice about the situation and the setting. His other hand went around to brush across Gamzee's jaw and he spoke in Alternian. They should leave the pool for a number of reasons. He looked down between them and at the slight amount of heavy fluid that he'd already secreted which was slowly coiling down to the bottom of the pool, where he knew it'd need more than just a filter to clean up. Gamzee followed his line of sight downward and lifted his foot some, causing the fluid to swirl some through the water before settling back down again. He let go of Eridan and pushed back off to the surface then grabbed the side and lifted himself out, settling down on the edge of the pool and pushing his hair back away from his face as he waited.

He didn't have to wait long for Eridan to pull himself up as well, flushing the water from his system with a heavy huff before he lifted himself out of the pool and stood, holding his hand out for Gamzee to pull himself up. He stood and pressed back against Eridan immediately, feeling distinctly heavy after spending so long in the water. After shaking it off he laid his hands back on Eridan's hips and bumped their noses together, walking him back inside without caring to watch where he was going.

It was a little worrisome, not being able to see where they were going, but Eridan was careful as he settled his own hands on Gamzee's hips and started walking backwards. It lasted about halfway down the hall to his room, where his back bumped up against the wall and he dragged Gamzee closer, not giving much of a shit that this wasn't much of a destination at all. He claimed the highblood's lips again with a low, dark sound, all while the scent of overripe plums started to become apparent. It was more subtle, but mingling with that was something of an artificial, chemical grape, which went ignored for the time being as Gamzee pressed back into the kiss then mouthed back along the line of Eridan's jaw then back to his neck between his ear and gills. His hands started to roam again, fingers grazing over Eridan's skin then dragging his claws up the seadweller's sides. With a shivered groan as he tilted his head back, Eridan gripped Gamzee's sides tight and pulled him close again, his lips parted to let out a hiss. He squinted down the hall to see how far his room was, and then gently pushed Gamzee away momentarily, taking the other's wrist as he pulled him that direction.

Gamzee followed behind him and wrapped the other arm around his shoulders, wanting to stay as close to him as possible even as they walked. He nosed and kissed the space behind Eridan's ear then down the back of his neck until he reached his shoulder and nipped there teasingly, still smiling to himself as he did. That closeness was endearing, and the way Gamzee kissed and teased and nibbled made Eridan shudder another breath as they stepped into the room. He rounded against Gamzee once inside enough to close the door behind them, and wrapped his hand firmly around the back of the other's neck, dragging him down for a viciously needy kiss, crushing his chest up against Gamzee's as he pulled himself as close as he could. Gamzee pushed back against him, continuing to walk Eridan back until he was against the wall again. He wrapped a hand around the back of Eridan's thigh and hiked his leg up, lifting him off the ground with astonishing ease for one so thin. He mouthed at the underside of Eridan's chin and down his throat then let a relatively warm breath against his skin. He wasn't generally all right with being lifted, but at that point, Eridan simply couldn't care less about what Gamzee decided to do, provided he _didn't stop_. He wrapped his arms around Gamzee's shoulders and kept himself up, hooking his ankles behind Gamzee's thin waist as he leaned heavily against the wall, the tips of his horns grinding into the paint on the wall as he tilted his head back. He scratched Gamzee's shoulders lightly as he looked back down at him, with his eyes still dilated and the dots that ran from his cheeks and neck, down in patterns across his shoulders, arms, chest and legs still lit the otherwise dark room.

Gamzee gave him a lazy smile and nudged his nose up against Eridan's then started to kiss over the spots again, the inordinate fascination with them never quite fading. He pushed his hips forward to support Eridan against the wall and went back to harassing his neck down toward his collarbones. "Taste like the motherfuckin' ocean," he murmured against the other's skin and buried his nose against the crook of Eridan's neck.

"Seawater does that," Eridan pointed out, albeit in a breathy, quiet tone, and on its heels came an equally subdued, "don't stop." He curled his fingers into the back of Gamzee's hair and tugged lightly, as he arched his back in a graceful roll from shoulders to hips. He considered putting his feet back on the floor momentarily, if only to provoke Gamzee into further exploration, but he was in no rush. Gamzee pulled his hair back out of Eridan's grip with a quiet growl and let him back down to the ground, holding him up to keep him steady. He nudged his forehead against Eridan's then let him go to do as he pleased without moving too far away.

Eridan didn't move far, slipping his hands away from Gamzee's shoulders before he slid his fingertips down over the other's chest and down to the elastic of his boxers, watching their progress before looking back up into Gamzee's eyes, tugging them down off his hips with a quick, firm pull. In the next moment, his hand slipped down across Gamzee's hip and inward as a twitch of a smile tugged the corner of his lips and he leaned up to catch the other's neck between his teeth lightly. Gamzee let out a quiet, gruff sound and rested his chin against Eridan's head, his hands coming to rest against the sides of Eridan's neck, scratching between his gills then dragging his nails down the center of his chest. He pushed Eridan back against the wall again and shoved his tongue deep into his mouth as his hips pushed forward in a slow, languid roll, the candied scent starting to grow thick and cloying around them. Eridan moved his hands away to push out of his swim trunks and let them drop wetly down onto the floor as he arched up into the scratches, the dots of luminescence that were disturbed by Gamzee's nails brightening momentarily. The kiss was received with a low sound from the back of his throat, and Eridan brought his own nails up Gamzee's back, not quite rough enough to leave welts or marks. Once he brought one hand back down to the small of Gamzee's back, and the other to the back of his neck, he subtly moved them and he brought energy across Gamzee's hips and down across his bulge, and teased at his nook while he smiled into the kiss.

Gamzee sucked in a sharp breath then let it out in a quiet chuckle as his bulge started to peek into the open. He grinned against Eridan's lips and reached down to take two handfuls of the other's ass, giving a gentle squeeze and a quiet, teasing honk, privately amused at how much Eridan seemed to like the sound. Smirking and rocking his hips forward, Eridan broke the kiss to move the energy pulse upwards and away, dissipating it once he coaxed Gamzee's bulge out entirely. His own bulge was twitching up into the open, seeking heat. He brought one hand up to rest at the side of Gamzee's neck, the web between his thumb and forefinger stretching up along the highblood's jaw as he looked into his eyes, his expression unreadable but intense as he rocked his hips forward and brought the tip of his bulge out to wrap around Gamzee's with a quiet huff of breath. Gamzee's chin tilted up with the touch as he returned the look, his bulge twisting back around Eridan's and squeezing down. He grinned back at Eridan as he groped and massaged the other's hips and pulled him forward, his nose pressing against the seadweller's temple. His bulge flexed and curled slowly, putting a tight squeeze on Eridan's then starting to grip down rhythmically.

With a groan of surprise, Eridan broke the gaze with his eyes slipping closed, and responded in kind, curling his nails into the back of Gamzee's neck, the other slipping down to the other's ass as his bulge flexed and tightened the grip against Gamzee's with a rhythm that felt favorable. He looked back up and shuddered another quiet sound, ignoring for the time being that they were making a mess of the floor beneath them. The growing purple puddle didn't seem to faze Gamzee any as he rolled his hips forward, pressing their bulges in between them and using his own to force Eridan's to curl downward, concentrating on the muscles flexing around it and slipping wetly around one-another. He licked his lips and looked Eridan in the face while his hands dragged back up again, his nails hooked just enough to leave light scratches in Eridan's skin.

Eridan smirked and snapped his teeth at Gamzee's tongue, then he shuddered another breath, his head dropping down against the other's shoulder at the strength of the grip Gamzee's bulge had on his own, though he carefully and roughly teased his tip down the length of Gamzee's to plunge into his nook, rocking his hips firmly to get closer and deeper in. Gamzee clenched his jaw at the sudden invasion, letting out a quiet growl then giving Eridan a slightly feral smile as his head tilted, his own bulge curling down and twisting down to push up into Eridan's nook in kind. His teeth closed on Eridan's upper lip and pulled him back into a deep kiss, his tongue moving in tandem with his bulge.

Eridan growled into the kiss and slipped his thigh up over Gamzee's hip again and scratched across his back, parting his lips to coax Gamzee's tongue into his mouth as his bulge pulsed and prodded inside of Gamzee and his nook flexed around the highblood's bulge in tandem. While the angle was slightly awkward and didn't allow for as much penetration as either of them might have liked, he tried to make it work, rolling his hips into Eridan's and gripping down on his side as he leaned the other back against the wall for balance. He lifted one leg and braced it against the wall beside Eridan's hip as his bulge pressed deeper into the seadweller's body. He shuddered quiet, sweet murmurs against the other's lips, saying anything that came to mind about what he was feeling, what he wanted and how motherfucking nice it was going to smell in there when they were done.

Attentive to what Gamzee was murmuring, Eridan replied quietly to some things, asking to elaborate on what he wanted, while he pushed himself as deep as he could. The way their bulges brushed against each other on their way into each other's nooks was, in itself, extremely pleasing, and he shivered a groan as he continued to grip and scratch wherever he could reach. "Fuckin' hell," he hissed after a few more minutes, "Gam, the bucket." He motioned weakly towards where it was set, just out of reach and tucked away. Gamzee twisted around in place without drawing his hips away, glancing around for it then arching back in a slow bend until one of his hands was planted on the floor, the other reaching for and snagging the handle of the bucket then bringing it back. He grunted quietly as he nudged it into place where the puddle was beneath them and grabbed ahold of Eridan's arm to pull himself back upright. With a slightly lightheaded grin he leaned back into the other's body and pushed into him hard, pushing the exposed part of his bulge up against Eridan's. Eridan watched with quiet admiration as he kept a firm hold of Gamzee, and once the other was back upright, and buried inside of him, he let out a loud moan, and slipped his bulge out slowly to plunge back in, pulsing heavily as he caught Gamzee's mouth with his own to stifle another, louder sound as genetic material started dripping slowly down between them and down his thighs, their combined scent making him go a little lightheaded, himself.

Gamzee braced his arms against the wall as he moved with the pulse of the genetic material starting to gush back out of him as more was emptied into his nook, dripping into and around the bucket the more he moved. Finally he started to come as well, letting out a ragged groan and scratching at the wall, leaving furrows in the paper. When he could move finally he put his foot back down, withdrawing from Eridan only to lean back down against him with his nose tucked against the seadweller's throat.

At the final gush of his own genetic material, Eridan let out a heavy sigh, and wrapped an arm back around Gamzee's shoulders, turning slightly to press a gentle kiss to the corner of Gamzee's jaw. His bulge retreated back to his sheath and he smirked faintly. "Well shit," he spoke, his voice hoarse, "gonna need ta mop this up before I get ta sleep." He was far more amused than frustrated. He looked down at the overflowing bucket and the mess on the floor, hoping that the expensive wood flooring beneath them wouldn't stain. Gamzee bumped his cheek against Eridan's then kissed his forehead, bending to grab the bucket and haul it to the bathroom to empty and rinse it out, completely uncaring about the two-toned streaks of purple running down the insides of his thighs. He was humming quietly to himself when he returned with the emptied bucket and put it back where he'd found it, grabbing his boxers off the floor and swinging them up over his shoulder.

Eridan hummed thoughtfully, smiling faintly to himself as he pried himself away from the wall, looking back at where Gamzee's nails and his horns did a number on the paint and paper. He decided he'd keep it; there was no better trophy of the night than a very obvious set of claw and horn tracks in the wall. He went to grab the mop and soaked up the rest of the fluid then went to rinse that out as well, looking over at Gamzee as he returned.

"Hope you aren't plannin' on goin' off ta your cocoon tonight," he said as he nodded over to his own. He put the mop away again, and then went to wash his own thighs off, smiling to himself. That wasn't the day's plan, but he was more than okay with the shift in schedule. They'd work through the tough, emotional things at their own leisure. This was fine, otherwise.

He pulled himself up to the lip of his cocoon and slipped in, having left his own trunks in the laundry basket to be dealt with at a later time. He was far too exhausted to really think at that point. Gamzee stopped and smiled faintly, shaking his head some as he passed right by the door and walked around the side of the cocoon, leaving his shorts on the ground and crawling in beside Eridan to wrap his arms around the other's middle, nose pressed into his neck as he dozed off. At least tonight it didn't look like he would need a sleeping pill.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davekat faffing about!

Over the month after spring break, life had started growing more and more hectic. Final projects and papers, curriculum-based outings to important but ultimately achingly dull places, homework, job and maybe a few hours of sleep every night kept most of them from talking more than a little each day. Terezi had been running herself ragged just as much as Karkat and Dave had been, rarely having time to get online to see them. There was occasional brief conversation, mostly about school-related things and comments back and forth about the blog Sollux ran concerning the rebuilding of his car, which was almost complete the last time they'd checked, then another few days of silence. Not even weekends offered a reprieve as they used that time to catch up on what little sleep they could manage.

Dave was prone to being even more snippy more recently, barely passing in one of his less favored classes and making an effort to catch up before he failed out of it and didn't get the credits he'd need to advance into a necessary set of courses for the next year. He'd slept very little once spring break was over, working diligently on both the film and his photography projects, writing long and thoughtful papers for his film history courses. Which was what he was working on just then, perched tensely in one of the seats on the patio, with his laptop on the table as he sipped his coffee and chain smoked to keep himself awake. His free hand was peeling paint off the grating of the table with his fingernails as he read over the paper he'd just written, knowing that _this_ professor actually took the time to read every paper that was assigned and written.

Karkat hadn't come home that afternoon yet, nor had he sent a message letting Dave know he would be back late. He'd fallen asleep in the campus library working on one of his longer papers, his cheek pressed against the page of the book he'd been taking notes from. They were leaving him alone, as long as he didn't snore, students walking around him carefully. He wasn't the only one catching a much-needed nap there, after all and they all seemed to know how it felt. Occasionally someone would check if one of the less mobile sleepers was still breathing before going on their way, one or two snapping photos to post to their blogs.

Some time later in the evening one of Karkat's study group happened through the library and came across him, looking around at the clock then snapping a photo with her phone of him then sending it off to Dave, telling him that he'd probably be home in the next few hours. Dave looked at the photo with a grimace and then sent a text to Karkat's phone, letting him know he'd probably be out on a walk when he woke up. He finished looking over the paper and sent it off before getting up and grabbing his camera and bag, walking out of the apartment after making sure that Em's food bowl was full. 

He had been taking longer walks at night, as well, but he didn't seem to notice, nor did the actual progression of time itself, if one was careful to observe that sort of thing. His last project of the year for the photography class had been to focus on the tools that shaped the people around them; tools of the trade, instruments that fueled their passions, tools that shaped people into what they were. He'd gone a sideways direction with it, and was taking photos of things that were instrumental in shaping the people around him, but things that wouldn't necessarily be considered so. For himself, he'd spent a couple hours setting up and getting the lighting _just_ right so when he took the picture of one of the many swords he had stowed away, it caught a vision of him in its reflection. For Karkat, he'd caught his matesprit looking through several books, and the lighting was naturally just so that his shadow was caught over the pages of a rather old, worn copy of The Republic. Kanaya's was just of her hands as she repaired one of Bro's well-loved shirts during vacation, her beautiful, thin fingers working with a needle and thread, showing off the inherent grace and motherly tendency to spoil who she'd come to consider hers.

He had decided, however, that he was going to take some photos for himself. The night felt right to walk and happen upon something that sparked in him some artistic muse. The moon was full and bright, and it illuminated the new buds of leaves on the trees and cast shadows against all the buildings, bathing everything in an eerie, serene light. He walked up the hill, and before he hit campus, he veered left, onto a trail he'd once found that led down to a botanical garden and stream that ran alongside one of the many jogging and bike paths that criss-crossed the city, and headed west on it, wondering to himself if he'd wind up at the public library if he walked far enough.

When Karkat finally made it home, Dave was still out on his walk. It was getting toward midnight and at least he wouldn't have class the next day, making it his day to finally catch up on at least a little of his sleep. He had to step around Em, who was starting to feel neglected the more the two of them got absorbed into their school work, regularly put down on the floor whenever she would try to climb into their laps and demand attention. She was getting a little too big to really be called a kitten anymore but still seemed to keep her inner ear dysfunction. Karkat had mentioned once or twice that when they had time they should probably get her looked at by a vet but it had since slipped either of their minds. He'd done a fair amount of research on cat diseases that could possibly cause it, but after systematically eliminating all of the possibilities given lack of symptoms aside from the lack of balance, he'd come to the conclusion that his cat was just slightly stupid.

The couch was as far as he made it when he stepped into the apartment and dropped his bags by the door, crawling onto it facedown and barely moving when Em crawled up to settle into the small of his back, purring quietly now that he was holding still long enough for her to lay on. He was asleep within minutes with one of the throwpillows clutched under his head.

Dave returned with a spent roll of film and a 7-11 coffee, at about three in the morning. He got his foot tackled by the cat, and he smiled faintly, picking her up under one arm to hug her and murmur how she was a good little girl, even as big as she was. She forcibly nudged his jaw with her face and he kissed her before putting her down and walked in, seeing Karkat sprawled across the couch. He huffed a chuckle and grabbed a blanket from the corner, unfolding it over Karkat before going back to the patio to continue working on papers. He'd just caught his second wind on his way home, and there was little prospect for sleep that night, for him. He actually somewhat envied his matesprit for being able to drop off to sleep like he did, even though he knew it was out of exhaustion.

By morning Karkat was curled up in the corner of the couch with the blanket up around his ears and Em tucked up under the edge of it against his chest. He'd barely moved save for curling in on himself gradually overnight. He came loose again when the sunlight streaming through the window made it impossible to sleep and simply stretched out on the couch instead to doze with his face against the back of it, listening to the traffic outside. Dave heard the creak of the couch as Karkat moved, and blinked blearily up and into the living room from his spot on the porch, having not realized that he'd been dozing off for about an hour, re-reading the same four sentences before his brain blanked and repeated the process. He saved his progress and closed the laptop, bringing it inside as he shuffled over to the sofa. "Morning," he murmured, sprawling out against Karkat's spine and the outside of the cushions, curling his up around his matesprit's waist. "G'night," he added against Karkat's neck just as soon as he was cozy. He hadn't even taken off his shades, and in fact, had likely forgotten they were even on. "Wake me up when it's time for work," he slurred as an afterthought, though he was likely not even awake enough to understand a response. As soon as Dave stopped moving, Karkat dozed off again with his arm over the top of his matesprit's, holding his hand loosely until he'd gone back to sleep.

When his phone buzzed around noon he sat up and scrubbed at his eyes, grumbling under his breath and pressing his face into the back of the couch to block out the sunlight. He peeked back at Dave after a few moments then grabbed the shades sitting crooked on his face, slipping them on himself then climbing over the back of the couch to keep from waking him up. The blanket was thrown back over the top of him to let him sleep. The phone buzzing barely woke Dave up and he peeled one eye open to see what the hell time it was, before he just grumbled and sprawled on his belly on the couch, grumbling something about hating everything and wanting to set fire to it. He buried his head down in between the cushions of the sofa and the back of it and fell back to sleep.

Karkat trudged around the kitchen trying to decide what, if anything, would be worth eating before they went to work later. He hadn't even realized he'd been standing with the refrigerator open until Em suddenly crawled up onto the bottom shelf and started nosing around at the eggs and bacon. She was moved and the food was taken out to set on the counter, the decision made that that would be lunch if Dave woke up in the near future.

Dave slept for another twenty minutes before he grumbled and slid up onto his knees, his back and neck aching. "Fuck," he grumbled as he rubbed his face, "I feel like a fuckin' freight train hit me." He plodded off to the bedroom and went to get a clean change of clothes, tripping over a box of CDs he had nowhere to put on his way. He boggled at them and rubbed his forehead, before he made his grudging way to the bathroom to get a start on the day, looking over at Karkat in the kitchen longingly from the door to the bathroom before he trudged in and started up the shower so it could heat up. Karkat was poking at the eggs sitting in the pan on the stove, yawning repeatedly as he prepared the food, layering it all onto a few slices of bread to make sandwiches out of it to eat quickly before they'd have to change and go. He was still wearing Dave's shades, which effectively hid just how horrible the bags under his eyes had started to look.

Dave sighed and set his clean clothes down before stripping out of his shirt. He then squinted faintly at the realization that Karkat was wearing his shades and he plodded back out to the kitchen, walking over to Karkat to drape his arms around his matesprit's waist. "You know, you'll feel a little less like hell if you take a shower," he muttered, looking at the food. "I'll even wait for you," he mentioned offhand as he slipped away and went to turn off the shower so they could both take one and save on some time. Karkat looked down at the plate and its stack of sandwiches, then nodded and put it into the microwave before following after Dave, stripping out of his clothes as he went and tossed them into the hamper on the door then leaning against Dave's back, his cheek against the back of his matesprit's neck.

"Alright, how about shower then food," he mumbled then reached to turn the water back on.

Dave smiled faintly at that and reached over his shoulder to slip the glasses off of Karkat's face, setting them down on the counter nearby. "Sure, just promise you won't fall asleep on me," he teased before slipping out of his own pants. He moved into the shower and groaned pleasantly when the hot water hit his sore neck and shoulders, and he rolled his head, getting a satisfying crunch out of the deal. "Just a few more weeks of this. Then we'll be done and we can fuck around for a few months. That'll be nice."

"Sounds too fucking good to be true," Karkat yawned then nudged Dave forward and dropped his head against the back of his neck again, letting the water run over him for a few moments before grabbing for the body wash, deciding it would suffice for both his hair and body for now. He planted his fists into the small of his back and groaned at the line of pops that ran up his spine, falling limp against Dave again. "Note to dumbfuck selves: the couch is not a good place for sleeping..."

"My problem is that I spent at least an hour last night sleeping with my head propped up on my hand, pretending to do homework," said Dave as he grabbed the shampoo and started working on his hair. He'd since let his roots grow out, and the red was starting to look awkward. "Two more weeks 'til the showing," he muttered. He'd sent the finished product to his professor, who had given him the green light and a date that it'd be on the screen alongside one other, shorter film from another student. He'd sent out the information the day he got it, and knew that the group of people involved would likely be coming to see it.

"I'm freakin' out, actually," Dave muttered. "I'm kind of worried that it won't live up to you guys' expectations. I mean, I don't want everyone to show up and like, have to suffer through 45 minutes of absolute horseshit."

Karkat rolled his eyes and pressed his lips to the back of Dave's neck, arms wrapping around his waist. "The movie will go off just fine and you're mindfucking this again. You're probably going to end up being the best one there and I'll be right there to tell you that you're full of horseshit." He reached for Dave's shampoo and poured some of it into his matesprit's hair, starting to scrub it without waiting for a reaction.

Dave leaned some into the pampering, smiling faintly. "Yeah, well, I'm the one whose life pretty much rides on the shoulders of this fucking trainwreck, okay? I'm freaking out a little that my professor was so quick to put me into the second spot on the show list." He rubbed a hand over his arm pensively before he turned around to put both arms around Karkat's waist. "I don't want to let any of you down, not after all the work you've done, all the time everyone has spent." He smiled weakly at Karkat and brushed away some hair from his matesprit's face to be able to see his eyes. "I want to do justice to your performance."

Karkat's hands slipped down out of Dave's hair to rest against the sides of his neck, his thumbs rubbing over the skin just below his ears. "Dave, come on. You do good work. It'll be fine, trust me." He leaned up to peck at Dave's lips a few times then told him to close his eyes and tip his head back, his fingers running through the other's hair to rinse it out.

"You say awesome things, and I hear them, but then my brain is all 'he's biased, bro' and I feel bad," Dave said with his head back. "Okay, listen. Bias or no, I need _someone_ to look at this for me, okay? I know you've been just as busy as me, but..." He sighed and shrugged a shoulder, looking back over to Karkat as he grabbed the body wash and loofah. "It wouldn't be like a waste of time if you did?"

"It wouldn't be a waste of time regardless," Karkat pointed out then nudged Dave out of the water so that he could rinse down. He stepped back out and grabbed a towel and pulled it around his shoulders as he went back out to the kitchen, then hit the microwave's quick reheat button so that at least their food was warm before they ate. He took the time it was cooking to dress, pulling on one of Dave's shirts and a pair of his own skinny jeans. By now the closet had been thoroughly swapped around and they'd taken to just wearing each other's shirts without caring in most cases. They fit well enough either way.

"There's warm, semi-edible food on the counter when you're done grousing," he yelled back at the bathroom then flopped back onto the couch, where he was promptly harassed by his cat until he scratched behind her ears.

Dave emerged clean, shaved, and wearing a shirt that was clearly his - or at least probably was his, there were some that were sent to them from Bro that could have been for either of them - and his own pants, and he went to grab the food out of the microwave and started snacking off the plate before he even made it to the living room. "Here, let me hook up my laptop to the TV, that way we won't have to hunch over to see it," he said as he set the plate down and started connecting cables from his laptop to the TV. He started it up after a few minutes and settled down on the floor in front of the table, eating quietly as he listened to Vriska's narration, still completely blown away by it.

Karkat went to fetch himself something to drink, returning a few seconds later with a bottle of water and leaning over the top of the couch as he ate, slowly chewing as he watched. He could hardly believe that was him on the screen, dressed down in the Sufferer's robes. It felt extremely surreal watching it playing out in front of him, being able to recognize both his friends and the people they were portraying.

At the Sermon, he nearly dropped his sandwich. There was _no way_ that was him in chains, dripping with realistic blood, the closeups on the lower half of his face displaying his teeth with the delivery of the Vast Expletive. He stood up when it was over and the background music had cut out, the end of the sequence playing out with the shot of Bro's hands painted to resemble Darkleer's wielding the bow and then lapsing back into the narration and Dave's photos, telling the end of the story then rolling the credits to a somber solo piece that had been selected for him specifically for this.

When it was done he stepped around the couch and sat down beside Dave, taking his hand and squeezing down on it. "If this doesn't get you a fucking scholarship I'll eat my own cocoon," he murmured.

Dave had taken to rubbing his fingers together and barely paying attention to what was on the screen, but rather, the reactions Karkat gave to it. He squeezed back and smiled faintly, before pulling his matesprit close enough for a kiss, and then chuckled. "I really fucking hope so. I'm not getting those hours of editing time back." He leaned against Karkat and sighed. "I mean, I'm proud of the result, it's better than I'd expected of myself, all things considered, but I'm still fucking nervous, no matter how irrational that may be." He grinned a little. "Nah dude, you totally owned that whole thing. You can't fucking tell me you aren't great. I saw your face, even you can't believe you're as good as you are."

"That wasn't me," Karkat replied immediately. "That can't have been me. I was replaced by a pod person throughout the filming." He pressed his lips together and stoutly refused to listen to anything else.

"Except I'm pretty fucking sure I would've noticed the difference in personality and the freaky vine tendrils that pod-Karkat would have given off." Dave grinned and put his hand on top of Karkat's head. "You know that shot during the Sermon with the Dolorosa crying? Yeah, I couldn't make this shit up, Kanaya was really crying. She wasn't acting. She was _reacting to you_ , okay? That's...yeah, I can't put to fucking words how powerful that shit is."

Karkat turned red from his ears all the way down his face, looking very much like he wanted to curl up on the floor in a fit of embarrassment. "You're all fucking ridiculous," he murmured, his face shoving against his knees.

"You're the ridiculous one, man. Ridiculous talented. Fucking... Gary Oldman level of talent here." He nudged Karkat and grinned, before leaning over to turn off the TV. He unplugged his laptop and started to work again, a little more energetic now that he had some food in him and a little ego boost. They had a couple hours before they needed to get to work, and he wanted to use that time to get the rest of his work done. The faster he chewed through the papers he had to write, the sooner he could fuck around and be useless for a while.

Karkat yelled at the ceiling then flopped over onto his side, too embarrassed to move for a minute. He dragged himself off the floor to get back to his own homework for the time being, knowing he had at least one paper that he could revise and start the final draft on before they left for the coffee house. Dave couldn't help but chuckle at Karkat's minor freakout, and got to work, silent save for his fingers tapping out his paper with the speed and ability of someone who spent a majority of their teen years doing very little other than typing.

It was about time to leave for work when he saved and closed the laptop, and he went to shove into his shoes and retrieve his glasses from the bathroom. He wrinkled his nose at the smear on one lens, and wiped it off with his shirt as he walked to the counter to pick up his wallet, smokes and keys. "After work, I'm going to be needing to drop by the darkroom."

Karkat had put his own work away by the time Dave had disappeared and was pulling his shoes on when he came back, nodding as he opened the door. "Alright, I can walk back and order takeout or something so you can eat when you get back," he replied then led the way down the stairs for the walk to work.

\--

The shift was long and busy, more students in their position spending hours drinking espressos and clogging the back patio with smokers trying to calm their nerves before returning to work. Karkat was nearly sprinting back and forth trying to keep up with orders and refills and nearly inadvertently reduced a girl to tears by snapping at her to wait in line like the rest of the customers. By the end of it, he was facedown on the counter, having worked straight through his breaks just to keep up with the demand. Even with the two of them and Bill all working their asses off to cull the lines, Dave hadn't had time to get in a cigarette break even for their hour long break in the middle of the shift, and as such, was in desperate need of one once he clocked out, taking a long, hard drag of it as soon as he lit one outside. "I'll see you at home," he said with a sharp smile as he started up the other direction towards the campus. He had to develop the roll of film he'd finished the night prior, and that usually took as long as two hours to do, and another twenty minutes to walk back home. He didn't want to waste that much time, but it was necessary to do to get those final pictures to put into his final project portfolio. Karkat lifted his hand as Dave left, giving a muffled reply then grabbed a large cup of coffee for himself in a to-go cup to sip as he clocked out and closed up. At least it was getting progressively more mild, making it easier to tolerate walking home alone.

Once he'd managed to drag himself up the stairs and pointedly NOT trip over Em, it was a wonder he didn't collapse straight back onto the couch for another night's sleep. He had class later in the morning the next day at least so that afforded him a little bit of time to sleep in. With that in mind he tossed his emptied coffee into the trash can and headed back toward the bedroom, stripping out of his shirt as he went. He laid flat on his face on the bed with a long, tired groan and hugged one of the pillows against his chest. Being able to smell Dave on it only reminded him of how much time they'd not been able to spend together in trying to get everything ever assigned to them done at the same time. He pouted into it and let out a louder groan when he realized that not only had they spent exactly no time together outside of sleeping in the same vicinity, he had not been touched even once in passing since spring break.

Before much longer, his jeans were on the floor, his face buried into the pillows, one hand between his legs and working himself up until he could feel his bulge slipping into his waiting hand. He lifted himself to be able to peer downward, chewing at his lip as he brought the reflexive squirming under control, the tendril weaving slowly between his fingers then twisting and slipping further down, following the slightly dripping path back toward his nook then pushing inside. He bit on the pillow to keep himself quiet, still having scars on his fingers from the last time he'd tried to do so using his hand. The hand still between his legs pushed back on his bulge until it could go no further then fell away as he started to work it in where he could reach.

As luck would have it, one of Dave's classmates was there in the campus darkroom when he walked in, and as they worked together, things got done far faster. His classmate drove him back to the apartment, and with a parting wave, Dave grabbed the mail then walked up the stairs, flipping through his finished proofs. He came in quietly so as not to disturb Karkat from the homework he was most likely trying to grind through still. He set the proofs down along with his glasses, smokes and wallet, and pulled off his shoes, looking around the apartment quietly when he realized that the room was devoid of the sound of rapid fingers on a keyboard. The logical conclusion was that Karkat had gone to bed already, and he decided that was the best decision of the night, and walked to the bedroom, quietly opening the door.

Karkat had moved onto his back and kicked the blankets down to the foot of the bed, one of his hands up and clutching the pillow under his head, the other down between his thighs, holding the base of his bulge between his first and second fingers as it pushed into himself in a regular rhythm. His lip was bleeding as he bit into it to hold back the quiet sounds that had started to purr from his chest. His eyes were closed and he was too lost in his own world to register Dave in the doorway.

While technically, Dave _knew_ that some trolls were able to do that, and on occasion in his own fantasies, he'd wondered if Karkat could, he'd never once thought he'd walk in on it. And just seeing it made his knees weak as he felt the entire sight go straight south. He gripped the door frame momentarily as he watched, before he slipped silently in, closing the door without a sound and moved to sit down beside Karkat, whispering into his ear, "Do you even know how fucking hot that is? I could watch you all night. Or I could help." He nipped Karkat's ear lightly before slipping away just to strip out of his clothes.

Karkat's eyes snapped opened as he gave a strangled yelp, shooting back against the closest wall and clutching at it as the other hand scrabbled at his chest, his blood pusher stopping briefly. He sucked in a deep breath and threw one of the pillows at Dave, panting quietly as he glared at him then fell forward with his hand over his face. "Christ, Dave what the everlasting _fuck_ ," he whined then sat back against the wall, trying and failing to will down the flush that spanned the entirety of his face and halfway down his neck.

Dave laughed and caught the pillow, dropping it where he stood as he slipped out of his jeans. "Would you relax? Jesus, it's not like you haven't caught me jacking off. Mind you I don't think it was half as hot as _that_ but you don't see me throwing shit." He sprawled out on the bed and grinned up at Karkat. "Seriously, you're the most high-strung person I've ever known."

"Jesus goatdicking fuck, did you really have to fucking sneak up on me like that though? I'm pretty sure you nearly scared me to death." Huffing quietly, Karkat swung his leg over Dave's hips and settled down in his lap, still pouting at him.

Dave propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at Karkat with a smug smile. "I'm pretty sure even if I made hells of noise, you still would've thrown a pillow at me." He shifted his weight to one arm to put his hand on Karkat's cheek, grinning lovingly. "I'm sorry I freaked you out, dude." He hadn't wanted to disturb Karkat at all, but on the other hand, he didn't want to seem like some sort of freaky voyeur just watching without Karkat's knowledge, either. Karkat scowled at him but laid a hand over the one on his cheek, still bright red as he grumbled at Dave for being a tool and how he was going to be miserably sore now after having to stop halfway through just to have a heart attack. He leaned down over Dave with his weight propped on the other hand, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth then burying his face against his matesprit's shoulder.

"You can keep going if you want," Dave reminded, pressing a kiss to Karkat's neck as his hands slipped down across his matesprit's sides. "I mean, obviously if you want to fuck instead, that's an option, but I'm just putting this out there, that is literally one of the sexiest things I've _ever_ seen." He slid his hands down Karkat's thighs and then kissed his shoulder.

"Striders are so fucking weird," Karkat muttered against his shoulder, then picked himself back up, looking down at Dave his hand dipping back down between his legs. Dave shrugged; it was true, and he had no room to deny how weird he was. His eyes traveled down the length of his matesprit's body, to the bright red, slick bulge slipping back out between Karkat's fingers. It was already overly sensitive, engorged and dripping slightly. With his eyes locked on his matesprit's, Karkat repositioned his hand and guided his bulge back down, making a quiet sound when it pushed back into him. Dave leaned back and watched with half closed eyes, his hands slipping up against Karkat's thighs.

"You don't think that it's sexy?" He asked quietly and distractedly, brushing his fingertips over the exposed part of the bulge. His smile went lopsided as he leaned up to kiss Karkat's cheek, then his neck. At the feeling of Dave's mouth on his skin Karkat made a quiet, breathless sound in his ear, his bulge pushing up into him harder. He gripped Dave's shoulder with his free hand, lifting up onto his knees.

"Just don't get why you do," he muttered.

Holding back the myriad of smartass answers, Dave simply leaned back to watch, moving his hand down to pump himself slowly, before arching upward to tease against his matesprit's bulge. "Because it's something that not everyone can do. Because it's a form of masturbation I really haven't seen much but think is insanely erotic? I dunno, it's probably a jealousy thing. Not many human guys can fuck themselves, and I'm not about to try." He looked up at Karkat's face and murmured.

Karkat drew his hand away from his bulge to wrap around Dave's cock and stroke it in time with the rhythm he'd tried to set with himself, letting a shuddering breath against his cheek. "I know it's not physically impossible for you, just not exactly feasible. Impossible would be you trying to suck yourself off." He smirked faintly and caught Dave's lips in a brief, wet kiss before sitting back to pay more attention to himself. "It's not exactly easy to concentrate on doing this with you watching though."

"Man, no, I can." Dave said, sitting up slightly as he slipped his hand away, looking completely serious for the moment. "And if you're so self conscious, then stop." He put his hand over Karkat's around his erection, and slipped it away.

"Wait, you're seriously going to?" Karkat's brow arched up as he put his hand down against his leg, his bulge no longer moving. He slipped back over Dave's thighs then sat down between them.

"You said it was impossible, and I take that as a challenge," Dave explained with a lopsided smile as he brought his legs up close to his chest, parted enough where he could put his arms between them. He looked up at Karkat and then leaned forward to kiss him, his position awkward-looking but still reasonably comfortable. Karkat returned the kiss then scooted back a little more, bending to be able to see, absolutely fascinated by what Dave was trying to do.

"If you can get further than just the head, that's when I'll be impressed," he muttered, running his hand up the length of Dave's thigh.

Dave smirked as he reached forward and relaxed his spine, trying to keep from hurting himself as he did. "Ye of little faith," he murmured, slipping one hand down to pump himself as he brought his mouth down, tracing the ball end of his piercing over the head. It didn't take him long to descend further, inching down with a groan through his nose once he found himself about halfway. He ground his heel into the mattress for leverage to keep himself steady, concentrating only on the sensation of his tongue against his own dick, and the suction,while he pumped what he couldn't reach with his other hand. It was obvious that he'd done this before, though he hadn't really found it to be the greatest thing on the planet.

Karkat leaned his cheek against Dave's shin as he watched, not quite aroused by the sight so much as morbidly interested. It looked uncomfortable, at least to him. He reached under Dave's thigh and stroked his thumb along the edge of his matesprit's cheekbone then wrapped a hand around the base of his cock. "Ok fine, you win."

Dave pulled away and sat up, immediately glad for the relief in his spine. "What do I win?" He said as he rolled his shoulders and slipped his legs back down, wiping the saliva off his chin. "Is it a puppy? I deserve a puppy."

"I don't think Em would appreciate that," Karkat snorted then crawled back up over the top of him, pushing him down by the shoulders and sitting up on his stomach.

"Good point," Dave said as he sprawled back out below Karkat, his hands immediately running over his matesprit's thighs and up his body. "Maybe I could just get you, instead?" He looked up into Karkat's eyes with a small smile. He'd missed simply _touching_ Karkat, much less anything else they managed to think up while naked together.

"Asking that implies that you think you didn't already have me to begin with," Karkat chuckled quietly and took Dave's hands, lifting one up to his lips and kissing the back then drawing one of his fingers into his mouth. He kept one eye on Dave's face as he ran his tongue along the digit.

"Still a pretty damn decent prize," Dave said with a browarch and a shrug, before he huffed out a breath through his nose at the feeling of Karkat's too-hot tongue go across his finger, punctuated by a soft moan. Karkat smiled faintly around it then very pointedly opened his mouth and dragged his tongue up along the length of Dave's finger where he could see it happen before taking in a second finger.

Dave let out another small groan, and then gave Karkat an accusatory look. "You know, if you keep doing that, I'm just going to get frustrated and worked up too much to do anything but whine." Of course, he figured turnabout was fair play. Karkat simply gave him a look that very plainly said "good" then sucked back down on his fingers and ran his tongue around them. His hand ran around behind him to drag the pads of his fingers up along Dave's neglected dick and grab him from that slightly awkward angle, keeping himself amused now. With an altogether undignified shuddering whimper, Dave brought his free hand up to Karkat's shoulder, squeezing it roughly. He then trailed his hand down his matesprit's chest, towards his bulge, brushing his knuckles against it, simply teasing for the time being. Karkat smiled faintly and squeezed down around him, sucking his fingers for a few more moments then letting them fall away and bending to nose up under Dave's chin. His teeth grazed along his matesprit's neck as he mouthed his way down to his shoulder.

"You don't have class in the morning right?" He murmured and sucked a mark into the crook of Dave's neck. He wrapped his hand around Karkat's bulge, moving his hand in a pumping, kneading motion, his breath gone short.

"Not 'til one," Dave replied as he tilted his head back. "I don't even have to go to that one, actually." He liked to, but it wasn't required to make an appearance this late in the year, especially since all his classwork had been done. The tests were the only things he had to show up for.

"Think you could just stay in here with me until I have to go in then?" Karkat asked as he moved up into the touch, letting a soft breath against Dave's neck. "Instead of going out walking again or whatever." He'd woken up several times over the last month to an empty bed and often a note that said Dave had gone out on a walk and it was getting tiresome even if he sort of knew why.

Dave nodded to that, turning his head to nudge against Karkat's jaw with his nose as he slowly ramped up the pace of his ministrations. "I won't be going anywhere," he quietly assured, putting his free hand around his matesprit's shoulders. "I miss sleeping beside you." He huffed a wry chuckle and added, "I miss _sleeping_. But I'm not going out tonight. I'll be here where you can keep an eye on me."

"Then that's what we do for the rest of the night." Smiling to himself, Karkat stretched out some and combed his fingers back through Dave's hair. "Neither of us have to be up first thing in the morning and I don't intend to get off of you anyway so you're stuck here."

Dave smiled and slipped his hand away from Karkat's bulge to wrap around his waist. "You're making this potentially extremely sexy moment into something very sweet and tender, and you have the nerve to call _me_ sappy sometimes," he murmured, though the tone was anything but griping. He pressed a soft kiss to Karkat's shoulder and smiled against his matesprit's skin.

"But you are." Karkat grinned against the side of Dave's neck then kissed the space under his ear. "You're a huge fucking sap and I like it."

"I don't see where you're coming up with this delusion of me being sappy," Dave murmured as he ran a hand over one of Karkat's arms, to lace his fingers with Karkat's, squeezing lightly. "I'm no such thing." He ran his tongue and lips lightly across Karkat's shoulder, up his neck, before whispering into his ear, "I think it's projection, _Karkat_. You want to see a hopeless romantic where there's only a fumbling amateur."

Karkat's eyes closed as he bumped his face against Dave's, his hands tangling into his matesprit's hair. He let out a soft huff of breath against his neck then kissed along his jaw and back down to his chest before sitting back up and giving him a half-lidded, amused look. "You just keep thinking that... You're such huge closet sap and you're not convincing me otherwise."

"I don't even think I want to try to sway you," chuckled Dave as he looked up at Karkat, smirking and slipping his hands down his matesprit's chest. "because even if I was - and I'm not - you like it." He moved his hands back to Karkat's ass, squeezing it lightly. "I'm a closet lots of things, but sap isn't one of them."

"What other closets are you occupying," Karkat hummed and laid his hands on Dave's arms, arching an eyebrow at him, his hands resting against Dave's arms. "There's no more room for closets here."

"Yeah, place is crowded enough as it is, if we had more closets, it'd be fucking impossible to get anywhere in this place," he murmured with a smile, reaching up to wrap his hands around Karkat's arms in turn. "I don't even know, dude. I'm a closet ancient history buff. I'm a closet fan of shonen anime. I secretly loathe the shit out of the Shrek franchise."

"And none of this surprises me," Karkat snorted then leaned back down to peck at Dave's lips. "I'm almost willing to bet you collected the human version of fiduspawn when you were little."

"I don't know what the hell that even is," Dave said as he leaned up to steal another kiss. "I used to collect comic books, though. I mean, it wasn't a huge deal, I just bought ones I liked to read with my allowance and the guy at the shop told me how they might be worth lots if I kept them in good condition, so I did." He smiled at the memory of it. "I bet Bro still has the damn things at his apartment, I mean, if everything that was in the real reality is still there."

"I'd say that's pretty likely, to be honest. Ask him next time you're online. Meanwhile I have to ask Eridan if he's broken down and replaced Gamzee's horn pile yet." With a quiet chuckle Karkat took his hands, holding them loosely. "Did I mentioned they went flushed finally? After all the stupid panicked texts it actually happened."

"Wow, faster than I'd anticipated. Here I was thinking Ampora was going to wind up waffling for the next two months." He squeezed Karkat's hands gently and smirked. "I guess he's got a stronger predilection for impatience than he does for melodrama." He laid his head back and closed his eyes. "I don't know what to think about those guys. I don't have much to go on other than what you've told me about them. I mean, Gamzee was _around_ , but who the fuck even knows for how long, and I didn't ever meet Eridan except as a dead dude, until like. Just last month. I mean, even back before you and I really met in person, I didn't interact with him. Just a handful of you guys really talked to me."

"The waffle is strong with that one, believe me," Karkat snorted then went on, "I got a really vague text about it a few days ago. He apparently sat down and had a talk with Gamzee after he got fed up with him just...being Gamzee and it got worse from there until I finally got the confirmation in some really ambiguous wording that they ended up pailing. Against a wall judging by the whining about a stain on his hardwood floor."

Dave huffed a chuckle. "For a guy really obsessed with image, he does pretty much fuckall to keep it up." Dave rolled them both to their sides and leaned up on an elbow as he continued, using his free hand to trace delicate lines across Karkat's chest. "I mean, he's not Bro-tier famous, but when the media catches wind that he's got Gamzee living with him, it's going to be a fucking circus. Clown pun unintended."

"He probably thinks he's prepared for that eventuality but I'd say everyone else knows otherwise. But...this might be good for him." Karkat shrugged and wedged his legs between Dave's, tangling with him comfortably. "Maybe Gamzee will be able to pry the stick out of his ass that's been there his whole damn life."

"You never know, man, maybe they will both be good for each other. You can at least hope that's the case," Dave said as he brought his hand up to run through Karkat's hair idly. "Meanwhile, Bro and Sollux are slowly becoming a freaky single entity. I'm glad they have that car project, because if they didn't, they'd turn their focus on something that could potentially destroy people's concepts of reality, if they really wanted to."

"Oh I have absolutely no doubt of that one," Karkat muttered, rolling his eyes. "As soon as they're done with that we'd better hope they have something else to keep them occupied or the world as we know it is summarily fucked."

"Whose idea was it to let those two meet again?" Dave joked quietly as he traced his fingertips down from the point of Karkat's ear. "Wait, that was me. Great, if they unmake the world, it's my fault." He grinned and leaned over to kiss Karkat's nose. "See how I am? No foresight."

"Yep. If the world ends, I get to blame you. Good job, Strider." Grinning some, Karkat leaned into the kiss and caught Dave's lips, his hand coming to rest against the other's jaw and pulling him closer.

"I'm a fucking liability," he murmured into the kiss, wrapping his arm around Karkat as he slipped closer. "Good thing you're around to keep me from making world-shattering decisions all over the place."

"So the world owes me for its continued existence. I'm going to have to keep you in my line of sight for the rest of your life aren't I?" Karkat draped his arm over Dave's neck and nuzzled against his cheek then dipped back into the kiss. He didn't even care anymore that he still hadn't gotten off. For the moment, this was better.

"I know, what a fucking burden," Dave murmured into the kiss, smiling as he laid down again to look at Karkat with half-closed eyes. "Don't ever fuckin' change, Karkat. Your stupid, perfect optimism, and your outrageous pessimism, and your overflowing love for everyone around you are the most amazing things I've ever known." He smirked faintly and quirked an eyebrow. "Oh look, sappiness."

"Sappiness and that poetic-ass way with words again." Karkat dragged his fingers back through Dave's hair then scratched at the back of his neck, bumping his forehead against his matesprit's gently. "Still wish you'd talk like that more often. It suits you more than the half-assed comments."

"If I waxed poetic all the time, it would lose all sense of novelty. It'd become a burden, making people wind through all the side roads of my mind, man. It's just not going to happen." He continued drawing idle patterns against Karkat's back with his fingertips. "Nobody needs that kind of bullshit in their lives."

"What if I think I think I do?" asked Karkat, scratching his nails along Dave's scalp. "You saw a lot of what I had to put up with long before you ever came along. I could use something like this in my life."

"Then I'll do it for you, but you're not going to change how I am around the others in the world, man, it's just not worth the fucking hassle." He leaned into the scalp massage with a lazy smile, his eyes slipping closed. "Why do you even like it? It's not like I even have all that much to say half the time."

"I like knowing what's actually going on in your head. You realize you don't have to hide shit from me right? I'm not just going to tell you to shut up." Karkat nosed against his cheek again then tucked his face against Dave's neck. He let himself fall limp and looked back at the other with a small, sleepy smile and tucked his hair back away from his face.

"You have to remember I don't think verbally, most of the time. It's colors and beats and vivid images that I need to process and settle into a verbal form. Ninety percent of the bullshit that comes out my mouth is reactionary." He pressed his lips against the top of Karkat's head, and half-whispered, "It's hells of easier to simplify what I say into sarcasm and bullshit. That's all." He pulled the blankets up over his shoulder and closed his eyes. "So we're really not going to finish what we started? Man, that's such a tragedy. I guess I'll just have to attack you in the morning."

Karkat laughed a little and turned over to fit his back against Dave's chest, pulling his arms around him and holding his hands loosely. "I'm pretty sure that'd work better anyway just because we won't be so ungodly fucking tired," he yawned and laced his fingers between Dave's, bringing his hand up and kissing his fingers then falling limp again. "Don't even have the energy to hold my head up anymore..."

Dave chuckled quietly against the back of Karkat's neck, wrapping his arm around his matesprit as he tucked his other arm under a pillow, laying his head on top of it. He could feel himself drifting off, though his mind was still racing. It was going to be a restless kind of sleep, he knew, but any amount of sleep he could get was precious at that point.

He woke up fully in the morning, after periods of forcing himself back to sleep, waking up from bizarre, surreal dreams. His arm was still around Karkat, although the blanket had gone from over his shoulder to barely covering his ass, and straight up over Karkat's head. He huffed a drowsy chuckle and kissed his matesprit's neck. He was so fucking weird about the sun. The constant shifting in the night made sleeping difficult for Karkat, though not nearly as much as Dave, but by the time the other was awake for good Karkat had given up and just dozed until he knew Dave was well and truly awake. He tossed the blanket back over Dave's head and peeked back over his shoulder with a squint.

"You need to start taking the melatonin again," he muttered, then turned over and pushed his face against the front of Dave's throat.

"Mm," Dave agreed wordlessly, brushing his fingertips across Karkat's shoulders. "Sorry." He leaned down to press a light kiss to Karkat's cheek and chuckled faintly. He nosed against Karkat's ear and murmured, "If I do that again, just shove me and tell me to lay on the other side of the bed until I can stop being kicky or something."

"Even when you were still regularly screaming in my ear I didn't do that so why would I do it now?" Rolling his eyes, Karkat pushed him over and propped himself up over Dave's chest on his elbows, looking down at him with a sleepy smile. "Do you need to go back to sleep? I can get up and let you spread out if that's the case."

"Yeah, I'm really not looking forward to _that_ coming back, better fuckin' kill it at the roots before it has chance to grow into that horrific, twisted tree again," Dave murmured about the night terrors. He was happy that was over with. Hell, he hadn't even _thought_ about it for a couple months. "Nah, I'm good. I'm not about to fuckin' fall back asleep for a good long while." He grinned up at Karkat's bedhead, worse than usual for the fact that it was actually bedhead. "Christ, can you get that cute sexy shit under control? It's distracting as hell."

He raised an eyebrow at that then let his head tilt to one side as the smile only grew wider to show just a hint of tooth. "Nope."

Dave wrinkled his nose defiantly and rumpled Karkat's hair before sitting up, bringing his matesprit to sit up with him so he could stretch and pop his back. "You're not being any sort of fair, man." But once his back was cracked, he wrapped his arms around Karkat and pulled him back down with him, giving him a firm, slow kiss.

"That was not part of the unspoken agreement here, Strider," he grinned against Dave's lips then returned the kiss and bit on the lower one teasingly. "What's apparently fair or not fair isn't up for debate and you'll just have to deal with it."

"I've agreed to nothing," Dave immediately retorted as he dipped his head down to bite Karkat's neck lightly, brushing his tongue over it, minus the barbell that was still set on the bedside table from when he'd taken it out overnight. He chuckled as he started lower to kiss and nibble down Karkat's chest, sneaking under the blanket as he descended. Karkat laughed and held himself up on his hands as he watched Dave's descent, his head hanging upside-down between his shoulders. He reached down and combed his fingers back through the other's hair, scratching at the back of his neck.

"You agreed to put up with my bullshit and everything that came with it when we entered into this relationship and you're not allowed to take that back anymore."

"Oh, *that* agreement, sure, okay," Dave muttered against the curve of Karkat's hip as he put his hands on his matesprit's thighs. "Yeah, then in that case I really don't have a choice but to thoroughly enjoy your dumb sexiness." He brought his tongue out and up against Karkat's sheath, pushing against it, before nipping faintly at the curve between his thigh and his groin.

Karkat let a quiet, breathy little sound and spread his legs wider apart, rocking his weight forward onto his elbows then lifting up onto his knees over Dave's head. "You're stuck, Strider. It's an unbreakable contract that you've roped yourself into."

"I'm strangely at ease with that," Dave murmured as he worked his lips casually down towards Karkat's nook, teasing and kissing before he dipped his mouth lower still with a sly smirk.

Karkat huffed a quiet chuckle and looked down at the half of Dave's face he could still see as the blush crept up in his ears. He hadn't found himself in this position in weeks and it was a welcome start to his morning, for certain. He sucked his lower lip into his mouth then let it go again in a shuddered sigh. "Good."

Huffing a chuckle, Dave turned to lay down on his back below his matesprit. He put his hands on Karkat's hips and eased him lower, leaning up to brush a long, firm line across the entrance of Karkat's nook, all the way back to his chute, smirking and giving him ample time to react.

That was new. That was something that Karkat didn't actually know how to react to. He looked back down at Dave, eyebrows arching high. "Mind actually telling me what you're doing down there?"

"Confusing you, clearly," Dave replied, slipping back towards Karkat's nook, smirking a little. "Just seeing if that was a thing you'd be into. It's cool." He left another light kiss to the entrance of his nook before pushing his tongue into it, slow and deliberate.

Rolling his eyes, Karkat leaned back some and laid his hand against Dave's chest, scratching over his skin then taking a moment to reposition and lower himself to bite and mouth his way around Dave's stomach and down his hip. "I'm clearly into a lot of things. Letting you near my ass isn't one of them."

"S'cool," Dave repeated against Karkat's nook, before he plunged his tongue back in, squeezing Karkat's thighs as he let out a little groan through his nose with the bites, though it didn't slow him up from his favorite pastime. His tongue brushed flatly and firmly against a spot that he knew made Karkat melt into a mess of Alternian usually, though this time his tongue was bereft of the barbell and he wanted to see if he could get a similar reaction.

Karkat had to pull his mouth away from Dave's skin to keep from biting down at that, letting a strangled little noise then huffing hotly against the other's thigh. He opened his mouth to suck at it when the spots were no longer swimming in front of his eyes, letting his teeth prick the pale flesh. Dave gasped through his nose when Karkat started to leave a mark and brought his hand up to brush up against his bulge, coaxing it out lazily while his tongue worked twice as hard as usual to find every sensitive inch. He knew that Karkat's hard limits were fairly few and far between, but there wasn't really a spoken understanding when it came to his chute until just then, and what his matesprit wanted left out of the equation, Dave would abide to. His curiosity was sated.

At the renewed vigor Karkat grabbed onto the other leg and buried his face against Dave's thigh, letting another quiet sound against it then turning his head to mouth along his cock instead. He dragged his tongue down over it then took his balls in hand and squeezed, glancing down between their bodies. His bulge curled inward against Dave's tongue and coiled in his mouth to keep it occupied. At the back of his mind he wondered what time it actually was, then decided he really didn't care at this point as he circled his tongue around the head of Dave's growing erection and dipped into the foreskin.

Dave let out a muffled groan as he leaned up to pay attention to Karkat's bulge instead, gripping his matesprit's thighs tight as he coaxed it deeper into his mouth, only stopping it from going further with the back of his tongue against the back of his throat. There was no way Karkat would actively put his mouth around Dave when he wasn't wearing his dental guard but he did what he could with his hands and tongue, toying with the skin and sucking his way back down the shaft to pay attention to his thigh again.

Dave groaned loud through his nose with the intimate but teasing sucking and licking. He slipped lower to disengage from Karkat's bulge, his hand coming up to take his mouth's place as he took a hard, heavy breath, groaning once more before he said, his voice gone ragged, "Turn around."

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Karkat swung back around and took a seat straddled across Dave's hips again, reaching down and wiping the thin film of red on his chin away. He leaned down and pressed into a brief, firm kiss then sat back up again, his nails dragging down either side of Dave's chest. Responding to the kiss in kind, and then catching Karkat's lower lip with his teeth, Dave groaned again and arched into the scratches, slipping one hand between them to position himself beneath his matesprit, brushing up against his nook with a huff of breath. He let go of Karkat's lip and caught him in a deeper kiss, dragging the nails of his free hand up Karkat's back in turn. Karkat arched into the scratches, one hand curling against Dave's side as he reached back and took a moment to hold him in place then pushed back onto him slowly until he'd adjusted. He opened his mouth into the kiss as he started to move.

Dave's hand moved away from the base of his cock up to Karkat's bulge, letting it tangle with his fingers while he used his palm to wrap around and push against it. He moaned through his nose as he let Karkat set the pace, before his hips went into fluid, comfortable motion to match. His tongue slipped between Karkat's teeth to lightly trace along Karkat's, coaxing it out to greet and join his. He slid his other hand up into Karkat's hair and gently ran through it, his nails lightly scratching at his scalp.

After how long they'd both gone without it wasn't much longer before Karkat was whining quietly at his peak, his hands tangled into the sheets under Dave's head. The trickle of fluid that was steadily making its way up Dave's stomach widened until finally Karkat had to fish around the side of the bed to find the bucket, keeping up his pace until he was forced to stop, jerking as he released the pent up frustration in a few hard pulses. Dave wasn't very far off from Karkat, coming shortly before Karkat grabbed the bucket, slipping out to add to the mess on his stomach with a shuddered groan, body tensing up. Once he came down from the momentary high, he grabbed for the towel that he knew was nearby and wiped himself off, his skin unsurprisingly slightly stained.

"I'm almost tempted to play hooky all day with you," he said with a smile as he patted Karkat's thigh. "Say fuck it to everything, take you somewhere where you'n I can go be apart from society and a part of the world together for a while. No camera, no books, no computers. Shit, we don't even need to bring our phones. It'd just be the two of us, discovering things."

Karkat sat up on his stomach and stared at him for a few moments, then reached for his phone, biting his lip at the time. He glanced back at Dave, then shot off a quick text before tossing his phone into the blankets. "Done. Let's go fuck off for a day."

Dave had stretched and sprawled, relaxing a little and not really expecting much more than a grumbled 'we can't' or 'I wish we could, Strider,' but when Karkat actually said yes to the plan, he blinked. "Wait, whoa, really?" His smile widened and he grabbed his own phone to text to Bill that they needed a personal day after the hell of the day prior. He texted back shortly after that the other guys needed more hours anyway and to have fun.

"Holy shit, let's go then. Well. I mean after a shower, then we can go. Maybe breakfast." He stood and grabbed clothes, still thinking aloud, "nah, breakfast can be gotten, let's just get showered and go."

Rolling his eyes, Karkat grabbed Dave by the back of the neck and led him toward the bathroom, starting the shower and stepping in as soon as it had warmed up then pulled him in after. "Less talk, more do, Strider."

Dave let out an indignant yelp at being pulled away from looking for clothes, but came along and turned the shower on to wait for it to heat up, grinning to himself as he considered which way he wanted to drive. He decided that into the mountains was as good of a plan as any. "Want to go up the mountain and see what we can see?" He joked as he stepped into the stream of water, immediately slicking his hair out of his face.

"Honestly? I'm up for pretty much anywhere that's not here," Karkat shrugged as he started to scrub Dave down, figuring that he would be able to do it quicker than Dave himself. He stepped around him to stand in front of his matesprit, leaning up to peck at his lips. "So what, you want to hike or something?"

"Drive, hiking is for losers," Dave said with a quirk of his brow as he scrubbed shampoo into his hair, and then did the same for Karkat's. "I mean sure we could go on a hike if some place seems more interesting outside than inside the car, but I'm pretty sure if we head up the highway, we can go around and find something to do." About two years ago, he'd opened up a map and saw that if he went west to Nederland, then south, he could take a semi-circular path clockwise around one of the larger eastern mountain ranges and make a pretty awesome day trip out of the deal. He'd never done it before, though.

"We can grab some food on the way to wherever we're going and eat lunch sitting on a rock or some shit." Karkat closed his eyes as his hair was scrubbed, letting his hands rest against Dave's hips. "I really don't give a shit what we do right now just as long as it involves getting as far away from school shit and work and our dumbfuck friends as possible for a day."

"Mm, just as long as we're on the same page," Dave agreed with a murmur, grabbing the showerhead to rinse Karkat's hair out carefully. "Well, that and we've spent too much fucking time being completely neglectful of each other, so there's that, too." He wrinkled his nose at a bit of suds headed the wrong direction on Karkat's forehead and swiped it away with his thumb. Karkat tipped his head up into the spray then wiped the water out of his face and looked back at Dave with a soft smile, leaning up to peck his lips then finishing rinsing the soap off himself. He left Dave there in the shower to finish rinsing down by himself and went to get dressed, glad that he could finally wear something that was lighter than a sweatshirt.

With the day as nice out as it was, Karkat had been sorely tempted when they were at the store to suggest making an actual picnic out of the affair, but eventually he just decided that demolishing a sub between the two of them would have to do. One stop at a gas station later and they were headed on a very roundabout route to a lookout spot to hide and get some much-needed time away.

It was somewhere between Granby and Estes Park that Dave stopped the car at a turn-off and smiled slyly as he stepped out and started to climb up the steep hill to the side, into a dense patch of trees. He didn't know where he was going, really, other than away from the road and up a mountain. Once it got to a point where the terrain evened out, there were very few trees left to impede their view, and what a view it was. It wasn't the tallest peak in the entire range, but it wasn't exactly anything to scoff at, being able to see miles on any given side of them. He dropped down onto the mossy dirt, and smiled as he took it all in.

"It's funny," he said as he looked around, "So many people spend their lives crowded with everybody else around them, when there's hundreds of miles of solitude in some places."

Karkat plopped down beside him with the grocery bag in hand and looked out over the scenery with his elbows propped on his knees, wrinkling his nose some at a sudden gust of a breeze. "People are social. Most of the time they can't stand to be alone. Even trolls need interaction. Clustering together is kind of a matter of sanity for a lot of us," he shrugged then leaned his shoulder against Dave's, smiling faintly to himself. "Unless they're like me and people are the absolute bane of their existence."

"You say that, and then you wind up being the best friend anyone could ever dare to ask for. Then again, with the friends you keep, it's no wonder you're such a misanthrope," Dave said with a smirk, dropping down to a sprawl on the ground. "I'd hate people, too, if the people close to me were so needy of my advice. I guess being a fucking sarcast most of my life pays off."

"I love my friends but I swear I should have dropkicked every fucking one of them at some point." Karkat snorted and turned in place to lay his leg against Dave's side. "I'm pretty sure if it weren't for you I'd have gone batshit fucking insane," he added, propping his chin against his knee and glancing back at Dave with a raised eyebrow.

"That's inferring you're not insane already, Vantas." He closed his eyes and smiled contentedly. "For all the bullshit you put up with, for all the crazy fuckers you are friends with, you wind up falling for the absolute craziest, most bullshittingest one." He looked up at Karkat with a fond gaze. "I wouldn't have it any other way, either." He chewed the corner of his lip as he went back into his thoughts. It was such a nice day, he wanted to extend it. Draw it out just a little. He could, and it'd be safe to, but there was no real reason to.

"Just so long as you're aware that there are no regrets here I'm perfectly fine with this." Karkat reached back and combed his fingers through Dave's hair affectionately, then laid back beside him and looked up toward the sky. It was a very good facsimile of a normal earth sky, he supposed, much nicer to look at than the sky on Alternia. Not that he'd spent much time looking at that anyway.

He frowned some at a sudden thought. "I wonder if our planets were reset after we were put down here or if they're just...gone."

"Eaten," murmured Dave as he turned his head to kiss Karkat's wrist. "Eaten or destroyed. Whatever was left of them was likely uninhabitable after the meteors." He had clearly put a lot of thought into this, himself. "What I want to know is why you weren't brought into a semireality resembling Alternia. I guess there weren't enough people to repopulate both planets separately."

"Given that only maybe a handful of people from each reality played the game, that doesn't sound too far from the truth. So basically we're the last of a couple of dying races until we really figure out how to repopulate as soon as we're real." It was a bit of an uncomfortable thought, to say the least. At least when he was still just a kid on Alternia he had the comfort of knowing that there were adults out there that were coming back to keep Alternia populated. Now, they were just as stuck as everyone else. It felt somewhat poetic to him.

"Nghh, I don't want to even think about trolls dying out," Dave grumbled. "Especially considering the ones that'll be left after only a few generations of humans will be people like Eridan." He scowled a little. "Stupid complicated procreation shit." He rubbed his face and then sat up. "I can't imagine living that long. I don't _want_ to imagine what it'd be like, living longer than everyone I grew up with, living longer than anybody I ever knew. Tch." He turned to Karkat then and shook his head. "How the hell did your race even survive for so long, with such a fucked up process of reproduction and such difference in average mortality within the hemospectrum? It's scientifically fucking whack."

"Overpopulation," Karkat said simply. "Between everyone of age producing the material for the slurry and the mother grub producing fucktons of grubs, we overran Alternia and made it necessary for the highbloods to leave. It only really helped that they were massive tyrannical assholes."

"That'd do it," Dave said with a sigh. "That's the only way I could even think that the bloods lower on the hemospectrum had a chance: if they far exceeded highbloods in number. I know they have far better means to protect themselves, but..." He shrugged then. "Man, I'm not cut out for even trying to understand this blood shit."

"They had power, but the lowbloods were far outgunned. It was easier and cleaner to just...go with it." Shrugging, Karkat took his hand and squeezed down on it with a soft frown. "In any case, in this world that's ancient history. We'll be ok now."

"God I fuckin' hope so. You can only hope that the highbloods that have made it here don't go all megahitler on us at some point, really." He chuckled at the mental image, "Holy shit, that's not below Eridan at all, is it? He'd be the scariest motherfucker on the entire planet if he got his head out of his ass."

"His ancestor was Orphaner Dualscar. That in and of itself is pretty fucking terrifying. But there seems to be a lot of repressed shit. I'm just hoping that either it stays repressed and gets forgotten, or else the highbloods know better than to doom all of us." With a quiet sigh Karkat sat back up and looked back at Dave, prodding him in the side. "And we have you guys to help back us up. Human history is bloody as fuck."

"Humanity itself is bloody as fuck. Hell, there were at least three wars going on, and more revolutions than you could wave a stick at when the meteors hit." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and then stood. "We give you guys a lot of shit for being murderous and mercurial, but then we turn a blind eye to the fact that there has literally been nothing significant done in our world without copious bloodshed." He stretched and then smiled, his mind jumping from one thought to the next. "Speaking of blood, how are you doing with your thing you do?"

"That's why I stand by the notion that we're really not as different as people seem to think." Karkat looked up at him then followed suit, leaving the bag holding their lunch on the ground for the time being. He dusted off his jeans with his hands and shrugged. "I haven't really had much time to practice with it given how fucked our schedules have gotten," he shrugged.

Dave looked around them and then shrugged. "We've got time now?" He said with a smile. "I'm here for your puppetry, you go right ahead and do the thing."

Karkat stared at him for a moment, then shook his head some, mostly debating on it to himself. "You sure about that? You'll have to tell me if it starts to hurt."

Dave nodded. "I'm sure. Look dude, you've done it before and I'm not going to flip out and/or die on you. I promise, even if it gives me anything worse than a slight headache, I'll be fine." He cracked his shoulders by pulling his arms behind his back and then smiled, waiting patiently. "I haven't really seen what you and Bro were working on, so I'm kind of curious what you can do."

"Just don't drop dead of a heart attack. Explaining that shit to paramedics is the exact fucking opposite of how I want to spend my afternoon." With that, Karkat took a starting stance, lifting his hands and manipulating Dave's in kind, trying to pull him to mimic the poses as he moved through them. It was unsteady at first and likely very uncomfortable as the blood was pulled and pushed in Dave's limbs and Karkat was obviously nervous about doing so.

Dave was uncomfortable at first, but for all the shit he hated about learning what Bro had tried teaching him outside of swordplay, he did take into himself the ability to relax and keep his breath steady, which in turn kept his pulse calm, and hopefully easier to work with. The pull of the blood made him wince occasionally, but he was in no serious pain, and didn't say anything. After a while, however, he spoke up. "Man, this is tiring."

Karkat brought him back up into a stable stance before letting go, immediately stepping up to his side and laying his hands on Dave's cheeks to look at his eyes closely then fussed some, looking down at his arms and wincing some at the light bruising in places. "Fuck...sorry, I knew this would happen. It doesn't help that neither of us thought to eat before we came out here..."

"Dude, it's okay," Dave promised, putting up with the fussing for a moment, before taking Karkat's hands in his and squeezing. "It's cool. I've had hella worse than that." He looked over at the bag with the sub and smiled. "No time like the present, right?"

Karkat whined at him nonetheless, but finally just conceded and nodded as he tugged Dave back along to where their lunch was sitting. He sat down on the ground again in a patch of shade and unwrapped the sandwich, handing over one of the pre-cut halves. "I guess it won't really matter when the time comes to actually use it but it still feels pretty fucked up, you know?"

"What, and having full command over time isn't fucked up?" Dave asked as he took the half of the sandwich with a nod of thanks. He took a big bite of it and then spoke over it, "Face it, godhood is fucked up no matter what aspect of reality you've got to control."

"I remember saying once, being a god really isn't worth what comes with it. I'm standing by that." Falling silent, Karkat started in on his half of the sandwich, deciding that at the very least they could enjoy that and the day off they'd asked for. "Would you be up to practicing with me some more later?" He asked after a few minutes' silence. "I would like to see if I can manipulate your time thing. If it ever becomes necessary I want to know I can."

Dave nodded, taking another bite of his sandwich. He raised his eyebrows to a thought. "What if," he said after swallowing down the bite, "If it works with me, maybe it'd work with other active powers too, provided they're willing participants." He grabbed a soda out of the bag and opened it, taking a long swig of it as he considered that.

Karkat frowned some at that, lowering his sandwich from his mouth. "What, you mean like a Prince's abilities?"

"Them too, I guess." He shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't... Not with a Prince, at least, I mean. The ones we know are kind of..." He grimaced. "I don't even fuckin' know what Bro's shit does, but he told me that Princes are capable of ultimate destruction so. Yeah I wouldn't fuck with that kind of ridiculous power."

"And once again Eridan is a scary fucker." Shaking his head, Karkat took a large bite out of his lunch then reached for a soda of his own, taking a few long swallows. "Y'know, I'm _still_ wondering what the dick is a Sylph."

Dave took a breath as he looked up to remember. "Um, I actually know this one now. Sylphs are like healers, I think? They're like... Shit, you've seen Willow, right? They're like Fin Raziel, that old lady-slash-different-animals chick. Mysterious healers that know shit." He scratched his head with a grin. "At least that's what I remember of it. I might be way the fuck off."

"So Rose is basically a healer of light by that reasoning." Karkat's eyebrow arched up at that. He shook his head and went back to his sandwich, finishing it in a few large bites then sitting back and watching the scenery rustling with life around them. He'd long since decided it wasn't really worth thinking about too hard how everything around them functioned exactly as nature was supposed to when it wasn't actually real. Collective belief that this was the way things were just supposed to be was a powerful thing.

Dave had followed down a similar train of thought as he looked over the mountains. "You know what? We're looking at someone's memory of this place. Someone here in this reality has been in this exact spot to see this exact place just like it is. I wonder if the places nobody's been is based on speculation, or if it simply doesn't exist." He grinned as he patted Karkat on the back, finishing up his sandwich as he stood up and twitched his fingers in such a way to make his timetables appear, keeping his own leg touching Karkat's leg, just as extra assurance that he was within the very small area of paradox space that wasn't affected by his fuckery.

"The creative ones have got that covered I think," Karkat replied and leaned against Dave's side, lifting his hand and taking control of Dave's as he mimed working the timetables himself and watched as their immediate area cycled back and forth a few few seconds with the motion. "As long as you have the mental capacity to manipulate your aspect it looks like I can pull the strings," he muttered, letting go again. Dave smiled a little at the closeness and nodded as he fine-tuned shit back to where it was precisely before letting go of the hold over the timeline, shaking his hands and making the tables disappear once more.

"I wouldn't trust you to put things back the way and time they should be, though. Might need to teach you actual turntablism."

"Yeah, I don't think I'd trust me with it either," Karkat muttered then dropped his head onto Dave's shoulder, looking back out at the scenery and sipping on his soda. "This was a really good plan," he mentioned offhand after a little bit of silence. It felt good to be able to get away from everything that was keeping them tied down for a day and ultimately they would end up functioning better for it, he was certain. He thought about making the same suggestion to Terezi so that she didn't kill herself over homework before the end of the semester.

Dave nodded to that and wrapped his arm loosely around Karkat's waist. "Well, I mean, look at it this way. We've been completely fucked in the ear with school and work and all our friends since my birthday, basically, and it's almost fucking May. Five months of hellacious nose-to-grindstone bullshit without more than a few hours every week to really get out together and do something has taken its toll, you know? I can't really see why we haven't done this sooner." He sighed and pressed a kiss to Karkat's temple. "I kind of want to make shit like this last for a lot longer than it should. That way we won't have to deal with that doughy-faced latte asshole that always spills half his drink on the table, or mediate our friends into making less absolutely shitty choices. It's just us up here, looking down at it all, detached from everything, and for once, it feels damn good."

Karkat smiled faintly at that and leaned up to press a kiss to Dave's jaw then wrapped an arm around his middle, fingers slipping into his pocket then just staying there. "Fucking christ...One more month and then I have to do the birthday shit too. Can we just ignore that like we did with the wriggling day shit?"

"I don't know if Bro will let us. You know how he'll use any reason he can to make a party out of a situation." He smirked faintly as he laid his head down on Karkat's shoulder in turn. "Sometimes I think he actually lives off of it. Bro is like a mindless kegger robot, fueled by barbecue ribs, righteous indignation, beer, and the Beastie Boys."

"And I thought I had problems..." Shaking his head, Karkat laid his cheek against the top of Dave's head, taking a moment to breath deep and relax against him until they were more or less leaning against one-another for support. "I don't think I'd be able to handle him and Sollux being completely fucking incomprehensible together for more than an hour at a time."

"You get used to it, though. I grew up with it, it's just gotten exponentially dorkier with the addition of laserface into the equation. I'm actually glad as hell that they're together." Dave grinned as he watched as the clouds slowly caught against the mountain range and got pushed together. "It's really nice that Bro has somebody who can get to his level."

"Pretty sure I've never actually seen Sollux that that happy," added Karkat, his eyes turned upward to the wisps of cloud directly overhead left behind by the passing front. As a matter of fact, he hadn't seen Sollux even remotely happy in sweeps. It was strange, to say the least, but it was good to see him smiling at all when they actually had time to talk on cam. "Have you seen that blog they've got going? I hate to admit it but it's sheer fucking brilliance."

"Which one?" Dave asked, "They've got like four." He smirked as he pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket. "I'm surprised they get so much done for as much as they write."

"The car one is actually an offshoot of Sollux's personal blog. I meant the one they set up to be vaguely insightful about interspecies relationships. I don't even want to know how or why they set up those restaurant blogs."

"Oh, yeah, that," Dave said with a lopsided smile. "I'm surprised that it's as straightforward as it is, actually. That's the only part of it that surprises me. The legitimate, unironic honesty." He hadn't seen that out of Bro for any length of time, and never quite so well-focused. "I'm really glad they're doing that."

"I swear, when he puts his mind to it, your brother is one of the most amazingly well-spoken people I've ever seen. Why does he have to be infuriating the rest of the time though?" Karkat groaned and turned his attention back to Dave. "Sollux asked once if I felt like capslocking at some HPO guys that found it. I'm still thinking about it."

"We're ridiculously messed up in the heads, and it takes a lot to get to the point through all the analogies and metaphors. Once you clear that shit out of there, you're left with very fucking little, unless you give us like, seven hours to sort through and figure out how to word that shit. The world reads script format while we're flowery fucking prose." He scratched his head as he shrugged slightly, sitting up to light his cigarette before leaning over his knees. "Bro's at least more straightforward. Maybe more sarcastic to compensate for the lack of leaps of logic, but he makes up for all that by being this...essay writing dynamo." He smirked as he took a drag from his cigarette. "It's not like he doesn't spend time thinking about what he's about to spill out onto those feckless sonsofbitches, either. You know that thing he wrote blasting that weirdo who was only in it for the kink? Probably spent two hours on those two paragraphs."

"And judging by the overwhelming response to it, those two paragraphs have gotten him the internet's version of a standing ovation." Karkat's smile faded off some as he thought back on that particular entry. He shook his head and sat back, finishing his soda then putting the bottle into the bag to throw away later. "I still don't understand the people that think like that. We're all people, not something to get your rocks off to just because we're shaped differently."

"I don't get it, either. It makes me sick to my stomach that people even think that way," Dave said with a scowl. "I hate my species sometimes," he shook his head, "like, how ignorant of shit can somebody even be? Trolls are no damn different fundamentally than humans, and just because of different physiological makeups, they think wow, let's just use them as some fucking sex puppets? Good goddamn, get a fucking clue." He sighed and rubbed his face, shaking his head. "I can't fucking _tell_ you how much I want to punch people in the head on a daily basis because of the shit they ask about you. Like, first off, it's none of their goddamn business how I have sex, because I'm not having it with them, and secondly, and really more importantly, if they're so goddamn interested in how it works, go and fucking look it up."

"From what I know, it's pretty much exactly the fucking same as a pair of humans together, just with one extra thing. If that extra thing is really that high up there on someone's list of priorities, they really need to rethink their lives." Karkat shook his head then reached up and laid his hand on Dave's cheek, nudging his forehead against his matesprit's chin. "I'm just going to sit here and count myself lucky that you weren't scared off by Terezi's sex ed lessons."

Dave kissed Karkat's forehead and chuckled, "Actually I was, until she said 'now forget everything I said, because it's all bullshit and listen to this.' She made up some of the most sensational bullshit I've ever been fed, and then she gave me the actual truth to work from, so I wasn't so fucking freaked out. And y'know, it went both ways. When she got tired of typing her droves of horrific alien vaginal dentata fiction, I started in on _our_ reproductive shit. Well. As well as any virgin kid could. I was just going off of porn and vivid fantasy, to be fair."

"And more likely than not you'll still be the only human guy she's ever actually been with." The tactic was clever though and undoubtedly made it easier for Dave to handle when she'd gotten around to telling the truth. "Somehow, I think I'd trust an anatomy book over whatever it was you told her when you were thirteen years old," Karkat chuckled and laid his hand against Dave's knee, scratching idly at the fabric of his pants.

Dave smirked and took a long drag of his cigarette. "That's probably fair to assume. Man, I don't even _want_ to know all the shit she remembers me telling her, because I know if even half that shit stuck in this timeline, she's going to be afraid of human genitals for the rest of her days." He pulled Karkat closer - close enough where he could technically be considered in his lap - before he pressed a kiss to his matesprit's cheek. "I'm actually surprised you didn't really do anything with other humans before me, you know? You're a pretty curious guy. If I were you I'd have been interested in seeing shit firsthand."

"I was interested, believe me...but you know I couldn't handle the casual thing that a lot of humans seem to be so fucking fond of. I don't know how Sollux managed it with Bro as long as he did before it broke down and went red," Karkat shrugged and finally just wormed his way into Dave's lap for real. "Besides, I don't feel like thinking about how smug you probably would have been if I'd actually reacted to your size."

"Heh," his ears went red and he bowed his head, grinding out the cigarette on the ground before pocketing the filter. "I'm not really smug about that." He hooked his chin up against Karkat's shoulder and shrugged a little. "It's not something to be smug about."

Karkat reached up and scratched his nails gently behind Dave's ear and into the back of his hair with a soft snort. "You would've found something to mouth off about, Dave. There's no way you would've just gone on without comment."

"Well yeah, but I wouldn't be smug about it." He grinned at the the nails against his scalp and at how Karkat basically knew exactly what he would've done in that situation. "And y'know, now that I think about it, and not that it really matters, but I never thought to ask how many people you've even been with."

"Because it's never really been relevant to discussion," Karkat shrugged then let his hand fall away as he leaned his cheek against the side of Dave's head again. "I tried with a human girl before Jill. In the end she was in it for the novelty rather than just...me." He chewed his lip for a moment before continuing, the flush starting to creep up in his ears. "Before that, there was a highblood that took an interest but there just wasn't time. Between Crabdad freaking out about him coming anywhere near me and the fact that I was just starting school so we had no time, it just didn't work. And you already know about Terezi."

Dave nodded slightly to each, scowling a little about the human girl. He smiled slightly afterwards, however, and wrapped his arms around Karkat's waist. "Well, there's Terezi, and Jade, though that wasn't actually me. Then there was Sechel, and you, and like, six casual flings, so. There you go, full disclosure." He hadn't said his ex's name in the entire time that he and Karkat had been together, and he only just realized that.

"Safe to say at least sexually you had a better handle on things than I did starting out," Karkat snorted then turned around in Dave's lap. He laid his hands on either side of Dave's neck and pecked at his lips a couple times before putting his head down on his matesprit's shoulder with a soft, content sigh. "Figures it takes us seven months to actually talk about this shit. About former relationships I mean."

"Like I said, it's not like it really matters. I mean, I really don't talk about _her_ because she kind of fucked me up in ways I couldn't even fucking dream up in my wildest goddamn nightmares, but you know, we're not really the type of guys to worry about that shit. At least I'm not." He ran his hand through the back of Karkat's hair, and sighed contentedly. "We take pride in and revel in the present. You never did like talking to your past self, and I never liked going back and seeing shit that's already been."

"Lots of past shit that should have just stayed there in the past unfucked with," Karkat nodded and wrapped his arms around Dave's waist, hands linked together behind his back. "Now the best we can do is just keep going forward and if we run into a mountain of shit, climb over it or go the fuck around."

"Blast through that motherfucker like it was demolition day and we have the monster truck," murmured Dave in response. "It's getting kind of cloudy, we should head on back before it starts getting dark in the canyon and I can't see deer and shit." He pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek and leaned back a little to look into his matesprit's eyes, tipping his sunglasses up to make eye contact. "This has been the best fucking thing we've done."

"Definitely worth it," Karkat agreed then kissed him lightly before standing and stepping back, offering a hand to help him up. "I'm sending a message to Terezi when we get home so she knows to try this whole timewasting thing for a little while. It'll be better for her."

"Do you really think she's got what it takes to fuck off for a few hours without driving herself insane? Do you think she's a bad enough dude to handle the slack?" Dave said as he pulled himself up and dusted the dirt off his ass before shoving his hands in his pockets, carefully traversing the steep hill down towards the car.

"She was a bad enough dude to handle all of us," Karkat pointed out then grabbed the trash and headed back down behind him, settling into the passenger seat with a quiet groan. "Ground doesn't like me very much, goddamn my spine hurts right now..."

"Yeah, she was, still is, but I've never seen her slack off, except for when she was all drunk on faygo," Dave pointed out as he dropped into the driver's seat, patting his pockets for his keys before he realized they were still in the ignition. He buckled in and started back the way they came. "Don't bitch too much and you might get a backrub out of the deal once we get home," he smirked and cricked his neck, getting a satisfying pop out of it.

Karkat laughed at that and reached over to rub the back of Dave's neck briefly, ruffling the back of his hair then slouching down in his seat. "I'll hold you to that," he murmured then crossed his arms as he watched the road in front of them out of the windshield. "We should probably figure out dinner some time soon so we actually know what to do when we get hungry again. Or at least when you get hungry again. Fucking metabolic nightmare that you are..."

"Leave my fucked up metabolism the hell out of this, it doesn't know any better. It comes from a simpler time," Dave responded, pouting. "A time where men were men, and metabolisms came in two flavors - original and sour beef." It was the hardest thing for Dave to keep a straight face at that, but he managed. "I think we should hit up a restaurant on the way back. Go stare in wonder at the people and their amazing ability to stand upright with their vacuous brains."

Karkat choked a bit and turned to stare at him. "Ok first, what in the name of holy untempered fuck is 'sour beef' and second, I think if we hit a buffet we'll be like ninety percent more likely to get full and stay that way. I think my metabolism has been trying to keep up with yours lately."

"To answer the second, holy shit yes, and to get to the first, I dunno dude, it was the first thing my brain thought up to really detail how fucked up and wrong my metabolism is." He chuckled at the absurdity, and leaned back into his seat, keeping his concentration primarily on the twists in the mountain road they were on.

Once they got back to the city, he drove through to the large, newer pedestrian mall center, where he knew there was a buffet. It was finding a parking spot nearby that was proving difficult, but after a few minutes of glaring at the completely ass-backwards street planning, he found a parking spot. "There's a reason this place doesn't get any fucking revenue, guys," he muttered under his breath as he killed the engine and unbuckled, grabbing his keys.

Karkat scanned around then shook his head, waiting until he was sure he wouldn't hit someone else's car with his door before getting out. "I'm just going to take a moment to appreciate that someone decided it was apparently a good idea to try and fit an entire city's worth of shops into the same quarter mile and then only accommodate parking for a third of it."

"What really amazes me is how they manage to fit so many one way streets and dead ends into one little tiny area. It's like they were specifically trying to make the worst place to drive." He slipped his hand into Karkat's and walked on towards the buffet, nestled snugly between a dentist's office and a shoe shop. Once inside, he was unsurprised by the lack of people there. It wasn't as popular a place to grab dinner as the Chipotle down the street, or any of the number of asian restaurants found throughout the city. They were sweetly greeted by the hostess who led them to a booth, and handed them plates and asked what they wanted to drink. Dave opted for cola as he grabbed his plate and went straight to the buffet bar. Karkat spent a moment going through the available sodas after he found out they didn't have what he normally drank, trying not to grow too overly frustrated with the lady, who only seemed to speak the most basic English. After it was sorted out he wandered around the buffet and its slightly shoddy selection, shrugging internally and loading up on the least greasy food he could find.

Back at the table he was trying to navigate around a pair of chopsticks, trying very hard not to make it obvious how much it was starting to piss him off that he couldn't pick anything up without stabbing it. He gave a triumphant little laugh when he finally managed a reasonable amount of noodles and quickly stuffed it into his mouth before they could escape.

Dave chuckled once he took a seat with a plate of noodles and what looked to be the spiciest chicken available. "Here, let me show you how," he said, taking his own chopsticks up to show Karkat how to position them, and how to maneuver them without difficulty. "It's really not as hard as you're probably thinking it is, and that's what's keeping you from getting it right."

Karkat growled some at him but let him help, repositioning the chopsticks then huffing quietly when he actually managed to get a better hold on his food. "What is the purpose of these things anyway?" He huffed after a few bites, looking down at the sticks with a bewildered expression.

"Well, not everyone on the planet developed the same utensils. The eastern Asian cultures developed these to mimic picking up your food with your first finger and your thumb, so as not to have to actually use your hands to eat. 'Cause you know. That's nasty." He shoved a large amount of chicken and noodles into his mouth and then shook his head at the heat of the spices on the chicken. He murmured and took a sip of his drink. "They've got forks over there if you'd rather," he mentioned, pointing with his chopsticks at the utensils.

"I'm not going to fucking give up on a pair of goddamn stick utensils," Karkat huffed, jabbing the chopsticks at him then going back to his food, stabbing a dumpling and shoving it into his mouth whole.

"Fucking manners, cockbite," Dave said with a scowl. "Holy shit, wow." He then chuckled warmly. "Jesus it's fun watching you learn shit. You're a neverending fountain of curmudgeonly refusal to adapt. How are you ever going to survive going on world premiere red carpet events with me if you can't get used to other customs." He was only joking. Sort of. He wanted that to be a thing, but then there was the teasing part about it that made everything else seem like a joke. He stuffed his mouth back full and gave a small smile to Karkat from over his plate.

"I'm adapting, Strider. Do you see this shit? I'm using chopsticks now shut your windhole." Sticking his tongue at Dave, Karkat wrinkled his nose then went back to his meal, working his way through it with only the occasional complaint about the sticks. He crossed his arms when he was done, smirking faintly. "When you do the red carpet thing I think I'll just stay in the background out of the way."

"No, you won't, you'll be right there with me, by my side, just like you _should_ be, because you're the most important person in my life," Dave said firmly. "And I'm proud of that," he added as he stood to get another plateful of food. His ears were red for admitting that, but he didn't care. He was just happy he could say that without bogging it down in irony. Karkat stared after him, his own ears turning red as he followed to get a smaller helping and something that would serve as a dessert. He laid his hand on Dave's back in passing, offering a soft smile as he did.

The rest of dinner went just as amicably and during the drive home they could both say that they were suitably full, wondering faintly at how cheaply it had come. Night was just falling by the time they got home and the clouds were starting to roll in for a long downpour but after as long as they'd gone without a good rain, it was welcome. At least they wouldn't have to walk home from work in it. Karkat smiled faintly about that as he stripped out of his jacket and settled down into the couch, only to be immediately set upon by the kitten trying to nose into his face. Once his jacket and shoes were off and everything was set down on the counter, Dave stepped behind the couch and put his hands on Karkat's shoulders, rubbing them carefully, but firmly.

"Pick a movie," he said with a nod to the shelf that had, since Karkat moved in, become a meshing of both their movie collections. Dave had thrown a mental fit a few months prior, and finally just alphabetized the entire movie selection, because nothing could be found between the two separate groups. Sure, there were a few doubles, but they didn't bother him as much as having everything separate had.

"But I just sat down," Karkat whined, but picked up Em and handed her off to Dave before going to eyeball the somewhat massive collection of movies, crouching with his hand on his chin in front of the shelves. After a while he just grabbed a movie at random without really paying attention to it and handed it over to Dave for approval. Dave looked at it and then smirked, before walking and putting it in, letting Em down to jump on the chair. "This is about a cute little boy!" he remarked. 

It was The Omen.

He wasn't going to apologize.

Dave settled down once the TV was set up and the lights were off, pressing play on the remote before wrapping his arms around Karkat, dragging him down with him to sprawl out on the sofa. Karkat knew better than to trust that by now but he settled down on top of Dave with his head on his matesprit's chest, his hands tucked under his cheek. Already he knew he was going to regret this decision and the longer the movie progressed, the more right he was proven. Dave idly played his hands down Karkat's spine as he watched, murmuring quietly in the duller parts of the movie about the reason certain angles were chosen for dramatic effect, and how he really admired the cinematography in general. He smiled to himself. The day was comfortable, and easy, and one of the rare few that he just wasn't really bothered by much in general.

While the running film commentary was interesting in and of itself, the movie just made him frown deeply as he mostly puzzled through it, unable to help making mental connections with his coursework. In short, the conclusion was drawn that humans were ignorant assholes of the highest degree, which was something he'd already known long before being introduced to humanity as a whole. He was tired enough to start dozing off against Dave's chest by the end of the movie, muttering about going to bed but making no move to get up. Dave murmured as well, though it was barely understandable as "maybe later." Once the movie was over, he turned off the TV with the remote and wrapped his arms around Karkat, pressing a kiss to the top of his matesprit's head before dozing off. They'd be sore in the morning, but he honestly couldn't care less.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ascension of the Seer of Mind.

Morning wasn't a thing in the elder Strider's - and now Sollux's - apartment. At least, not in the context of 'waking up during', which was why, at seven in it, Bro was still awake, perched up on top of the sofa as he played through a game that hadn't yet been released. He did, however, recognize the knock on the door, and he grinned as he paused the FPS and grabbed his shirt, tugging it on as he went to the door to open it and scoop up Terezi in a bear hug. "Hey, darlin'," he said with a grin as he set her down in the apartment proper with a shove with his foot to the door. "Why the early stop-by?"

"Oh, I figured you would still be awake, so I wanted to come and bring you some great news in person!" She handed over the open letter from CU Boulder, and then turned around to smile and wave to Sollux. He was fiddling with the inside of one of the PC towers that he'd taken to fixing in his off-times for cheap, more for something to do than anything lucrative, keeping the apartment at its technological peak where he could. He sat up and leaned over the back of the couch with his arms hooked over it, grabbing lazily for the envelope to see what the fuss was about, then nodding in approval.

"Told the local dipshitth yet?" He asked as he stood and stretched, scratching at his stomach some then straightening his undershirt back out.

"Are you kidding?" Terezi snorted and took the letter back. "They'd scalp me for waking them up this early in the morning on a school day for them. Let 'em sleep, I'll scream at them later."

Bro grinned and ruffled her hair. "Well, at least you know 'em well enough to keep yourself from almost certain banishment from their house'n home." He dropped back down onto the sofa and grabbed the controller again. "You got class today?"

"Mm, no labs, so I'm good 'til at least one." She walked carefully past Sollux's work area to settle down on the edge of the sofa. "There _has_ been something weird bothering me lately, and I really can't put my finger on what. I had the same feeling just before we all left from California, you know. Before Sollux bit it _again_."

Sollux wrinkled his nose as she nudged him with her toes and kicked lightly against her ankle, his arms crossing over his thin chest. "You too, huh? I've been getting the thame feeling but it'th not directly related to me thith time." He looked down at his bare feet then back at Bro. "Any inthightth to offer?"

"Other than the usual be careful, don't be an idiot?" Bro asked as he kept playing his game, "Not really. Sorry, kiddo, if there's any fucky business, I'll let you know right away. I mean, if I get some heads ups from my other sources." He chuckled when Terezi sighed heavily and dropped down against him, pouting dramatically. "I guess that's just how it goes. I'll let you know if anything more substantial comes to mind, but I'm really not seeing anything definite."

Terezi continued to pout at them both, but got to her feet and nodded back out. "Anyway... I really should get going. I might not have class, but my study group will _definitely_ need me there in about an hour, and I haven't eaten yet!" She placed a kiss on Bro's forehead before leaning down to do the same for Sollux, and walked to the door. "You two stay out of trouble, and hire a cleaning company or something, it's getting _cluttered_ in here!" She winked and walked out the door. Sollux waved his hands at her to shoo her off, shaking his head then smiling faintly and getting back up to drape his arms around Bro's shoulders, watching his game for a little while. He frowned softly at a slight pang and pressed his nose into the side of the other's head.

"She'th going to die."

Bro nodded as he mirrored the expression. He knew. He didn't want to say so in front of her, because that would have done no good. "Vriska's not close enough to get her to her quest bed - she's down in Australia for some fucking reason - but she's sent me coordinates. She wouldn't do that if Terezi wasn't in serious danger." He paused the game and put his arms over Sollux's, closing his eyes with a heavy frown.

Sollux took his hands and squeezed down. "If it hath to happen, I hope it happenth here. I really don't think KK and Dave are equipped to deal with it."

"Well, if she does it there, she'd be pretty fucked, 'cause her quest bed's here," Bro pointed out. "So I hate to say it, but I really hope she dies soon." He leaned up to kiss Sollux, before he rubbed his face. "Need a fuckin' nap. Wake me up if anybody catches on fire or some shit." He waved over his shoulder as he walked off towards the bedroom. Sollux snorted some at the wording and went back to work, rubbing the heel of his hand into his eye and yawning widely. As soon as he heard the door shut behind Bro he sprawled out on his back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling then back toward the entrance, almost wanting to run after Terezi to bring her back and keep her where she at least couldn't be hurt. He couldn't say the same for everyone, but the last couple of times he'd died had been really fucking painful, and he knew Karkat's had to have been unpleasant as well. He dozed off there on his back in the middle of the room, his arm slung over his eyes, dreaming fitfully of a world bleeding black.

Bro wasn't asleep long. His phone buzzed off the bedside table about half an hour later, and he grabbed it before it could reach the ground, staring at the texts with bleary eyes. Vriska was proving to be just an _astounding_ source of information. Rose sent a text on the heels of that, expressing her uneasiness and her hypothesis regarding what was about to happen. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before being assaulted with a tiny note fluttering down onto his lap and yet another text message.

"Fuckin' grand central station all up in this joint," he grumbled as he walked back out of the room to read the note that had appeared. Same shit, different source. "Hey, good-lookin'," he muttered just loud enough to catch his matesprit's attention. "We'll be needing to get on the road 'round seven tonight, go about half a mile from her pad. We won't be able to stop it no matter how early we get there 'cause Megido and Harley say where it takes place is dependent on situation, but we're gonna catch the ones who do it."

"But I jutht went to thleep," Sollux groaned and sat back up, pushing himself off the floor and flopping bonelessly for a moment before heading for the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. "Why can't she die tomorrow after we've had a day to thleep?"

"Don't bother with the coffee, I'm settin' the alarm for five. Get to bed. I'll be in right behind you." He rubbed his face as he sent a few messages back, saying he got the memo, shit would be fine, everything would be taken care of, and he and Sollux would be there for her when she needed them. He then set his phone's alarm and walked behind Sollux, squeezing his ass since it was there. "Ain't you fuckin' glad you don't get sent seventy goddamn texts when somethin' goes bad?"

Wrinkling his nose some at the sudden grope, Sollux chuckled and reached behind him for Bro's hands and pulled them around his waist. "Woe ith you for being the only one with hith head on thtraight out of all of uth," he muttered then turned to bump his cheek against his matesprit's.

"Pff, is that what this is called? Because I'm pretty sure it's just bullshit, Sollux." Bro brushed his lips along Sollux's jaw as he slipped into the bedroom, sprawling out in the bed. "I'm still the one with the least deaths on my tally card. And now that I mention it, you're the one with the most." Bro yawned as he stretched his legs and arms out. "After this one though, I'm not saving any of y'all's asses. You gotta save yourselves."

"I'm pretty sure that'th all of uth by now anyway. We can take care of it from here," Sollux huffed in vague amusement then sat up on the bed beside Bro, rubbing a hand along his spine. "Told you before, I can deal with dying pretty fucking well. And at leatht thith latht time actually ended better than I could have hoped."

"Better than I hoped, too," Bro muttered as he smiled, turning to face Sollux. "I'm sure you guys are capable of taking care of shit, that is not even a thing that worries me. It's that, y'know, this shit is far from over. Once everyone gets through this leg of it, we've still got lots of work to do." He yawned and tensed up momentarily before sinking into the mattress, pulling a pillow under his arms. "It'll be horrorterrors and fuckery all the way down."

"I'm very well aware of all of that," Sollux yawned and slumped onto his side over Bro's back, his arm tucking up under his head. He leaned down to press his lips to the other's shoulder before rolling off and stretching out against his side and grabbing one of the pillows for himself.

By the time the alarm went off Sollux was already awake, rubbing at his eyes miserably as he wandered the dark room to pull on some clothes that he wouldn't mind getting messed up. He went to start the coffee so that at least there was some ready by the time Bro finally acknowledged the alarm. He didn't even bother with a shower, figuring it would be easier to take one afterward.

Bro found his way out of the bed and into some clothes, brushing his hair as he walked through to the kitchen. "You ready for this, babe?" He asked over his shoulder to Sollux as he poured himself a cup of black coffee. "I'm not sure I am," he mumbled under his breath with his mug at his lips.

"Nope," Sollux muttered into his own cup, leaning back against the counter in a deep slouch. When it was himself, he really didn't seem to care about his own mortality, but when he thought about his friends it was the last thing he wanted for any of them. "Can't we jutht find her early, take her to her quetht bed and jutht kill her with an instant thing? I don't want her to get hurt..."

Bro looked at Sollux with a rueful smile and put his hand on his matesprit's shoulder, squeezing it. Once the coffee was gone, he shoved into his boots. "We can do this three ways, dude. Rocketboard, car, or both. My money's on the third. You get a good view of the street, I can get the overhead, and we can keep contact with our headsets," he said, slipping on his bluetooth as he looked out the window in the general direction of where they were headed. Sollux downed the last of his coffee and slipped his own headset into place, doing a quick sound check as he went back to the bedroom to fetch the keys to the rebuilt Shelby. He glanced back at Bro with a touch of apprehension, pulling on his shoes before starting down toward the parking lot. Bro stepped out onto the patio and grabbed the rocketboard, hopping onto it, waiting for Sollux's car to appear as he sent directions to the GPS in it with his phone. Once they were on the way, there was traffic to navigate around, which Bro helped Sollux through.

Meanwhile, Terezi had hopped off the bus, on her way home to her little apartment. She had been unable to shake off the feeling of dread all day, knowing that there was something looming in the wings. It didn't help that this was a pretty shitty neighborhood, all things considered, and there were several fuckers giving her the stink eye as she walked past them on the badly lit, mostly deserted street. She bristled faintly, but it was all she could really do. She was unarmed. She was grabbed by a strong hand around her wrist and pulled off the street and into an alleyway, where she was surrounded by several humans. Nine, by her count. She could tell that they were in no mood for talk as they teased and tormented her, calling her a tiny little monster and restraining her once she lashed out. One pulled out a knife as she let out a low, dangerous snarl. She couldn't help herself with her absurdly sensible thought that this is what mob mentality was, as she was pushed to the ground and pinned down, kicked, and beaten, while the last thing she saw was the knife coming down into her eye. She flinched too late.

Sollux maneuvered deftly, his tires screaming as he drifted around several corners, keeping to smaller one way lanes to avoid traffic, keeping an eye out where he could and relaying information back and forth with Bro. They were honing in on Terezi's location, but the tight, dreadful feeling in his chest was painful by now. He screeched around a corner and parallel parked the car by letting it skid into the curb sideways, tipping up into two wheels briefly then thudding back down, the suspension creaking at the strain. He killed the engine after a moment and ran a hand over the dash, murmuring quietly under his breath at it then jerking the car door open and nearly sprinting back down the street. He heard a thin scream, and then nothing but low, murderous murmurs.

Bro saw the mob overhead and grit his teeth as he descended on them, grabbing one and throwing him away from Terezi's body, wincing only when he saw what had happened to her. He jumped off the board and with the grace of a dancer and the fury of a berserker, he started taking on each and every man in that alley. One was knocked cold by a single swing of his fist, though others were far worse off once he was in the thick of it - the one with the knife was being pinned against the wall by the back of the neck as he was disarmed, and Bro whispered something low and presumably terrifying into the man's ear before he brought the guy back and then crashed his head against the wall again. By that time, he was being pulled away from the wall by two of the others, one of which he threw over his shoulder, while the other one got knocked back with the first's leg as it went swinging wide over Bro. He wasn't even _started_ with these punks.

While Bro was preoccupied with the men, Sollux was clambering down the alley, nearly tripping over one of the fallen bodies in his rush to get to Terezi. He grimaced as he picked her up, turning her face gently in his hand. Her eyes were ruined, and from the look of it they hadn't waited until she was passed out or dead to do it. He set her back out of the way and stood back up, his hands crackling with vivid energy as he walked down the alley with his teeth bared and growled for Bro to take her back to the car. The last man still standing was his and he would reduce him and all of his friends to a fine paste.

Bro looked up from the man who was far beyond knocked out, his hand fisted into the guy's hair as he pulled his fist back for one last punch, then dropped him, like a dog would a chewtoy. He strolled away and patted Sollux on the shoulder, lifting Terezi's body up, surprised as always at how light she was, and started back to the car, as stoic as one man with so much blood on him could be. The rocketboard followed overhead as he tucked Terezi's body carefully into the back seat, and he murmured to it, "It's gonna be alright, angel, we'll get you patched up. It won't be long." He felt her wrist to check for a pulse, and found none. They didn't have long. Whatever Sollux intended to do with those grade A scumbags, it had to be quick.

He wouldn't kill them. That be far too good for them.

By the time Sollux came back, he was stripping his tshirt off over his head and wiping himself down, a few smears of dark red blood on his skin. There was also a thin trickle of yellow from his left nostril that went unnoticed for the time being. When he reached the car, he touched Bro's shoulder, smiling faintly then dropping into the driver's seat and started the engine. "Feel like riding with me or the board?" He asked quietly, looking back at him with an arched brow.

Bro didn't move other than to pull the door behind him closed, crouched between the back seat and the front beside Terezi. He gave Sollux a nod and murmured, "The GPS has the coordinates in it for the quest bed. Just don't get us all killed on the way there." He set his jaw and kept his teeth clenched as he looked over Terezi. How Vriska could even do this so often was far beyond anything he could try to understand. She must have had nerves of steel just to put up with seeing all her friends dead. Bro wasn't sure he'd have the mental fortitude for it.

The drive was long even at the usual breakneck pace with which Sollux took his commutes out of the thick of the city. The quest bed was situated under a hefty amount of sand in the middle of an abandoned commercial lot on the edge of town, its pillars just visible, poking from the top of the mound. Once they were there, Bro gingerly removed Terezi's body from Sollux's car and walked her over to the quest bed as soon as it had been cleared by an impatient gesture on the psionic's part. He laid her down, before stepping away and dropping himself onto the ground nearby to light a smoke. Whether he noticed the inordinate amount of fireflies was anybody's guess.

Sollux scrubbed some at his hands where there were still lingering stains of teal from when he'd first touched the body. He was starting to pace and fidget, stopping briefly to grab one of Bro's cigarettes for himself and take a deep drag of the smoke. He let it out in a long sigh, his eyes falling closed behind his glasses. Eventually he gave up and sat on the ground beside Bro, his elbows propped up against his knees as his legs pulled up in front of him.

As the fireflies landed on Terezi's body, Bro murmured, "Better not take all night like shortstack," though his tone was far from gruff. He wrapped his arm around Sollux and brushed his hand over his matesprit's hair, careful of both sets of horns. "I'm glad you stopped me, bro, I would've kept on with it until they were all pulp." He looked up when he noticed light coming from the quest bed, and grinned. "That's my girl!" he called with a grin, watching as her body lifted and hovered, and her clothes transformed into a long dress and ballet flats, with - well, at least the hood wasn't the silliest he'd seen.

"If I'd let you keep up I wouldn't have been able to do anything," Sollux murmured then gave a crooked smile, standing and approaching the bed to greet Terezi as she came back. She looked somewhat bewildered for a moment, then took a deep breath and rounded on him, falling into his arms when he held them out. She started muttering at him about how much it hurt before she'd finally blacked out, clutching at him for a moment until she realized what was missing.

"Why aren't you dressed?"

"Blood on my clothes," he shrugged then helped her back over to where Bro was sitting.

Bro smiled as he got to one knee, wrapping his arms around Terezi. "You okay, angel?"

"Oh my god, Bro I keep telling you to stop calling me that! But yeah, I... I guess I am. Can't see shit, but that's nothing new." She smiled weakly and wrapped her arms around him. "Can I go home now? I just kind of want to go home now."

Bro chuckled as he picked her up off the ground and made her squeak in surprise. "Yeah, we're not letting you go back there right now. Too dangerous. You're sleepin' on our couch tonight. I'll go pick up whatever you want me to, but if they know where you live, they're gonna come lookin'. I'll get someone over there to clean house and make sure shit's secure after I grab whatever."

He brought her back to the car and wrinkled his nose at the blood on the back seat. "Sorry about all the blood, Sollux," he said with a smile.

"Well, we never did finish the interior anyway," he shrugged then sat back in the driver's seat again, now simply looking tired as he waited until everyone was situated. He drove more calmly back toward the apartment, hoping that nobody had thought to look out and get his license plate number as he'd barreled through the city.

"Wait, hey this is the new car right? The one in all the photos?" Terezi grinned then poked her head out the window, dragging her tongue across the yellow of the paint. "Tastes like him," she said to Bro, then leaned against him as she listened to the city passing by.

Bro laughed at her impromptu tasting of Sollux's car. "It's just as yellow as he can legally make it, yep," he said, brushing his fingers over her face, getting the hair out of her useless eyes. "Gonna be a tough time gettin' used to you without eyes."

"Oh ew, do I not have eyeballs?" She asked as she moved her hands up to press against her closed eyelids. "Oh, okay, I do. Yeah, don't freak me out like that!" 

"I meant without pupils. I'm just so used to you havin' 'em." 

"I'm actually more used to them being red," she said with a shrug. "Red as my glasses. Oh shoot, did either of you think to get my glasses out of there? My backpack?"

Sollux smirked faintly and reached into the passenger side floorboard, picking the bag up and holding it out to Bro once they'd hit a stop light. "Yeah, for a long time there her eyeth were tho red that wath the only thing that wath visible. It wath weird ath fuck theeing her with eyeth like everyone eltheth." He glanced back through the rearview mirror as she dug through her belongings slowly until she'd come up with her glasses, grinning and slipping them back onto her face. "There'th the TZ I remember..."

Before much longer they'd pulled back into his parking space and made the trip up the stairs to the apartment, deciding on letting Terezi settle into the sofa as Sollux went to fill a cup of coffee to reheat and offer her to hold her until they actually decided on what to eat. Bro took the elevator with Terezi once they got back to the apartment - fifteen flights of stairs was nobody's idea of a good time, including newly re-blinded girls in silly god pajamas.

Terezi plopped down on the sofa and sighed, "Well, I _really_ hope that was all that dreading and gloom and doom were about because if it's not, I'm REALLY not looking forward to whatever's next. Actually, I just sort of want to eat some thai and call it a day."

Bro grinned and kissed the top of her head. "We'll get you some thai. You should text the boys up north, tell 'em you won't be seein' 'em for a while."

"I won't be _seeing_ them fo- Oh, Bro, you _ass!_ " She snorted, tossing a smuppet at him with a grin. "Sollux, how do you deal? Like, always with this guy, he's even cooler than coolkid!"

"Thomebody had to teach Dave all he knew right?" Sollux grinned and plopped himself down on the couch beside her, his elbow propped up against the back. "Bethideth, you wanna know a thecret?" He leaned toward her conspiratorially and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'm cooler than he ith and he'th taking lethonth from me." He leaned back as she cackled at that, looking up at Bro and winking.

"Oh, but it's true," Bro confirmed with as straight of face as he could muster, "I'm a dork and a half. Sollux is truly the coolest person in existence. He just hides it well." He went to get the Thai menu, propping himself against the counter, noticing only now that he was still covered in grime and blood. "Here, Sollux, pick somethin' out, I've got to wash all this nastiness off my person." He walked over and handed the menu to Sollux before walking off to the bathroom to wash off in the sink.

"You and me both," Sollux muttered, glancing down at himself then shuddering some. Mixed blood and dirt and some other, less identifiable substances didn't really appeal to him. He ruffled a hand through Terezi's hair and asked her to stay put, turning on some music for her and heading toward the bathroom himself. He stepped past Bro and changed in the shower stall then started to wash down before the water even had the chance to warm up.

"At least that part'th over," he yawned quietly as he tipped his head down in the shower spray. Bro raised an eyebrow to that and then stripped down and followed Sollux in, smudging away a bit of dried red blood from his matesprit's neck with his thumb.

"She's gonna be all right. She's told me all about her sense of smell and taste and how that's carried her pretty fuckin' well where her sight hasn't." He was only reassuring himself aloud. Sollux knew as well as anybody that Terezi was capable of basically anything that suited her.

"She'th an amazing perthon no matter whether she can thee or not," Sollux assured him, leaning back against him and laying a hand on his matesprit's jaw. "Hell, she handled herthelf better blind than she ever did when she got her thight back. Try not to worry ok?"

With a nod, Bro smiled and leaned down to kiss Sollux's neck, resting his hands on the other's hips. "Yeah, that girl's got a fuckin' way to her I ain't ever seen," he chuckled and grabbed his soap, to start scrubbing himself off. "She's just a good gal." He tilted his head back as he brought the soap up to scrub off the dried whatever-it-was that he felt dried and caked there.

"She'th a forthe of nature. It'th betht to keep up with her or she'll blow right on patht you and on to bigger, more interethting thingth."

Bro chuckled and shook his head, "All y'all are forces of nature, Sollux." He smirked as he turned off the shower and grabbed another towel, drying off his hair and then the rest of him before he flashstepped across the hall to his bedroom to get dressed in some clean clothes. Smiling to himself, Sollux finished rinsing off and stepped back out of the shower, wrapping a towel around himself and drying off most of the way before going back out to the living room to peek at the now saliva-covered phone sitting in her lap.

"Nubth ith gonna throw a fit," he said conversationally then went to where the menu was still sitting on the counter and started reading things off for her, occasionally letting her lick the pictures. Bro emerged after a moment, pulling on a clean shirt as he eyed the slobbery phone and then chuckling, "Remind me to get that shit waterproofed for you, angel."

She laughed and tapped it, shaking her head, "I already did."

"I'm pretty sure all her thtuff hath been waterproofed out of inthtinct," Sollux added, completely uncaring that he was still wearing nothing but a towel. He had his own phone in hand, ready to place the delivery order then go back to his project out of sight.

Bro chuckled and dropped down to wrap his arms around Terezi. "You're goin' to give those boys all the hell they need, right?"

"Mmhmm, already started," Terezi nodded, texting Dave back after licking the screen again. "OH MY GOD CAPTOR PUT ON SOME PANTS," she yelled at him with a huge grin. "I can smell your nudity from here. Rude."

"Jutht keep your nothe over there," Sollux replied with an equally large grin, standing to at least put on a pair of pants to keep her focused on food rather than the visual status of his ass. He returned in one of the custom pants that Bro had sewn for him, making Terezi turn to harass him further and start demanding a pair of her own with the piping in every color Bro had at his disposal. What was better, she knew he wouldn't refuse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter! But as with the other short chapters, this one is separate enough in its connectivity with the story that it works as its own chapter.
> 
> b ovo b


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Movie premier and party times in the Strider household.

At the end of the school year, the local theater was packed with students from the film department, as well as others for moral support, or some just there to mock the shittier final projects. It looked more like a haphazard convention than a school function; some were dressed for the occasion as if attending a real movie premier, others in their street clothes and chatting idly amongst themselves. Karkat looked like a mix of the two, in one of his nicer pairs of skinny jeans and his bloodred vest, the sleeves of his button-up rolled up to his elbows, his expression perpetually sour as he observed the crowd. He'd already been told that running away now wasn't an option, so sulking against a wall would have to do. The terror of having literally everybody Dave knew descending upon them from every far corner of the continent was palpable the night prior, but they'd since had cooled their nerves and Dave was leaning against the wall next to Karkat, watching the crowds of people as they started to take their seats. He'd gone the route of button-up shirt and slacks, but didn't bother with a tie or jacket since it was hot outside, and the theater would get stuffy quickly. 

Bro had rented a charter bus to get everybody - including a certain Egbert - up to Boulder from DIA, and then let everyone loose on downtown, just off of which was the theater. He strolled the length of the mall during the day waiting for the evening to arrive, watching and sometimes harassing the buskers and generally enjoying his time just popping in and out of the shops that lined the five blocks. Eridan had shown up and opted to follow the bus in his own car, having switched out the Veyron for a Bentley GTC to accommodate Gamzee's horns, and had also opted not to wander the mall, but rather to have a seat and talk with Gamzee as they waited for the movies to begin.

It was only about twenty minutes before show time that everyone had taken their seats and Dave finally shoved off the wall, taking Karkat's hand as they made their way to the seats in the balcony. The entire group fully took up the left wing of the balcony together, and, while that cut down on the drama for Dave in terms of strangers watching this trainwreck, it came at the price of _his entire family and group of friends_ seeing it instead. They were chattering quietly amongst themselves as everyone was getting settled in, some of them getting reacquainted, others pointedly trying not to make eye contact with Gamzee, who was sprawled in his seat at the end where he wouldn't be in the way of the screen. His feet, meanwhile, were bare. His fingers idly played with the rings on Eridan's hand as he watched the crowd with unfocused eyes, sucking on the iced coffee Eridan had gotten for him before they'd arrived. Karkat was watching the two of them with a slightly bewildered expression; he'd obviously known about the relationship for the longest time, having been the first person informed of the development, but seeing it was surreal.

Vriska looked a little less than enthused when she arrived somewhat late, taking a seat beside Terezi, arching an eyebrow at her as she stared into space, just listening to everyone talk. "Is nobody going to bother to ask the obvious question?" she spoke up after a moment, crossing her arms over her chest. She leaned back some as Terezi reached out and patted her shoulder, grinning.

"Dude don't sweat it, I get to listen to the kickass soundtrack and the script Dave and Rose wrote. Picking out voices is gonna be fun," she shrugged, then turned her attention back to the murmur of conversation.

Dave chuckled at Vriska's obvious consternation and nudged her. "And your amazing voice acting, can't forget that." He looked over at Karkat, who was still goggling over at Eridan and Gamzee. "We're still sitting on the shallow end of the hot gene pool," he whispered and then got whapped upside the head by Bro, who was just on his way to his seat.

"Don't knock your genes, kid."

The lights dimmed and some of the clearly more mature members of the audience went 'ooo', before Dave's professor got up onto the stage before the screen and spoke about how it was a wonderful year for the class and how _proud_ he was of the kind of effort he saw put into this year's films. The first was a fifteen minute animation, and then they'd be showing the second - longer - movie. Dave slid down in his seat and was very, very glad for his glasses at that point, muttering, "Sorry about the wait, guys, but at least there's cartoons involved."

Karkat heard a "fuck yeah" from the end of the row and rolled his eyes then slouched down some in kind, taking Dave's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. He glanced in the direction of the voice. He hadn't seen Gamzee since he'd witnessed his murderous rage years ago. Now he was taller than Dave, his hair longer and inexplicably dreadlocked and pulled back from his face in a black scrunchie, wearing a tailored suit and his customary face paint and looking for all the world like the world's most laid-back millionaire short of a Strider. He was loathe to admit it, but his once sweet-faced moirail really had gotten _hot_. He tore his eyes away from the sight to focus on the animation, his chin propping up on his hand.

The reception of the animation was polite approval, the applause mostly respectful, with a couple of isolated whistles from the student's friends. There was a brief pause before the next film was announced and the lights dimmed down again, and everyone in the balcony say up a little straighter. Karkat's hand squeeze down around Dave's tightly as his eyes scanned the crowd. It was impossible to see their reactions from up here unless they were really obvious but he could tell that all of the internet hype had paid off by the way they had all quieted down expectantly. The way the theater got silent enough to hear the slight wheezing of a guy across the entire venue gave Dave gooseflesh. He very badly wanted to get up and walk out at that point, especially once the film started up. He squeezed Karkat's hand and slunk deeper into his seat, almost sprawled completely horizontal at that point as everybody watched.

Bro, on the other hand, watched with clear interest, not just in the movie as a whole, but in the way the movie was put together. He was no film expert, but he knew what he was looking for, and knew that every moment of this film was painstakingly edited and built up from nothing from day one. The dedication to and love of the project showed through, not only in the seamless transitions, but the lighting, the angles, the way each take had been chosen to pull out the exact emotion that Dave had wanted the audience to feel.

Eridan wasn't one for movies about mutinous uprisings, but the historical importance of the Sufferer's life interested him, and he was beside himself with how much care Dave had in keeping the history accurate, which he hadn't expected out of a human. What was more intriguing to him, however, was Karkat's acting. He turned to Karkat midway through the film and mouthed "What the hell??" and pointed at the screen. "When did this happen?" He was silent, but clearly impressed. Karkat's ears flared red and he pulled a similar slouch to Dave's, holding onto his hand as if he thought letting go would be the signal for one or both of them to flee. He almost didn't want to see Eridan's reaction to the credits and seeing his name in the list for the music. Even Gamzee looked somewhat taken aback as he watched the final scenes before it lapsed into Vriska's narration.

The theater was dead silent as the credits began to roll and the duet that had been arranged for it began to play and Karkat felt as if a very heavy weight was pressing down on him from every angle, his knuckles bleeding to a paler grey in his grip on Dave's hand. He nearly jumped out of his skin at the thunderous roar of applause, the audience standing and cheering. Terezi was grinning ear to ear and Kanaya was wiping a tear away with her fingers as she clapped along for her friends and the intense work that went into the film. Rose stood and applauded as well, before she took a moment to pull Vriska up to do the same, which she did, albeit still taken aback by the entire thing. Dave, on the other hand was red from ear to ear, and he finally stood, the applause intensifying as the spotlight hit him and the group. He chuckled nervously and bowed faintly, before looking down where Karkat was, and pulling him up out of his seat as well, pointing at him. If the applause got any louder, they would likely be able to hear it in space.

Bro whistled and chuckled, before taking his leave of his seat, patting Dave on the shoulder. "Did me proud, boss," he said, and then patted Karkat's shoulder as well, before he took his leave. He had to keep an eye on the skies, because this shit was starting to get a little out of control. 

The professor came back on stage, and spoke into the microphone, "Dave Strider and his company, everybody, one last round of applause," as if the theater's patrons had ever stopped. "Okay, well, that's it for tonight. Come back tomorrow where we'll be showing two short films and a longer one by our other, very talented students! Thank you and goodnight!"

Karkat was clutching Dave's arm, fighting not to fall back down in his seat. He barely noticed Bro and Sollux slipping very quietly out before the stampede of students, focusing more on the fact that he could hear his name being yelled from the audience below. He wheezed slightly as his fingers dug into the other's arm. He couldn't imagine how real actors could stand this shit on a monumental scale. He jumped badly when a hand clapped down on his shoulder, Gamzee having slipped around the backs of the chairs to come behind him, grinning warmly as he wrapped his arms around Karkat's shoulders as if they'd never spent a day apart.

"When were you gonna tell us about that badass motherfuckin' acting skill?" He laughed and pushed his nose against the side of Karkat's head as the blush only grew brighter. He wasn't answered, but that nonverbal "NEVER" was obvious even to him. Dave patted Karkat's hand gently before he pulled his arm carefully away to let Gamzee through, grinning and nodding to the highblood.

"You'd think he'd have grown out of being shy by now, but I'm afraid it's fucking stuck that way." He patted Karkat's shoulder and walked to go talk with the girls for a bit. Eridan came up to Karkat and shook his head with a proud little smile. "An' here you said you didn't do too much on this thing. That was fuckin' incredible."

Dave squirmed his way through the crowded balcony, asking the other students to kindly get the hell out of the way, while thanking them and shaking their hands, managing, for the moment at least, to play the part of the overnight sensation. He remained up there, though, until there was a path made for Rose and Kanaya, and then Terezi and Vriska to be let through and out of the building. He turned back to Karkat and whistled for his attention and nodded to the exit. "You ready to go?" Karkat was still stuck in his speechless fluster over it even as he finally managed to duck away from the fussing highbloods, attaching himself to Dave's side. He nodded as he pushed his matesprit toward the exit, all the while trying not to let himself collapse into a puddle of overwhelmed goo as over and over students that he both knew and had never met came up to congratulate him on his performance. Once outside in the air though, he sucked in a deep breath then slapped a hand over his mouth, looking as if he was about to throw up. Bro had gathered the group over across the street, everyone waiting for the rest of the group to catch up so they could grab dinner all together. Dave waved to them and then stopped, turning to rub his hand on Karkat's back, shushing him softly.

"You're doing great, Vantas, you're going to get through this and we're going to go somewhere else and people won't be coming up to you anymore. It's not going to even be a fuckin' thing, okay? Just relax." He gave Karkat a pointed look and shake of his head to someone about to come up to them, and they backed off.

Meanwhile, Eridan and Gamzee made their way outside and out to the rest of the group. The venue had been decided, all that was left was who was going to foot the bill. Bro and Eridan bickered over it quietly before simply playing rock-paper-scissors over it, while Eridan grumbled at what an infantile solution to the problem it was. Gamzee was watching them with a scrunch-faced, lopsided smile then waved their hands down, suggesting that they split it so there was no contest over it and the rest of them could chip in for tips if they could. Eridan cracked a tiny smile at that, and nodded to Gamzee's idea.

"Fair enough," he said and nodded to the bus, and then to his car. "We'll meet you there," he said before slipping into the driver's seat, calm as could be. The levelheadedness gave Kanaya a moment of pause that made her look around at the others to be sure that they'd heard it too. She looked back up as Karkat and Dave finally crossed the road to get to them, Karkat still looking mightily shaken, the blush still settled high in his cheeks and ears. He calmed slightly when she pressed her lips to his temple.

"Can we just. Food. Now please," he whined, his fingers tangling into the loose material of her skirt, the other hand still laced with Dave's.

Dave stood up next to Bro and nudged him, his hand still in Karkat's. "Come on, if we're going to be amazing, let's do it somewhere a little further away from the scene of the crime." 

Once they all made it to the restaurant, they were given an entire side room to themselves as they talked amongst themselves, Dave smiling and striking up a conversation with Gamzee. He noted that they really hadn't gotten to meet, and how - at least last time they talked on any reasonable timeline - he'd been a major asshole to Gamzee and wound up being really culturally insensitive. He apologized and shook his head. "Sorry man, I didn't know that shit would set you off."

Bro raised both eyebrows to that, and then grinned over to Karkat as he scanned the menu. "Hey, you doin' all right, kid? You looked pretty pale there for a minute."

"People," Karkat muttered, his chin on the tablecloth with his menu in front of his face. "Too many fucking people... Touching me and just...augh," he whined. He listened with half an ear to Gamzee and Dave's conversation, grimacing some. The two of them were being amicable enough, but it was clear Gamzee had his reservations where it came to Dave. He was still making an effort to be a little more open about talking to Dave though and eventually, they started to rap back and forth, drawing the attentions of Terezi, Kanaya and Rose.

Bro nodded once, and then smirked, "Why you think I live in a place fifteen floors up and in a shit area of Houston? Nobody bothers my ass there." He raised his eyebrows at the impromptu rap battle going on, hearing Gamzee throwing in some Japanese as casually as he was using English, and it made him smirk. He'd get back to that thought later, and he ordered for himself and Dave, who seemed to be too caught up with the highblood to be anywhere _near_ earth's orbit to notice that orders were being taken.

By the time the waitress came to take their drink orders, only a few of them were actually paying attention and it took some time to get it straightened out. A bottle of wine was brought to the table, compliments of the restaurant staff, a couple of whom had been at the theater to see the films that evening. Once the appetizers were on the table, Dave sat back and conceded to Gamzee, grinning at the righteous defeat via sick fires from the slow-rolling clown on the other side of the table. Dude still had the maddest skills. He raised an eyebrow to Eridan, who looked like he'd just witnessed a surreal murder at the hands of the two, and he smirked. "You wanna go, businessman?"

"How about fuck no," Eridan said with a tight smile, waving off the offer. He took to pouring the vinaigrette on his salad and then eating it quietly as he watched the rest of the group.

John, who had been at the movie out of the way of the rest of them and had followed along here, had been taking it all in quietly for the most part. He stood up, clearing his throat. "Hi. Can I be the guy making the toast?" He asked. "I want to say that you're all assholes and insane people, and that because of Dave's movie, it's possible for me to say that I missed every last one of you. I have. I missed everybody's sass, everybody's sarcasm. I missed the meddling, and the idiotic rap battles. And I'm glad we've got that again. Thanks, Dave. I mean it. Oh, and that was a killer movie!"

There was a chorus of laughs and glasses were raised, clinked together then sipped as John sat back down, beaming at all of them. There was a minute flash and a note landed in Dave's drink, a tiny, curly "hear hear!" written on the slip of paper.

As dinner progressed and they all grew mildly inebriated (with the exception of Gamzee, who didn't care so much for alcohol after having gone all his life reliant on other things) and increasingly talkative and loud as they tried to be heard over one-another. Karkat was fairly quiet, but that was to be expected. He was relaxing though, talking to Eridan across the table. Gamzee had painted a few more pieces and had expanded the mural on his bedroom wall, and finally he'd been convinced to let a couple of his canvases hang in a gallery. They had also started their garden, though at the moment it was little more than a lot of dirt and a couple of sprouts.

"You never told me you were into that kind of thing," said Karkat as he stirred his spoon through his soup, pushing around the thick pieces of vegetable. "I mean the entire time we were friends before, you never once went 'hey kar, I think one day I'd like to start a fuckin' vegetable garden', even while we were dating."

Eridan shrugged a little. "It's more Gam's project than mine, y'know, just figured it'd be --"

"Hold on, wait. Whoa. What?" Dave said as he looked up at Karkat, brow arched. "You two dated?" He was clearly taken by surprise on that one. Eridan huffed a smug little chuckle, muffling it behind a tight lipped smile. "For a few weeks, when we were very young. It's nothin' ta get that worked up over, Strider." 

"Yeah but he never said you guys did," Dave said with a browarch at Karkat. "I'm not flippin' out dude, I'm just a little surprised you'd want to keep that shit secret from me." 

Terezi shrugged and sipped her drink. "I knew," she said conversationally.

Karkat just returned his raised brow, sipping some at his wine. "It wasn't exactly a secret, Dave. Like I'm pretty sure every one of these dickspits knows about it. Even Egbert."

"What about Egbert?" John spoke up from the end of the table, looking between the group curiously.

"Ok, maybe not Egbert."

"Pretty sure Egbert knows fuckall," Dave said with a smirk to John, who flipped him off in the most casual way. Rose shook her head, "I didn't know, either. It must have been before we met."

Eridan nodded to that. "Shortly before shit went sideways on the meteor. It worked better as it is, so we broke it off amicably. Now that the humans are caught up on seven year old gossip, what were we talkin' about?" 

"Gardening, fishman," Dave reminded, smirking a little at the puzzle piece that settled into place in his mind. That explained why those two put up with each other even now, when they were on such different levels. He mulled it over to himself as he watched the conversation, not really listening to it. He looked over to the group, then over to the door, and slipped away to grab a smoke, needing one after spending most of the day without. He nudged Gamzee a little and nodded to the door as he walked that direction, packing his new pack of cigarettes against the heel of his hand. Gamzee looked away from his dinner at the nudge and watched Dave go for a second before going after him, his hands tucking into his pockets as he followed and fell into step beside him.

"Look man, if this is about that shit from way motherfuckin' before, I get it," Gamzee said quietly, looking at Dave then down at the floor. "You were just a fuckin' kid. You didn't know shit."

"Nah man, it's not about that." He offered a cigarette to Gamzee and smiled a little. "Man, you were always my fuckin' favorite before I actually met everyone. Always had the smooth flow and the roundabout thinking." Dave took a seat on a large, square flower planter and took a drag of his cigarette once it was lit. "Nah, I just wanted to say your art's awesome. Makes me kinda wish I'd have taken mine somewhere."

Gamzee took to leaning against the wall beside the door, taking a zippo from his pocket and taking a couple of long drags on the cigarette. He shook his head with a soft smile, bumping the heel of one sneaker against the toe of the other. "That's all up to you, bro. What I do is just pullin' a bunch'a motherfuckin' nightmares and pictures outta my head, puttin' 'em somewhere tangible where I can keep an eye on 'em. I've seen your shit, Karbro showed me some a while back. You do some real fuckin' nice ink work, bro."

Dave nodded. "Makes fuckin' sense, dude, it _looks_ like you're painting nightmares. Shit looks like you dredged it straight out of that dark part of everyone's brains that they're afraid to go in. You know, the fuckin' closed and locked door that nobody opens." He shook his own head at the compliment. "Man, that's just how I destress, that shit he probably showed you. I don't even do it on the regular. My real shit's my photography and my film stuff."

"For casual art it's pretty fuckin' sweet still," Gamzee shrugged and flicked some ash away. "Your photos are some primo artsy shit. Magazines should be callin' you up to take their motherfuckin' covers. Saw a couple you did of Karkat that look like _they_ should be hangin' in a motherfuckin' gallery instead'a my shit."

"Don't fuckin' tease me like that, dude," Dave said with a grin. "You know it's hard as hell living in this town with all the damn artists around here? It took me months before I even got my shit shown at the place we work." He grinned, however, and raised an eyebrow. "We should collaborate sometime. I'm thinking if we can figure some shit out, see how your shit and my shit mesh, we could make something to wake some of these hapless sleepy people up, you know?" He looked in through the window at their large party of rowdy people. "I mean, we can't be the only ones in this damn semireality being aware of the situation."

Gamzee straightened up at that, pointing two fingers tweezed around the butt of his cigarette at Dave, giving him a wide smile. "I like the way you think, motherfucker. I told Eridan a long fuckin' time ago wakin' the rest'a these motherfuckers up is gonna be pretty fuckin' essential to gettin' this place all up and motherfuckin' realized. It's gonna rain fiery fuckin' hell down on us but at least when that happens we got more people around to help clean that shit up."

"Exactly. Fuckin'..." he took a drag of his cigarette as his posture changed, from its usual slump to one more straight and proper. "Dude, these Guardian fuckers keepin' Bro's shit all tangled up don't want people looking through that veil over our reality, they think that the players don't _need_ to know what's going on, but they're not even the ones who _know_ the shit that's out there. Bro might, but he's kind of a special case, you know what I'm sayin'?" He stood and got a dark little smile. "Let's shake these people awake, Makara." He looked up at the sky and then looked back to Gamzee. "Those girls up there might not have me with them towing this shit into permanence, but they've got me down here, where they can guide me and let us know what's needed. And don't you girls fucking act like you aren't eavesdropping on our shit." 

There was another strip of paper that fluttered down between himself and Gamzee, which read 'we need more void players!' in bright green.

Gamzee looked down at the paper and rubbed a hand back around the back of his neck, letting a heavy sigh. "Only motherfuckin' Void player I know's Equius, bro. I don't know where Vriska toted him off to but he'd be my first motherfuckin' bet. He's an active player. Heir, y'know?"

"Rose's Mom is Void, too, at least her teenself was." Dave finished off his cigarette. "I mean, if that's what they need, though, we don't have to tap our own resources. It's clear the ones we know know what's up, already, man," Dave pointed out as he tossed the butt of his cigarette away. "If we can find a way to target just those players though... Shit, I dunno." He rubbed his fingers and then shrugged. "I'll think of something. This is some fucking heavy level sober-time shit. I'm too damn drunk for this noise." He started back in. "I'm not sure we should tell these guys, though. A lot of 'em aren't on board with waking people up. I'll talk to Vantas and Bro."

"Maybe I can work some void imagery in. No promises, I don't really fuckin' choose what comes out half the time, but you're real good at that photomanipulation shit, if we fuckin' scanned my shit and you took it into an editor then got prints all fuckin' done up that's work out. Mixed motherfuckin' Media." Grinning, Gamzee clapped a hand down on Dave's shoulder then nodded back inside. "We still got some motherfuckin' dessert to order anyway. Pretty sure you still got my handle and I'm always online. Got me some bad motherfuckin' insomnia now that I'm off the sleepin' pills so that's about the best time to talk at me."

"You'n me both, man," Dave said with a huff of a chuckle. "Vantas gave me melatonin, but shit doesn't work worth half a damn. Pot helps, but I keep that shit minimal for Karkat's sake." He grinned a little as Bro looked back up to the two of them, smelling of tobacco and looking like conspiracy.

"Yo, we're ordering desserts."

"Just in time," Dave said as he dropped back into his seat, putting his hand in Karkat's with a smile. "Hey."

"Remind me one'a these days, I'll send you some'a my shit. Keeps me real motherfuckin' even," Gamzee offered and slid back into his seat beside Eridan, taking a few swallows from his water glass then picking up a dessert menu. Half the shit he wasn't entirely sure what it was and he was forced to ask his matesprit more than once how to pronounce something unfamiliar. Eridan helped Gamzee, not even taking a patronizing tone that he would have with anyone else, pointing with a nail down the menu, explaining what everything was. He had figured whatever Gamzee and Dave had just spoken about was between the two of them, and Gamzee would fill him in if it was important enough.

Karkat leaned against Dave's shoulder, giving him a look that very clearly said he'd be asking about what they'd been talking about and whether or not it would end up with them having a houseful of clown. He'd long since settled on his dessert and was just waiting for the waitress to come back.

Dave turned his head and smiled against Karkat's hair, murmuring, "Art project," by way of explanation. "Between the two of us, I have a feeling it's going to be pretty profound." He looked up at the waitress as she came by, taking everyone's orders, and he decided on the creme brulee with strawberries. Karkat asked after the tiramisu, handing his menu back over then refilling his wine glass halfway, figuring that would be his limit for the night. He was already heading toward drunk but at least with the food on his stomach it wasn't as acute as it could have been. Terezi was past there, leaning into Vriska's space as she talked to her and everyone else in her general vicinity about her classes and the people in them. Miraculously, Vriska seemed to be tolerating it and even contributing to the conversation, making up hypotheticals for Terezi to try and apply her education to. John looked fascinated, a bite of a creme pastry paused halfway between his plate and his mouth as he asked questions of his own.

Sollux had been terribly quiet ever since the movie, keeping himself close to Bro's side without being outright affectionate. He seemed to be deep in thought, pecking at the swirled cheesecake he'd ordered distractedly. Meanwhile, Rose had cut herself off to two glasses of wine, and Kanaya was grateful for that. They were listening to Terezi as she talked, noting that she and Vriska had gotten rather chummy in the past couple of hours. Rose gave a knowing little smile to the two of them and Vriska narrowed her eyes in return. It was obvious by Rose's smugness and Vriska's sudden snub that they'd just shared a couple thoughts between them and Rose had won whatever little debate had happened.

Bro had noticed Sollux's relative silence, and figured he'd let his matesprit sit in thought for a while. He decided that while was good and up. "What's up?" He murmured, brushing his hand up against the side of Sollux's thigh. "You've been off in your own world, bro."

Sollux looked back at him blankly, then shook his head to clear it and leaned up to give him an apologetic kiss. "It'th fine, nothing new," he replied quietly, glancing around at the others then taking a larger bite of his dessert, occupying himself for the time being with the intention of talking to Bro about it later.

The longer it went and the more everyone drank, the more they relaxed around each other, talking about anything that came to mind and finally all agreeing that they should end the night in tenuous style, taking over a place that Bro owned for when he stayed in the area. Given that all of them had either asked for time off or had been excused from their occupations for that weekend, they could safely crash there or wherever else they intended to stay to sleep off their respective hangovers. Karkat was talking with the slightest slur to Dave about his final paper and his dissertation, which he'd started already in spite of only being at the end of his freshman year. He was still rambling rather disjointedly as he walked with Dave to the car then looked back at the others as they dispersed, knowing they were going to look like some kind of really uncoordinated motorcade as they followed Bro. Bro, meanwhile, piled most of the group into the bus, driving them to his place, having had the presence of mind not to drink while the rest of them got comfortably tipsy. Eridan followed behind them, and behind Eridan and Gamzee's expensive vehicle, was Dave with Karkat. Dave smiled as he listened to Karkat go on, glad that his matesprit had a fantastic head start on his dissertation. He was careful to drive properly, even though he was on the wrong side of tipsy.

Once at their destination, everyone piled into a townhouse that Bro had bought and only sparsely furnished, though they were still neck-deep in ironic posters, and a damn decent sound system, on which he promptly put on some very good downtempo ambient. The seating was, in itself, a party situation, with dozens of beanbags and moon chairs, piled onto each other but soon spread out over the entire first floor as the party roamed and rambled between mingling with each other and breaking off into private conversations for a few minutes at a time.

Dave settled down into one of the larger beanbags, spacing out as he listened to the music and the vibrant chatter of his friends, glad that the hard part of showing the movie for the first time to a public audience had passed. John dropped down by him and shook him out of his space-out, and started talking about what future projects he had in the wings. Dave indulged his old friend, explaining that he really didn't have any solid film projects on the horizon, but that he and Gamzee might have some shit to do that summer.

Bro settled down in a hammock that was hung in the rafters that overlooked the living room from the loft second floor, and watched over the rest of them, smiling faintly at the group below. He watched Eridan decide to stand rather than deal with the awkwardness of the seating, and chuckled to himself at how out of place the seadweller looked next to the rest of the group. Even Kanaya was far more at ease than him, and was, at the moment, telling Eridan to relax and have a seat, promising that he wouldn't be forsaking his status just by loosening up and enjoying himself for once. Gamzee had settled down beside Eridan once everyone else was occupied, holding loosely onto one of his hands and leaning heavily against his shoulder, rubbing the end of his nose along the soft, sensitive tissue at the bottom of his earfin. He'd long since stripped out of his suit jacket and left it hanging neatly over the back of the chair and his sleeves were rolled up, shoes kicked off by the door. He looked up with a sleepy smile when Karkat sat down beside the two of them, starting a meandering conversation with him without letting Eridan get out of the way. It didn't last too long though as the atmosphere started getting a little too warm for comfort and the patio door was opened to let some air in.

Sollux was standing outside by himself to keep from being a complete downer and Gamzee wrinkled his nose at the image of his friend's back framed by the door and the dark night, turning back to Eridan briefly and pressing his lips to his matesprit's neck then murmuring that he'd be back in a little while. Sollux had taken off his glasses as soon as he'd settled outside, letting Bro be his not-quite-social butterfly self in peace. He expected one of them to eventually come out to check on him, but when he looked around at the shadow that fell over the rail beside him, it wasn't who he was expecting.

"Oh...Hey Gamzee," he murmured then went back to staring into space, only to be interrupted by the sound of crinkling plastic, then the flick of a lighter and recognizable crackling. He let a quiet laugh and took a moment to breathe the scent before it could whip away on the breeze, arching a brow as the pipe was held out to him. He very rarely partook, but it felt like the right occasion to do so now and he took out his own lighter, sucking the flame back into the bowl and letting a slightly choked cough. He let the smoke out in a slow drift and handed the pipe back. "Thankth, man...needed that."

"Can't just be all up n' lettin' you mope out here by yourself all night, bro," Gamzee replied with a soft smile and ran his hand across Sollux's shoulders before taking another deep pull for himself.

It was pretty much coincidence that Dave needed a cigarette around then, and walked out, tailed by John as they still talked. Dave chuckled once he saw Sollux and Gamzee out there. "Popular choice to get some air right now. And here I was hoping I'd be some fuckin' trendsetter." Once he took a breath though, he could smell the potent weed that Gamzee had brought and raised an eyebrow. "Shit, dude, you weren't kidding. The fuck kind of crazy government strain do they even have you on?" He glanced over at John, who looked quite plainly confused. "Oh my fucking god, Egbert, you have to be fucking with me right now, you don't even know what weed smells like? What kind of good influences have _you_ been hanging with?"

John shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets, murmuring. "I dunno, clearly ones that don't do drugs?"

"Shit's legal here, dude. Good god."

"Besides, lil' bro, it don't hurt nofuckin'body, unlike lots of shit out there. Frankly, you're a lot motherfuckin' safer with this right here." Gamzee held the pipe out to Dave to let him take a hit, holding out his lighter if he'd left his own inside. Dave grinned and pulled out his own lighter, nodding his thanks as he took a hit, looking over as Cass walked outside, as if summoned by the sound of lighters. "Mm, dunno if I introduced anybody to this fucker here," he said breathlessly, handing over the pipe to John, who fumbled with it. "This here's my bro, Cass Turner. Cass, this is John Egbert, Sollux Captor, and Gamzee Makara."

Cass gave a nod to each of them, producing his own pipe from his hoodie pocket and sparking up. "Good to meet you all. Dave's told me a lot about your session."

John hadn't lit up the pipe, still fiddling with it then simply handing it over to Sollux with a sheepish smile, before turning to Cass. "Wait, session? He's told you about the game?"

"Um. Yeah. It's not like literally everybody on this planet's not a player in their own respective sessions or what." Cass replied with a flat tone. "Or have you not pieced that together?"

"Egbert doethn't remember ath much ath the retht of uth," Sollux shrugged, taking his hit then passing it back to Gamzee, who in turn gestured John over, holding the pipe up to his lips and talking him through it, lighting the pipe as soon as he heard the intake of breath.

"Jesus christ," he choked, spluttering smoke before he'd taken more than a second's worth. Sollux snorted at him, taking the pipe back and facing Cass as Gamzee raised a hand.

"Sup, bro. Pleasure to meet a friend'a Dave's. Mind if I see what you got up in there?" He asked and nodded to the other's pipe. John was complaining some under his breath to Dave, grumbling about being unable to understand why they liked this stuff.

"Ah, that makes sense, I suppose," Cass said to Sollux, before he handed over his pipe to Gamzee with a pleasant smile, "By all means. It's a hybrid hydroponic, nothing fancy, does for me what it ought." He looked a bit concerned for John and patted his back. "You should try to take in some air along with the smoke, or you'll choke like that," he suggested, smiling up to Dave. "I didn't know you knew anybody like this."

Dave couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yeah, well, he's the loser we all wish we were. And he's the hero of our session, and kind of the big dumb idiot who saved our asses at endgame." He leaned back against the wall and lit a cigarette as he felt the high creep up on him.

John scowled slightly with his head tilted. "Thanks, I think. You're always the worst at compliments!"

"And he's a motherfuckin' cutie ain't he?" Gamzee grinned then took a deep breath of the new smoke, nodding in approval as he let it back out. He took another breath, then gestured over to John to come over to him with a slightly strained "C'mere bro, open your mouth." John looked rather bewildered as Gamzee put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a soft, comforting little smile before laying his lips over the human's and letting the smoke back out in a slow breath. It startled John into sucking the breath in, blinking rapidly as he held it as if unsure what to do with it before letting it out again. The breath tapered off in a nervous little giggle, his hand coming up and rubbing absently at his mouth. "Look at that motherfuckin' blush, no wonder he's gettin' all those looks."

Cass kept his commentary to himself by pressing his knuckles to his smiling lips as Dave laughed. "Holy shit, the look on your face, Egbert." He looked up to Gamzee with a smile, offering a quick fistbump for his troubles. "You are a hero to us all, Gamzee. Hey, Sollux, what's eating you?" 

Cass shook his head and touched Dave's shoulder. "I think it's best not to ask that right now. Just let it go, mate." He settled down against the railing of the porch, arms propped up back against the ledge of it. Dave's brow lifted at that but didn't question Cass' insight, and looked back over to John. "Now when you're asked if you've ever kissed a clown, you can say you have. Bucket list get."

"That's...so far off my bucket list, Dave. So not there."

Gamzee had returned the fistbump then leaned back against the rail next to Sollux, handing Cass' pipe back then retrieving his own. He lit it back up before handing it to Sollux again, offering him another hit then glancing back at John. "Mouth to mouth's easier than takin' it straight," he explained. "We ever do it up again, I'll bring my hookah. Single hose, but if we can find a motherfuckin' lazy susan it'd be real fuckin' easy. Won't hit the kid as hard."

"I'm not a little kid." John pouted, his hands shoving into his pockets as his shoulders slouched.

"He says, in a fit of infinite maturity," Cass said dramatically as he pocketed his pipe. "Aren't you all the same age, save for Dave's brother?"

"Close enough," Dave explained, "Like, these fuckers don't really go by the same measurement system, or didn't really used to? So it's kinda hard to really say we're all born within the same year, but it's pretty fuckin' close. If you're going by age, I'm _pretty_ sure Eridan's the oldest. But Kanaya's the most mature. Kept all us fucking lunatics in line, even when we were dead, half dead, crawling around in vents, you know. Whatever suited us." 

John piped up, "I wasn't with them, mostly. I was with Jade, and then I was with Vriska and her dead people pirate crew."

Cass' brows raised very, very high. "How the hell fuckin' long were you in the game?"

"Latht time I bothered to try and figure that out I think I came up with like three yearth?" Sollux shrugged and took another hit, holding it then tipping his head back and letting a thin stream of smoke toward the sky. "Ok, I think I'm done," he sighed then laid his hand on Gamzee's shoulder, giving him a grateful smile then slipping his glasses back on. He stepped around Cass and climbed up to where he'd spotted Bro literally hanging out.

Gamzee was smiling faintly to himself then tilted his head up just enough to make the faint lines of his scars under the makeup visible. "Pretty sure everyone here's hit their fuckin' god tier but me," he said thoughtfully, then took a longer hit and let the smoke back out through his nose.

"Jesus damn. We were only in there for a month or two, by our Time player's count." Cass scratched his head as he nodded to Sollux as he departed. 

Dave nodded at Gamzee. "Then again, you're the only one here who hasn't died at least once," He looked out past the fence of the back yard into the large field that spanned as far as he could see in the night. "Wicked Clowns never die, brother." He bit his lip to hold back a chuckle of his own when John started giggling at his reference. Gamzee pressed his lips together as he too caught it, mentally shaking his head then holding the pipe back out to Dave in case he wanted any more. He looked over his shoulder at John holding onto Cass and laughed quietly.

Cass grinned and led John back inside with a shake of his head, "Okay there, mate, take a breath, you're going to start hyperventilating if you keep this up." He nodded back to Gamzee and Dave as he closed the door behind himself and John.

"Motherfuckin' lightweight kid. Good thing you got your bro there makin' sure he doesn't do some spectacular motherfuckin' faceplant."

"He hasn't hit godtier yet, either. Cass, that is. His session shat itself way earlier than either of ours did." Dave shook his head. "He's good people, dude. Babysits the lightweights, keeps shit in good spirits when everybody's a mess. Keeps my ass in line when Karkat can't." He settled down onto the patio, sliding his legs out of the bars of the railing to hang them off the edge. He really didn't have much to say after that, and just went back into his own thoughts, smiling a little. He thought about going back in to hang out with Karkat some more, but he had noticed, as he watched Cass and John walk off, that Karkat was still talking with Eridan, and figured that he'd let them do their thing.

Bro had dozed off in the hammock, though he woke up when he heard Sollux climb over the half-wall and start towards the hammock on the rafter. "Hey." He murmured. "You smell like the back room of a record store. You guys smokin'?"

"Gamzee decthided to help eathe thome of the worry," Sollux explained simply, then toed off his shoes and climbed very carefully into the hammock with him, stretching up against his side. "Jutht remind me that we're up here before I try and climb back out whenever," he murmured and tucked his face against Bro's shoulder. He could hear the mellow murmur of voiced below and figured that the others could keep themselves easily occupied.

Bro nodded and wrapped his arm around his matesprit. "It's a pretty shitty fall, that's why all the beanbags were under it," Bro pointed out with a half-asleep smile. "Nobody's gonna die tonight, you can calm your ass."

Gamzee continued to stand up against the patio rail, his elbows propped on it. He knocked out the pipe to scrape out and clean later, sufficiently stoned and content now that everyone seemed to be in a good mood. "All y'all are good people." he said quietly, nudging his leg against Dave's side. "Been meanin' to take you aside and say thanks for takin' care'a Karkat. He's a real fuckin' good person, just not all that self aware, y'know? Thinks deep thoughts about every fuckin' thing but himself."

Dave looked up at Gamzee and smiled more sincerely. "It's a mutual thing, man. He keeps me from getting too into my own mind, too. He hates it when I try and tell him anything good about himself, though. Or when I try to spoil him." He shook his head. "So all I can really do is tell him what he means to me, how much he's been like a lighthouse for me. Keeps me pointed in the right direction, you know what I mean?" He leaned over and nudged Gamzee's leg with his shoulder in turn. "And it's not like I'm the only one doing good here."

"Man, I'm just here, doin' the only motherfuckin' thing I know how," Gamzee shrugged, then sat down beside Dave. "And between you 'n me, I think he does like it. He just doesn't know what to do with himself. Never fuckin' learned how to take a compliment. They've been pretty motherfuckin' few and far between where he's concerned."

"Might be," Dave said thoughtfully. "Weird, considering how many people consider him one of the best friends they've had. I mean, shit. Look at him. He's the one who should be getting thanked for this, not me. He's the one that gave me the idea to do this film, he's the one everyone's drawn to. Once you get around all that superficial bullshit he throws around, he's the most genuine fucking guy." He smirked. "Shit, here I am talking all sap." He shook his head then and looked over at Gamzee. "Whatever it is you do though, it's obvious that it's rubbed off. It's only been a couple months and you've got Eridan less fuckin' stuffy. Dude's not half the asshole he was when I met him."

"He's always been kinda stuffed shirt, but he's not a real bad guy," Gamzee sighed. "People don't like gettin' any motherfuckin' closer to 'im than arm's length so they don't see shit but the big shiny front. But it's just like Karkat. Once you get past that bullshit wall, you find somethin' real valuable, y'know?"

"Hard to believe, but I'll take it. He's kind of a tool to me, but I figure it's just how he is to humans. It's not like he has any justification in liking us or anything. We're kind of shitty as far as species go." He turned to lean his head on the slats of the railing, looking over at Gamzee. "You don't really throw a front at all. Only fuckin' mask you wear is the facepaint, and even that's just some superficial bullshit right there. That's some admirable shit, dude."

Gamzee shrugged and tucked his hands into his pockets, stretching his legs out and crossing his ankles. "Got no motherfuckin' reason to hide shit," he shrugged. As for the paint, been so motherfuckin' long wearin' it regular it was real fuckin' weird not havin' it for a while there. Eridan got it for me to help me feel a little more...me. He's been real motherfuckin' good to me. Even before we kinda fell into the quadrant shit he was a good fuckin' friend."

With a subtle jump of his eyebrows, Dave smiled. "Shit, that was really fuckin' sweet of him. I can't even fucking imagine you without it, actually." He looked behind him as he saw a shadow cast across the patio, just in time to see Cass open the door again.

"The nerdling has fallen asleep, and I'm fairly certain so have the others, though the blind girl and her cranky girlfriend have gone off into another room. It smells like chewing gum now." Cass lit a cigarette and settled on the other side of Gamzee.

"Well, at least they're gettin' along. Felt sure with Vriska around there was gonna be some kinda motherfuckin' trouble just because it's Vriska. I guess we can only really count ourselves fortunate Tav's not hangin' with us or shit would really go south." Gamzee smiled rather sadly at that; it was pretty common knowledge that the two of them had been friends, and that he'd harbored some serious red feelings toward Tavros at one point, but now there was nothing to be done about it.

"He's around," Dave mentioned. "Got a great job at the ASPCA here in town, actually. He stays out of this shit though. Partly because he doesn't want to make waves, and partially because Vriska would eat him alive again, and nobody wants that." He grinned a little as he leaned back onto his elbows. "Maybe before you and Eridan fuck back off to Cali, we'll make a stop there and say hi?"

Cass looked over and exhaled smoke from his nose. "You mean the guy with the huge fuckoff horns? He's from your session?"

"Tavbro ended up here too? Shit, man that's pretty cool, havin' you guys real close like this. Definitely be good to drop in and make sure he's takin' care of himself." Already Gamzee's mood seemed to have significantly improved just with that little bit of good news. He looked back at Cass and started to talk about his experiences with the brownblood, the awesome(ly bad) rap battles over Trollian and then times they'd been able to hang out on the meteor before things had gone sideways. He looked between them, then settled on looking ahead of him as he asked, "Does he even have his motherfuckin' legs here? Last I knew, he had some fuckin' Zahhak original robotics."

Cass' eyebrows shot up again and he laughed. "Holy shit, he had robot legs? Man, I want robolegs."

Dave snickered and shook his head. "Not at the cost of your real ones, I've heard the stories. But yeah, he's got his legs back, isn't in a wheelchair either. Still a holy terror with those horns, though, nearly knocked me out when he turned his head. He's the guy who adopted Em to us," He explained to Cass, who nodded. He turned back to Gamzee with a smile, patting his back. "I'll send him a text in the morning. I bet he'll be pretty psyched that you're in town." Or scared out of his wits. He wasn't sure.

Cass grinned at that. "I wouldn't mind driving you there. I've got kennel duty tomorrow, anyway, it wouldn't even be going out of my way for it."

"Man, you guys are the motherfuckin' best." Gamzee draped his arms around each of their shoulders, giving them a brief squeeze before finally standing, looking in at Eridan, who looked ready to fall asleep in the moonchair he'd finally sunk into. He wouldn't question where he'd gotten the book from, just assuming that he still had an active sylladex. He raised a hand to Dave and Cass before ducking back inside and going to join Eridan in his seat.

Eridan had talked to Karkat until his friend drifted off somewhere mid-sentence about his dissertation. It was only after Eridan tried to toe Karkat awake to no avail that he curled his legs under himself and pulled his book out of his sylladex and started reading quietly, the sound of the three on the patio keeping him plenty of company. Dave and Cass continued to talk amongst themselves and once Gamzee was in his lap, Eridan smiled tightly. "Ready ta go back ta the hotel?" He asked in a whisper.

Gamzee stretched his legs out over Eridan's and put his head down on his matesprit's shoulder, tucking his nose against the base of his neck. "Ready to fall the fuck asleep," he murmured, but instead of dozing off on the spot as he'd done before on multiple occasions, he nosed up against the side of Eridan's throat just shy of his gills.

Eridan rolled his eyes with a tender smile. "So sleep," he whispered, wrapping an arm around Gamzee's slender waist, and went back to reading. 

Dave slipped in shortly after that, nodded to Eridan, then sprawled out along Karkat's spine, wrapping his arm around his matesprit right in front of the highbloods, and passed out moments after. Cass stayed outside for about another hour and a half, and then slipped in as quietly as he could, counted heads, and then very quietly pickpocketed Dave's keys and went off to get supplies for breakfast.

It was about 10am when Cass started cooking, making as little loud noise as one could in the process, working on vegetarian and omnivorous diets in separate pans. The scent was what woke up Terezi, who used the wall as a guide before finding her way to the kitchen and making still-drunken smalltalk with him. Karkat had been drifting in and out of sleep for a few hours now, his sleep schedule egging him to get up but the exhaustion and mild hangover arguing with it. He shoved his face against Dave's chest with a quiet groan, using his shirt to block out what light there was.

Gamzee picked himself up out of Eridan's lap at the smell of food, moving slowly and letting his arms and head loll a little, his dreadlocks falling over his face to obscure that his eyes were still mostly closed as he made his way around the small mountain range of sleeping bodies and beanbags. He took a moment to open his sylladex, a toned down version of his old Miracle modus, his hand snapping out after a few seconds to close around the travel case of his daily medication regimen. Once he'd made his way into the kitchen, he tossed the pills back into his mouth and searched a few cupboards for a glass, filling it with water and taking a few gulps before the pills could dissolve. He leaned against the counter and watched Cass cook, waiting until he was a little more awake then asking what he had in mind and what he could help with. Terezi wrinkled her nose when Gamzee came in, clearly bristling with apprehension and bitter memories. Cass didn't bother asking, but instead smiled to Gamzee and directed him to help with the meaty foods as he knelt down to keep an eye on the muffins he'd put in the oven. Terezi was intrigued by that, and tilted her head. "Since when could _you_ cook?" She asked, her words sharper than usual.

"Learned how to cook in the hospital," Gamzee yawned as he started to poke at the sausages sitting in the pan, unfazed by Terezi's tone. The kismesissitude had long since been dissolved and at least to him, it didn't matter. He just wanted to get on with his existence. Terezi had long since abandoned kismesissitude in lieu of the coldest, most detached platonic hate. He'd completely fucked her up and fucked her over, and that would _never_ sit well.

"Figures," she muttered, then her attention was drawn back to Cass, who cleared his throat.

"Could you kindly wake up the other girls, please? We'll be done in here in about fifteen, hm?" His tone was friendly enough, and warning enough, that Terezi didn't argue, although she did narrow her eyes, and went to shake Vriska awake.

Cass looked over at Gamzee and patted his shoulder. "My _sincerest_ condolences," he said with a shake of his head.

"Wasn't this me she hated like that," he muttered, but said nothing more on the subject, poking and turning over the food he was put in charge of. He jumped a little and blinked as Kanaya suddenly appeared beside him seemingly out of nowhere, brushing the dreads hanging in his face back behind his ears so that he could see what he was doing. "Food's just about done," he told her then glanced around for Rose, figuring that she would be along shortly thereafter.

Cass nodded to that, and murmured, "I understand that sort of thing all too well, my tall friend." He jumped more at Gamzee's reaction than Kanaya's appearance, if only because he hadn't _seen_ Kanaya yet, though when he did, he knew exactly why Gamzee had been startled. "Oh! My apologies, I couldn't quite find your usual diet, Ms. Maryam," he said with a smile, "So I hope mimosas are more up your alley. Hair of the dog and all."

Rose slunk in through the other door, looking like she could use more coffee than anywhere in North America could ever provide. "Please tell me someone caught the license plate of the steamroller that did this to me." That got Cass to chuckle.

Dave burrowed deeper as the voices became harder to tune out. People were awake in his general vicinity and by god, did he not like it. He grumbled "I will murder everything if they don't shut up," into Karkat's hair and then looked up at Eridan, who still wasn't asleep, and was simply reading. Eridan sighed and rolled his eyes, before grabbing his sylladex from his jacket pocket, and letting an unfolded dark, heavy blanket fall from above, and drop over Karkat and his human, covering them from the rest of the world. Karkat muttered a quiet thanks then crawled over the top of Dave under the blanket and laid there on him with his head tucked into his matesprit's neck, dozing back off with his hands up around Dave's ears so he could tune out the voices a little better. Dave muttered his own thanks to Eridan for the blanket as he held Karkat closer, keeping his eyes closed so as not to let the world spin violently on its axis. Too much wine. Why had he had so much wine?

Gamzee had tied his hair back into a loose scrunchie as he woke up, looking a good deal more lively as more of them rejoined the land of the living. He left the kitchen briefly to fetch Eridan on the off-chance he would want to eat, having set a few things aside for him that he knew he would eat instead of what everyone else would. "Hey, food," he said quietly, glancing back at the lump that was Dave and Karkat then bending to steal a quick kiss.

Eridan smiled into the kiss and stood from his spot in the chair, his spine popping as he leaned back with his fists in the small of his back. He started back into the kitchen with Gamzee, nodding to Cass, who was plating up the meals for everybody. 

"Morning, Mr. Ampora, got some crabmeat quiche ready to go in the oven as soon as the muffins are done, which is... Now, actually, though there's some other stuff right there for you as you wait." He pointed out the plate that Gamzee had made for Eridan, and handed Rose her plate and mimosa.

Bro grumbled quietly from his and Sollux's high perch and looked down through the loops of the hammock, wrapping his arm around Sollux. "Don't try'n move or we'll both tip out onto whoever that is under the blanket," he murmured into Sollux's ear. Sollux barely moved even to acknowledge the thought, just grumbling quietly against Bro's chest, his foot hanging over the edge of the hammock in his slight sprawl. He could hear people downstairs.

Being loud.

"People need to thtop being loud..."

Gamzee was starting the cleanup process as they waited for Eridan's breakfast to finish cooking, rinsing out the pans and setting them in the sink to be transferred to the dishwasher when everything was done. He glanced around to take a headcount then poked at Cass' shoulder. "Where's the lil' bro? He still conked out hungover?"

Cass peeked out of the kitchen as he took a crispy slice of bacon to munch on, looking over at one of the mounds of beanbags, and nodded. "Seems like he's debating his existence in the waking world," he said, before simply wandering over to wake John up with a rub to his back. "We've got breakfast ready."

"I don't wanna." John protested, attempting to bury himself under the pile of beanbags. Cass just chuckled and stood. "At your leisure, then." He then walked to the bedroom that Terezi and Vriska had commandeered and knocked before peeking in. "Breakfast, ladies and gentlewomen." Terezi was attempting some semblance of sobering up in the attached bathroom, while Vriska growled her discontent at Cass.

By that time, Dave finally gave up and sighed. "The food smells good, at least. Come on. Up, Vantas."

"When the kitchen clears out a little," Karkat yawned, completely unwilling to move before he absolutely had to. He was half tempted to find John and throw the blanket over his head as well, but that would have required looking for him, which would mean poking his head out into the light, which at this juncture was the last thing he wanted to do. He was content just trying to block out the majority of the loudness of people being up and moving and Vriska voicing her ire at the world in general.

John protested briefly when the beanbag he'd pulled over his head was moved, only to squint at Gamzee as a plate of waffles, bacon and aspirin were put down beside him along with a glass of water. He muttered his thanks and downed the painkillers before conceding and sitting up to eat in his makeshift nest. Gamzee let a honking laugh at the way his hair stood up at all angles around his head, only to immediately put a hand over his mouth and creep back into the kitchen to lurk beside Eridan again.

Dave sighed and lifted the blanket blearily, squinting through his smudged glasses as he saw Gamzee walking away from John. "Makara, gimme a hand," he whispered, "there's an overgrown crabass refusing to unpin me." He squirmed slightly as if to show how stuck he was. Gamzee snorted quietly and bent to work his arms under Karkat's body even as he protested and lifted him easily, still wrapped in the blanket. He let Karkat hang over his shoulder and grumble into his back as he offered the other hand to Dave to help him up off the ground. "Gamzee _eeee_ put me _down_ you sack of colorful _shit_ ," Karkat whined but made no move to get himself out of the hold.

Dave took the offered hand and pulled himself to his feet, nodding with a "thanks," and then peeked under the blanket at Karkat, "Dude, I _said_ get up. Now it's out of my control." He kissed Karkat lightly, and then slipped away, "Bathroom. Leak." He muttered as he shuffled away towards where he'd found one last night.

Cass returned to the kitchen to check on the quiche and then smiled a little, holding out his hand to Eridan to say only five more minutes, before he stepped off to the patio to grab a quick cigarette. He had to keep himself awake to be functional enough to drive to the kennels and work in them, and also coherent enough to drive Gamzee back from them once he was done with the two hour chore.

Bro sighed as he finally accepted his fate as being conscious. He kissed Sollux before slipping carefully away, making sure that the hammock stayed balanced without his weight, and then dropped down beside Gamzee and the blanket full of Karkat. "Mornin'."

"No it's not and you can't convince me otherwise," Karkat gave a muffled yell from inside the makeshift cocoon of blanket, only to squawk at Gamzee when the blanket around his head was pulled back. "You suck. You all suck."

"If you say so, bro. Come on, breakfast is happenin'," Gamzee smiled amicably as he set Karkat down on his feet and removed the blanket. He looked up at Bro and shrugged then headed back into the kitchen, leaning over the oven to check the timer then bent to peek in at the quiche that was nearly finished.

Bro rubbed Karkat's shoulder and muttered, "If it makes you feel any better, you're better off bein' off the floor. If Sollux moves, he's going straight into that pile you two were on." He walked off to the kitchen to start washing the dishes that were in the sink, drinking some orange juice in lieu of coffee just yet. Cass smiled as he returned to see everyone in the kitchen chatting with each other and working together to get the mess he made cleaned up and eaten. He asked Bro to shove over so he could take care of his own mess, and pointed to a plate that had yet to be claimed. "Muffins're over there, fresh out of the oven."

Dave nearly collided with Terezi in the hallway on the way back towards the kitchen, and they laughed at each other's general inability to focus in the morning. He swung his arm around her shoulder as they went to claim some of the breakfast that had yet to be eaten, glad that Cass had made exactly enough to feed the small army that was in the house.

Sollux was content to hang out above the living room with an arm and a leg hanging over the side of the hammock, dozing in his hangover and soundly ignoring every last one of them. John was just blinking owlishly at everyone as they moved about, only joining them when his plate was emptied and he'd combed his fingers through his hair to get it a little more in order. He thanked Gamzee awkwardly then went back toward the bathroom, glancing toward Vriska as she pulled her clothes on straight and blushing vividly as he spotted just enough skin. He shut and locked the door before he could be yelled at for peeping.

Karkat slouched against the counter with his cheek against the surface, picking off bits of muffin and popping them into his mouth to try and quell the nausea before he tried to actually eat. He was still watching Gamzee and Eridan, this time his eyes narrowed obviously at them more out of confusion than anything. Polar fucking opposites. How the fuck. He couldn't shake that even as he stood back up and had to clutch his head to keep it from exploding. Eridan had his hand lightly resting against Gamzee's waist as they chatted and picked at the quiche with a fork in his other hand. He raised an eyebrow to Karkat once he realized he was being watched, and then went back to chatting. He had no cause to explain or excuse who he had entered into a matespritship with. He was happy, after all.

Cass wound around to Karkat with a couple of aspirin, setting them beside the other's muffin with a glass of juice after finishing up the dishes, putting the rest in the dishwasher to go through a cycle. "It's quieter in the back yard, and shaded," he suggested quietly. He slipped away again to shoo Bro away from the chore of gathering up the beanbags so he could do that for him, sassing him for already having done so much.

Dave looked around and grinned at his sleepy friends as he took a lean against the kitchen wall with his plate of breakfast, his head throbbing and his body feeling about two inches to the left of where it should be. He didn't mind the hangover, he just liked watching everyone talking and being friendly. It was a rare sight. Terezi headed outside with her breakfast just as Vriska finally dragged herself into the kitchen, grabbing a glass and filling it with water then gulping it down before turning to the food that was still sitting around the corner, loading a plate with what she thought she'd eat then following Terezi's lead. John had gone back to lounging amongst the beanbags until Cass had come through to clean them back up, then just followed the others outside where a cool breeze was making life a little easier to tolerate even if it was somewhat bright out. He sat on the ground leaning against a tree, his eyes closing to block out some of the sun.

Sollux finally wrestled himself out of the hammock, only to end up hanging from it by his arms, groaning until he'd stopped swinging long enough to be able to drop onto his feet, clutching the wall to keep himself upright. His eyes were closed as he trudged his way into the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and something small to eat. Some time over the course of the night he'd lost his shirt, now it was just a matter of getting up enough of a shit to give about finding it. Bro smiled over at his matesprit, handing him a cup of coffee and murmuring about taking a shower later so Sollux could get a backrub, looking as sore as he did. He was happy to see the rest of the group disperse somewhat.

Sollux was leaning heavily against Bro's side as he woke up little by little, sipping at his coffee and chatting with Cass as he bustled around about nothing in particular, just smalltalk about jobs and life in general. The shower would be a welcome reprieve from everything else when they got around to it, for sure. Cass smiled as he leaned against the counter nearby, finally settling down to his own muffin and glass of juice, talking with Sollux with a smile. "I usually don't talk about what I do to make ends meet. Usually not safe for polite company." Bro just gave him a Look and a lopsided smile.

"Right, I know, far from polite company here. Phone sex hotline, though most people think I do IT hotline work. Rather would like it to stay that way. But I don't really hurt for extra skrill, so it's more to keep myself busy while I work on schoolwork."

Rose and Kanaya eventually started to help with cleaning up with Cass, and the place was in fairly decent shape after only a few minutes of concentrated effort, though the back bedroom still smelled faintly of blueberries and mint, to which Cass said to Rose, that was the other girls' chore, not theirs.

Dave finally settled into a chair once there was one to take. He struck up a conversation with Eridan about his ideas to work on a collaboration with Gamzee, and Eridan thought it over before smiling faintly. "I suppose if you an' Kar want ta spend a week or two with us, I can't say no. We have plenty a space at the house." He turned to Karkat with a knowing smile. "It'll give you more time at the philosophical society." Karkat gave him a grateful smile as he slouched down with a cup of coffee and one of the muffins, dipping one into the other and eating slowly as he asked about the house itself. He'd only seen a little bit of it the one time he'd ever been there, and according to Gamzee it had changed quite a bit. He was looking forward to seeing the garden they'd started.

Eridan huffed in amusement and shook his head. "It hasn't really changed that much, just more a his art hangin' up an' more furniture an' shit like that. Finally got around to movin' all my shit in. Gettin' it across the country was really the huge part a it." He looked up to Gamzee and slipped his hand away to go get himself some seawater, which Cass had been thoughtful enough to get for him. He was impressed that Dave's friend was so thoughtful of everyone's needs only after spending one day with them.

"Pretty sure the vatht majority doethn't give a shit about that kind of thing," Sollux was saying when Eridan appeared, then nodded and mentioned offhand that he knew that several of them had accounts on the porn sites that he either cared for, or appeared on. "I made Bro'th thiteth at leatht thixty perthent more effithient thinthe he hired me back around Dave'th birthday. I've got actheth to everything, mythelf. Including the email litht." He smirked faintly at the extremely un-casual "oh god" from the direction of the living room. "It'th a good living."

Cass chuckled. "No, nobody here might, but others would. Potential employers, yeah?" He shrugged and rubbed the seams of his fingerless gloves before going back to nibbling at his muffin. "I've only heard about your sites in passing, my apologies. I'm not very turned on by puppets, and as handsome as both of you are, I'd not pay to see you fucking." He was telling the truth. "Your royal friend, however," he said with a nod to Eridan, who nearly choked on his water, "That's a possibility."

Sollux smirked widely at that, glancing at Eridan then shrugging a shoulder. "He'th alwayth had the wortht black crush on me. Actually made it more or leth offithial over thpring break. Doeth Gamzee even know about thith?" He added, nodding back in the direction of the living room, where Gamzee was sprawled out over the moonchair that Eridan had spent the night in.

Eridan huffed and tapped his nails against the table petulantly, "A course he fuckin' knows, you fuckin' shit-for-pan. He was _there_ when I dragged your useless fuckin' corpse out a that nasty fuckin' landslide water - which, thanks, got me sick for a week." He straightened up and walked off to the patio to join Terezi and Vriska. He wanted none of this ridiculousness, so-thank-you.

"I'm altho aware he'th heavily fucking medicated, fishdick," Sollux snorted then rolled his eyes after Eridan as he left.

Cass was hiding an altogether too-amused smile against his knuckles again, "Wound up a little tight, isn't he," he remarked. "Ah well. At least you've got somebody to keep you on your toes." He finished up his muffin and then looked out through to the back yard. "I may have to have somebody at least try to explain to me the quadrants," he said as he looked back to Sollux. "Dave's tried, but he claims he has," and he put on a fairly accurate Dave voice, "no cocking idea," and that's where the impression ended, "how accurate he is."

Sollux smirked a little as he looked back to Cass. "The betht one for that would be Karkat, honethtly. He'th the rethident quadrant guru, ath much ath he argueth otherwithe."

"Damn, I had a bet down that the you and Eridan would go all weekend without hitting on each other," Dave said as he slipped by to grab a soda out of the fridge. "Hey, Bro, c'mere a minute, I need to talk to you about a thing." He smiled at Sollux as he dragged Bro away.

Cass raised his brows at the Striders, and then shook his head. "I might do that, but I have this distinct feeling I might have to learn how to tune out gratuitous amounts of insults when and if I do ask." He waved to John as he returned from the back yard, and got a "Hi" in response.

Sollux glanced after the retreating Striders then shrugged a shoulder, finishing his coffee then rinsing the mug and grabbing an apple and crunching into it. He leaned his back against the counter, looking Cass over then shaking his head. "From the look of it he'th gotten a lot more patient lately. At leatht where Dave'th contherned and if you're hith friend KK'th probably going to be a little calmer with you too. Ethpethially thinthe you're not jutht going to grill him about thith out of thome perthieved thuperiority thing that a lot of humanth theem to get when it cometh to learning about quadrantth."

Cass shrugged at that, "What the hell is superior about anybody's anythings?" He ran a hand through his hair and grabbed his cigarettes out of his pockets, nodding to the patio before setting off that direction. "Consider it strictly academic curiosity if you want; where I'm from, there weren't trolls. Sentient cars and living gods, yeah. It's actually a bit surprising I haven't met a single one of your kind 'til we all got dropped here, for all of the diversity of where I'd been."

"The thuperiority cometh from the pertheived nothion that by knowing thome pretty bathic shit about troll culture, that it giveth you a leg up on other humanth." Sollux yawned. He arched a brow at Cass at the discussion of what he was familiar with. "Probably jutht didn't find our way into your neck of the woodth on the whole conquetht thing. The Condethe wath trying to curry my favor to bring me in ath a pilot when she found out I wath a pthionic for a long time but...well, you know what happened to my anthethtor. No fucking thank you." Shaking his head, Sollux followed him out as he talked then fished his own cigarettes out of his back pocket, his lighter shortly thereafter. He took a deep drag as he glanced out toward the tree that some of the others had crowded under.

As he lit his own cigarette, Cass listened intently, head tilted faintly as he did. He knew only the paper-thin basics of troll history, though Dave had told him enough about the Condesce to give him years' worth of nightmares. "I'm rather glad she didn't. Though I'm fairly certain it would be a statistical improbability. I was a native to the reality in which I lived before this, but most everyone was implanted from _other_ realities, like my mum and dad. Actually, it wasn't unlike this one, though I think that one had a little bit of a head start, and was actually permanent. I just hope once this one is settled in, we don't have the problems mine did." He took another drag of his cigarette and smiled. "We didn't even have a name for what happened, but every so often, something weird would occur. Zombies, people temporarily gaining superpowers. One year, we all turned into our Halloween costumes for a couple weeks. Put me off Halloween entirely."

"I really don't even underthtand the Halloween thing," Sollux muttered, letting his cigarette hang from the corner of his lips as he crossed his arms over his chest to ward off a slight chill from the sudden gust of breeze rolling through. He looked down at his chest and realized that he still wasn't actually wearing a shirt. It didn't matter though as the sun immediately started warming him back up. "We really don't have a name for what'th happening here, we jutht know _why_ it'th happening, more or leth. Don't know how handy I'm gonna come in in the endgame, but..." His expression tightened some, his teeth clamping on the filter of the cigarette briefly. "It'th not going to be pretty. There _will_ be blood. A lot of it. I jutht don't know how permanent the damage will be yet."

"Blood always is spilt, mate. This just happens to be for a fair cause. And you'll be just as useful as you can be, given your abilities. Don't overexert yourself or psych yourself out of doing just as well as you can." He looked over at the others sitting at the tree. "Look, you know I can tell what you're thinking, yeah? There will be a lot of death. But it won't be heroic, right? So you'll come back." He nudged Sollux. "Anyway, that won't be this weekend, and as such, you need to get your mind the fuck out of it." He took another drag of his smoke before hopping down the stairs and strolling over to everyone else under the tree. "Ladies," he said with a put-on suave tone.

Dave walked out shortly after to have a cigarette of his own. "Saw you talking to Cass. Dude's a trip, right?"

Sollux's lips pressed into a thin line as he watched Cass go, then huffed the smoke out of his nose and turned back to Dave as soon as he spoke up. "I gueth. He'th a Mind player, huh."

"Yeah, he is. Pretty high up, too. Hasn't ascended, though, so he doesn't know what he'd be."

Shaking his head, Sollux glanced out at Kanaya and Rose starting to chat with Cass as well. In spite of what he'd said, Sollux was still mostly uncomfortable about the looming dread that was only intensifying with each day. "I don't really give a shit if I die becauthe I already know I'd come back. Dying permanently jutht ithn't in anyone'th cardth for me. But...I don't know. I got the really thick imprethion that thingth are jutht...they're going to go really bad, Thtrider." He looked down at his bare feet, swallowing hard and finishing off his cigarette then flicking the butt into an empty trash basket.

Dave's brow furrowed heavily and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Well shit dude," he sighed, "What flavor of really bad are we talking here? If you got any details, it'd be great to hear 'em, so we know what to avoid." He shook his head.

Rubbing his fingers over his eyes, Sollux grimaced and privately wondered if Gamzee would be willing to send him home with something to keep him from stressing himself to death. "Trying to avoid it doethn't help, Dave. It only gives it a little longer to build up steam before it hitth. But like I told Cath, there will be a lot of dying and I'm jutht not completely thure if everyone will come back from it. The ruleth are changing."

Dave looked up at Cass as he whistled to catch his attention, and threw something their direction. Dave lunged to catch it, and found that it was Cass' pipe with the baggie of weed tied around it with a rubber band. "Here," Dave said as he held it out to Sollux. "And if the rules are changing, we continue to fucking play until we win, Captor. That's how it fucking goes. We don't give up, and we don't stop until we've gotten what we want." He sighed and shook his head. "You need to tell us this shit, so it doesn't weigh so heavy on your shoulders, okay?"

Sollux gave Cass a sharp, but not unkind look as he took the pipe and started to pack it, shaking his head at Dave. Cass held up his hands in defense, smiling a little. He couldn't help hearing the louder thoughts. It was actually amazing that he was able to tune out Vriska at this point.

"The latht time I dethided it wath betht to jutht talk about thethe thingth people dethided it wath jutht me being deprethive and pethimithtic. The only reathon I'm talking to you about it...Well fuck, I don't even know why I'm talking to you about it." He took a deep pull from the pipe and held it for a moment before going on. "That thaid, I don't intend to give up on thith. I never fucking have so don't even think that'th where it would go."

Dave chuckled at the yard-wide interaction and then leaned against the railing, looking at Sollux. "Just because they were being assholes before, doesn't mean we're going to, now. We need you, dude, we need you to tell us when shit's going to go south. So at least we're prepared. You probably knew when Karkat was going to cack it, and if you had told me, I wouldn't have had to flip my shit in such a spectacular way." He grimaced a little. "Not that I blame you for any of that, but you see my point? It's written out and shit's going to happen, and you're singularly capable of letting us know what to expect, so we don't have to be so fazed by it."

"The problem ith that none of it'th really clear to me until it'th jutht about to happen. The detailth build up ath time progretheth. Like...I know that a lot of uth are going to die. And I know we're going to have to fathe a god directly. But right now, other than that, I don't know." Sollux held out the pipe, more out of common courtesy than anything in spite of the knowledge that Karkat was likely to grouse at him for it later.

Dave shook his head and held his hand up. "I'm good. And knowing even that much helps me. It'll give me time to prepare, time to really get my head in the game. It'd help the others, too." He leaned more heavily against the railing as he watched Bro walk through to the living room to take a seat where the others were. 

"But to veer off the subject of potential corpse parties, I just wanted to thank you for being great to Bro. He's... Shit dude, he's never been this open before. Whatever dual-wielding bulge sorcery you've been doing, it's really turned his shit around." Dave grinned.

Sollux's brow arched up some and he finally pulled a small, somewhat crooked smile. "If you thay tho." He took another suck from the pipe then hopped down the stairs to turn it back over to Cass with a quiet thanks. He was feeling a little better already and it showed.

Gamzee had long since disappeared up the tree under which everyone else had decided to congregate, sitting up on one of the thicker branches just listening to the rest of them. The conversation between Dave and Sollux had him interested in seeing just how things were going to play out. He would have to come down soon though so that he could go in with Cass to see about the ASPCA gig. On that thought he whistled down at Eridan for his attention. "Hey bro, you mind if I take off for a little while later? You can get yourself some real motherfuckin' shuteye back at the hotel."

Eridan had been dozing lightly against the tree's base, and he blinked, looking up at Gamzee with an exhausted nod. "You remember which hotel we're stayin' in? Just so whoever's got you can bring you there once you're done." He decided that since there were people in this group that didn't hold the past against Gamzee, he'd be safe with them. And he trusted Gamzee far more than he trusted the majority of them. There were a couple people in this group he wasn't so paranoid about.

Cass smiled up at Sollux with a nod as he pocketed his pipe and then looked up into the tree as well. "I'll be having Dave drive me to my place to pick up my car, then we'll go to the kennels." He then turned to Eridan and said, "We're going to see the puppies." And though it was a clear lie, it was said in such a way that there was no room for debate over what could possibly be the actual truth to their going there. It wasn't prudent to say in mixed company.

Eridan narrowed his eyes at Cass and then nodded once. "Fine. We're stayin' at the Hotel Boulderado, suite 402." He hadn't let Gamzee out of his custody even once since he'd taken him in, and now that they were flushed, it was even more of a worry that Gamzee would be out of sight and without his protection. Gamzee smiled faintly and let himself fall back on the branch, hanging by his knees long enough to rearrange himself enough to hang by his feet instead, unbending slowly until he was hanging low enough to reach down and brush the tips of his fingers across Eridan's horns to try and coax him up. Eridan smirked at Gamzee's antics and stood, bending down just slightly to kiss his matesprit. "Fuckin' clown," he said with a chuckle in his tone. "I'll be gettin' a head start an' goin' to ta the hotel right now." He narrowed his eyes back at Cass once more, with a slew of vitriolic thoughts and threats in his mind if the human didn't make sure that Gamzee was treated with the utmost respect. Cass just gave him a lazy smile.

Gamzee chuckled to himself as soon as Eridan turned his head, then laid his hands on the sides of Eridan's head to bring him back around, pressing a firmer, deeper kiss to his lips, letting him go after a few seconds then bending back up to grab the branch in his hands and flip himself back down to drop to the ground. He grabbed his matesprit's shoulder as his equilibrium sorted itself out then faced him again with a gentle smile. "Try and get your motherfuckin' chill on, man. Ain't nothin' gonna happen to us while we're out."

Eridan put his hand on Gamzee's hip, looking up at his matesprit. "I'll try, but I'm not promisin' you anythin'." He caught another brief kiss before he slipped away to go and say his farewells to the rest of the group until they re-convened for whatever they were planning to do that evening, before he drove off.

Cass huffed a chuckle and looked up at Gamzee with a shake of his head. "He certainly loves you."

Gamzee shrugged some at that, wearing his mellow grin once more. "Guess so." He sorted himself back out on the ground and shoved his hands into the pockets of his drooping slacks, his belt having been abandoned the night before. He nodded back inside then headed that way himself to find his shoes, and jacket, which he'd also lost track of some time in the last eight hours. Cass nodded and followed along, helping find Gamzee's missing articles, which he'd actually tidied up and set down alongside everybody else's shed clothing, sylladeces, watches, and other personal effects, all neatly sorted out on a table in the living room. Dave looked up from his conversation with Karkat and Rose when Cass tapped his shoulder. "We need a ride back to my place, so I can get my car and bring him to see the puppies."

Dave raised a brow to the stupid cover story and then leaned down to give Karkat a kiss. "I'll be back in about twenty. Don't kill anybody while I'm gone, huh?"

"No promises," Karkat replied conversationally, arching an eyebrow at the cover. He knew as well as they did that this wasn't about puppies, or any other animal for that matter. He reached up and laid a hand on Dave's shoulder dropping his voice. "Be careful, you understand me? I don't want him deeply involved in all of this. You know he doesn't deserve it."

Dave wrapped his arm around Karkat's waist as he turned to whisper in his ear, "Dude just wants to say hi and get caught up, that's all. You know how much he loved the guy." He slipped away with a slight, awkward smile. "Puppies," he repeated with a smirk, before kissing Karkat again and getting up to go drive both Gamzee and Cass back up to Cass' place so they could go see Tavros.

It was about half an hour before Cass and Gamzee made it to the ASPCA building downtown. Cass had to pop the sun roof out of his car's roof to accommodate for Gamzee's horns, but didn't mind overmuch, and once they got there, he smiled. "I don't think Dave remembered to send Tavros a text to even let him know you were here. Ah well." He nodded to the employee entrance, going in first then knocking on the office door, peeking into it with a smile. "Here for Kennel duty. Nitram, you've a visitor."

Tavros carefully turned around with a baffled smile and stood. He had no real idea who would be visiting him. He'd pieced together all that he could over the past few months about the game, and had been infrequent in his talks with Karkat and Dave. He rarely thought to send them updates about how his life was going, and really, he couldn't find any reason to do much more than that. Everything was pretty much perfect for him, and he didn't want to worry them or make them feel like he should be looked after. He just wanted to live for himself and forget all of the awful crap that had happened.

When he slowly left the office, he wasn't expecting to be hit with a fresh wall of nostalgia. "Oh. Um," he started, clearly shocked to see Gamzee there. He'd admittedly wondered what had happened to his long-time friend once in a while these days. "Wow. Gamzee. I..." the grin on his face had gradually spread out of its initial seed of shock. "Is this really real? How did you find him?" He asked Cass in a whisper, and Cass just laughed and patted Tavros on the shoulder before ducking under his horns and going off to work. Gamzee was standing back a little, his own smile growing wider by the second as he looked back down at Tavros, his throat working briefly as everything piled up at once then failed to come out at all. He lunged forward and threw his arms around Tavros' neck, rocking a little then catching his balance.

"Aw man no mother _fuckin'_ way, I almost didn't fuckin' believe it when Dave started tellin' me you was here but fuckin' look at you!" He took Tavros by the shoulders and looked down at him, taking in the sight of the smaller troll and his uniform. "You got all motherfuckin' grown up on me, man. Gonna get me all choked up n' shit here." Indeed he looked like a slightly overdramatic, overprotective relative with his lips pressed tight together, eyebrows raised and knitted.

"Oh, wow, okay," Tavros stammered as he lurched back at the dramatic hug, wrapping his arms tentatively around Gamzee. "You're really tall," he also helpfully added, smiling up at Gamzee, just trying to take it all in with as much grace as possible for him. Which, admittedly, wasn't much. "Well, I guess, you should thank Dave for me too. I'm just, really very overwhelmed," he put his hand on Gamzee's shoulder, just making sure that this was actually happening. "Wow, well, why don't you come in and talk. We, um, we have coffee if you want some?"

"I already had my motherfuckin' morning coffee but I'm sure not gonna fuckin' turn down sittin' and havin' a chat with my best motherfuckin' bro," Gamzee replied and shooed Tavros back into the office. He was all but bouncing in place not only over seeing Tavros again, but at the fact that he actually remembered him and wasn't terrified.

The only thing that terrified Tavros in terms of seeing anybody from the game or back on Alternia was the potential danger of seeing Vriska. Ever. He remembered nothing of Gamzee's freakout, and in fact, was very glad to see his friend again, though he had a terrible time expressing it through all the surprise. Though once he got back to his desk and sat down, he relaxed somewhat and could finally have a moment of intense glee. "Oh wow, it's actually you! I, um, I can't really figure out what to say, it's just... How have you been?"

Gamzee slouched down on the seat on the other side of the desk with his hand on his forehead, completely unaware of the way his paint was faded in places after having slept on it. He looked back at Tavros with his eyes about as wide as he'd ever managed, at least while stoned, and just shook his head a little. "Maaan it's been a long fuckin' ride just in these last couple'a motherfuckin' years, don't even know where to fuckin' begin. Been fuckin' chillin' with Karbro and his crew all motherfuckin' night. Live out in Cali with Eridan, came into town to see some big motherfuckin' movie thing Dave made. Did you know Karkat's a motherfuckin' actor? Shocked the shit outta me, man."

"Yeah, Dave said something to me about making a movie," Tavros said, remembering the vaguest of details in that email, "but, I guess, I didn't know Karkat was going to be in it. He would be a good actor, I guess, he's pretty good with impressions. Or was." He smiled and scratched his head. "You live with Eridan?" He couldn't even imagine that kind of living situation. "I suppose that's very comfortable. I've seen him, you know, on the news. He's a big shot business guy, probably has a nice hive to live in." He was happy for Gamzee though, as wishy-washy as he sounded. 

"I suppose it's a little less interesting, not living in California, but here. I like working here, though. Communing with all the new arrivals, making friends. And my cat allergy is not as bad as it was, I just, sometimes, need to step out for fresh air so I don't get puffy eyes." He grinned as he nervously toyed with a pencil on his desk, rolling it from one hand to the next. "And on my days off, I run games with friends, playing D&D. We're in our second year in this campaign."

"You always were a lot motherfuckin' better at that creative shit than me," Gamzee chuckled and sat forward, propping his chin up on the desk and looking up at Tavros from there. "Real fuckin' happy for you here, bro. Gettin' to do somethin' real fuckin' important here, takin' care of the critters comin' through outta some bad motherfuckin' situations. I don't really do much of anything around the house. He actually got a human-built motherfuckin' house, can you believe that?" Shaking his head, Gamzee grinned and sat back up, starting to go into detail, talking about everything from the layout of the house to the garden and his apple tree, which was growing fast and flourishing with how much he doted on it. He mentioned Eridan buying his art supplies and letting him shop for food, talking as much with his hands as his mouth as he really got rolling with any thought that popped into his head. Tavros listened and commented whenever he could get a word in, grinning and relaxing a little as he listened to Gamzee talk on and on. He hadn't heard Gamzee's voice in a long time, and although it was far lower than it had once been, the highblood's mellow speech and slightly honking chuckles made him grin.

"You really got things set for you, Gamzee, I'm glad. It's all really nice. It's a shame that you don't get out a lot, but I suppose it's sort of hard, if you live in a canyon, and you don't have a car or license." He tilted his head and smiled. "I suppose you could ask Eridan, if you wanted to, to let you get those things?" He had put off a lot of paperwork, but just now wasn't really interested in any of that. It was only a few hours, and he'd catch up just fine. This was more important, after all.

"Eridan trusts me with a lotta shit but I doubt he'd let me near one'a his cars without 'im. But y'know what? I'm pretty motherfuckin' happy with my life as it is. Lovin' matesprit, safe place to live, no more motherfuckin' nightmares most'a the time. Was on a bunch'a pills in the hospital but now I'm down to a couple each day. I don't know about you but that feels like some good motherfuckin' progress to me." Gamzee's lazy grin was seated firmly on his face, his nails scratching some at the top of his head as he finally took a moment to breathe. "'Course, perk'a gettin' to travel out here, got ta see everyone. Sollux is all fuckin' hooked up with Strider's bro, and I'm pretty motherfuckin' sure Terezi's got a thing goin' now too." He carefully avoided mentioning Vriska, knowing better than to bring up that particular trainwreck.

"I guess," Tavros started with a sheepish smile, "that's great for everyone. I'm, um, not really sure where I stand. I have a sort of matesprit? We're flushed but, she's not, um, familiar with quadrants. So we're doing things her way. Which, admittedly? Kind of sucks." His smile fell a little for a moment before it picked up again with, "But she's worth the trouble! She's very nice. She, um, came in a few months ago, and adopted a very nice dog, and we hit it off. Her name is Lydia." He liked her, and liked to say her name, and it showed. "So that's a thing. No other quadrants, though. I'm too busy to look." He looked up when Cass came back, and then looked at the clock. They'd been talking for hours! It only felt like a few minutes to him.

"I'm here to give you both five minutes' warning that I'll be leaving once my cigarette is done." Cass smiled to Gamzee. "And I doubt your royal boyfriend would appreciate it if I simply left you alone to fend for yourself, as much as I think you're able to." He slipped back out and went out the exit to wait.

"Oh, ok," Tavros said with a pout. "I have my old screen name if you ever want to talk. I'm not on in the day, but, if you want to talk at night, I will be." He smiled hopefully. "Do you come out here a lot? Maybe next time you do, we can hang out longer?"

"Not out here a whole lot, but I'm always fuckin' on at night when I can't sleep. I'm definitely gonna try and schedule some fuckin' time to come back and hang with you though, been way too long since I seen your cute-ass motherfuckin' face." Gamzee reached across the desk to ruffle a hand affectionately through Tavros' hair, standing and rounding it to sweep the other up into another tight hug. "I'm still my same motherfuckin' handle so you don't have to worry about not recognizin' me." He took Tavros by surprise then and kissed his forehead then each of his cheeks, holding him there in his tight hug for a few more seconds before letting him go. "I'm not gonna keep you from doin' your motherfuckin' job anymore, bro. Just really wanted to drop in and see what was all up and happening with you. Gotta get back home soon though. Gotta get some shit ready for that project with Dave. Good thing they're gettin' outta school for the summer pretty soon or we'd be on a hell of a time crunch."

Tavros got up to hug Gamzee again and grinned at the affection, going a bit ruddy in the cheeks. "Sure has been nice to see you again, Gamzee. I really kind of hope that, if it isn't too much trouble, you'll be out again soon." He straightened up his unstyled mohawk from the ruffle and walked his friend to the door, smiling like he hadn't smiled in a long while.

Once at the exit, he thanked Cass for bringing Gamzee by and Cass nodded, "It's my pleasure. I'll be sure to send your regards along to the others, as well." He waved as he walked to the car, and looked over at Gamzee with a grin. "You are both sickeningly adorable, I hope you know that."

"Man, after what happened before I wasn't sure he'd be able to fuckin' handle it. Like there's some fucked up shit that went down but in spite of everything he's still the best motherfuckin' bro. Nicest motherfuckin' thing I could've ever asked to see." Gamzee was still smiling to himself as he looked down at his hands working together in his lap, fidgeting slightly with pent up energy. He also mentally thanked Cass for making absolutely no indication about Vriska. That was the absolute last thing _anyone_ would need out of this situation.

"Oh lord, that absolute utter harpy bitch? I'd rather eat my own damn face." Cass said aloud and then laughed. "No, she's no good for him, I've heard so many bloody stories about her from Dave, and some fairly loud thoughts out of Tavros. I'm glad that I've neatly avoided her all evening and most of the morning." He grinned over at Gamzee. "It's also why I was lying about our little trip up here. But she's so invested in your friend Terezi at this juncture, I could have put a big neon sign of our plans up and she wouldn't notice."

He grinned then and patted Gamzee's arm. "Your friend is safe, your other friend is ignorant of the situation, and your matesprit has absolutely no idea how much you needed this. You'll tell him though."

"Look at you bein' all motherfuckin' mindreader and shit," Gamzee chuckled and nodded some, reaching over and laying a hand against Cass' wrist. "Just keep some of us updated on that shit if you don't mind. Vriska gettin' her shit all up and bothered about Tavros ain't gonna fuckin' end up any kind of good."

"I'll see to it that she keeps her infinitely salty personage well away from him," Cass promised, stopping at a light to smile over at Gamzee. "He'll be fine. He's in the jurisdiction of a very protective Guardian, who doesn't much care for _other_ renegade pirates in his territory." He grinned with a waggle of his brows, and then started off again, up a hill, and then down into the downtown area. "I'll give you a call once the Striders figure out the game plan, if they don't first. I'm fairly certain it was just going to be another party situation, but who even knows with Dave."

"Always up for hangin' with 'em even if it's not a party," Gamzee shrugged then waited for the car to be parked before he held up a hand in a gesture at least familiar among humans to bring Cass in for a companionable, slap-heavy hug. "That happens, better see you there."

"And miss out on more exciting, sloppy drunken lesbian makeouts? How on earth could I ever turn such a thing down?" He said with a grin as he hugged Gamzee tight, before slipping away. "Have a good afternoon, mate." He grinned as he lit up another cigarette and started to text Dave that he'd be back to the house soon.

Up in the hotel room, Eridan was fast asleep. He'd barely had enough energy to drag out of his clothes before he dropped into the cocoon and crashed. He only managed to get woken up once by Dave, who let him know where Gamzee really was. His mind calmed considerably at that, and figured if Gamzee wanted to see the brownblood, there really was no harm in it. After all, they'd been good friends, and Gamzee still often talked about him. He even had done a painting of him right after he was finished with the one of Eridan himself. So he understood the necessity of the venture. That was as much thought he'd given to it before he passed out again.

Gamzee closed the door quietly behind him as soon as he got back in, still smiling faintly to himself as he did. He peeled out of his clothes and left them on the floor, crawling into the cocoon and settling over the top of Eridan, simply watching him sleep for a few moments before starting to scratch lightly between his gills on each side. He stepped it up a little at a time until he could just start to see the spots of bioluminescence creeping up along Eridan's neck and shoulders. He brushed his lips and tongue along the soft, delicate edge of one earfin, thoroughly enjoying himself in spite of the lack of really obvious feedback. Eridan murmured a wordless question to Gamzee's careful, but all too pointed touches and licks, and smiled to himself as he turned and slipped his arms around his matesprit.

"Enjoyin' yourself too much," he teased as he brought his hand up Gamzee's back, nails dragging lightly over his spine. He half-wondered what time it was, but decided that it likely didn't matter.

"Maybe," Gamzee murmured in reply, still just a little too happy to particularly care about time, or place, or much of anything else really. He nosed under and mouthed along the line of Eridan's jaw and back down his neck, making slow progress down the front of his body where he had found Eridan liked to be touched over the time they'd been together, his tongue picking up flecks of slime here and there. With a shivered breath, Eridan slipped up out of the slime to part his legs and run his hand over Gamzee's dreadlocks, eyes still closed as he ran his other hand over his matesprit's shoulder and arm. He hadn't been expecting this sort of warm wakeup, but he wasn't complaining, either. He hissed out an entirely wanton murmur of his matesprit's name as he caught a few thin dreadlocks between his knuckles and tugged slightly. Gamzee tilted his head into the pulling and slipped his tongue out to run over the edges of Eridan's nook, just barely dipping in then running up to toy with the tip of his bulge. He scratched his nails up along the insides of the other's thighs and stroked up over his hips.

"Speak up, motherfucker," he muttered with his lips pressed against the moist, cool flesh. "You know I wanna fuckin' hear you..."

It still wasn't quite instinctual for Eridan to make much noise; he'd been a fairly quiet lover up until Gamzee, but the way his matesprit demanded it always brought it out of him. He let out a low, shuddered groan as he tightened his grip in Gamzee's hair as his bulge moved out and closer to Gamzee's lips. "Don't fuckin' tease me, Gam," he moaned, partially opening his eyes to look down at his matesprit as he slipped his hand away from Gamzee's hair to brush his knuckles over his cheek. "You know I hate that shit when you do it." Gamzee merely grinned at that and took his hand, rubbing his thumb across the back of it as he held Eridan's gaze, very deliberately opening his mouth and drawing the bulge into it then sucking down. Watching Eridan's face change was always a source of pleasure and endless entertainment for him and, unbeknownst to his matesprit, Gamzee had occasionally sketched out those faces and gestures in the pads of paper sitting around in his former bedroom that had since become something of a makeshift art studio. Eridan's eyes slid closed as his jaw went slack and lips parted, his head turning with the sudden envelopment of his bulge, while he groaned out some disjointed encouragement in a thick, throaty voice. With a bit of concentration, he stilled his bulge and let it writhe lazily against Gamzee's tongue while he squeezed his matesprit's hand. He was tempted to grab Gamzee's head and push him down deeper, but for just then, he was content to be doted on in whatever way Gamzee saw fit.

Gamzee's jaw dropped open to take in more of Eridan's bulge, his breath holding for a few seconds then blowing out through his nose. He brought back his free hand to touch around the outside of his nook before pushing in just a little at the time, pumping slowly to rub into the sensitive walls. He had spent some time learning what his matesprit would enjoy and always tried little variations of the new information. His fingers couldn't reach back as far as his bulge could, but it was also much easier to search out and exploit new sweet spots with them. As his head rolled back and his back arched, Eridan let out another, airy moan of pleasure, shuddering an inward breath afterward as he rocked his hips down onto Gamzee's fingers and then back upwards in a fluid motion into his mouth. He gripped Gamzee's shoulder tight as his fingers found a particularly sensitive area inside him and he gave a choked little sound of surprise. His bulge dripped fluid as he retracted it from his matesprit's mouth and he murmured, "too good, Gam, goin' ta wind up goin' overboard way too fuckin' fast." Less because of what Gamzee had been doing, really, but more because he'd been woken up aroused, and that always made him sensitive.

Licking his lips, Gamzee sat back up, his fingers still moving slowly to keep Eridan worked up. The other hand came disentangled from his matesprit's and flipped out into his sylladex, fingers snatching the handle of a passing bucket and dragging it out; he'd learned to start keeping one handy after the second encounter. He propped his legs up under Eridan's to lift him up and smiled faintly as he handed the bucket over to him then ran his hand down the length of the other's body. "Now you gotta fuckin' tell me what you want," he murmured, kneading the muscle of Eridan's thigh tenderly.

Eridan set the bucket off to one side, just within reach, and wrapped his arms around Gamzee, smiling tenderly as he dipped his head down to press a trail of kisses up his matesprit's long neck. "Not you puttin' me on the spot like this, again," he muttered, smirking as he brushed his teeth lightly across Gamzee's jaw. "Always gotta be so fuckin' generous." He wasn't complaining, not by a long shot, but as he spoke, his own hand slipped between them, down between Gamzee's legs, and brushed over his bulge. "I don't see why you can't be a _little_ greedy once in a while." He murmured as he caught Gamzee's lips with his own.

"Don't gotta be," Gamzee chuckled, pressing his nose into the space just under Eridan's jaw, mouthing at his throat and just barely letting his teeth graze the skin. "Looks like I always motherfuckin' get what I want whether I ask for it or not."

Eridan laughed quietly and wrapped his hand around Gamzee's bulge, the webbing between his fingers cradling it as he pumped. "I don't know whether that's profoundly sweet or fuckin' unpicky," Eridan murmured as he smiled, using his other hand to catch Gamzee's jaw and bring him back into a kiss. He adjusted his position in Gamzee's lap to bring his bulge up around his matesprit's while his fingers went down to brush the area around Gamzee's nook. He wasn't able to maneuver his fingers very much more than an inch or two inside without his own discomfort, but teasing was just fine, at least from what he found from experience. Gamzee let out a soft, slightly amused sigh as his bulge slipped around and locked with Eridan's, his lips pressing back against the other's and nipping at them playfully. He rocked his hips up in a slow rhythm, almost wishing they had some music, always finding that this went better when there was some downtempo to set a good pace. He wrapped one hand around both bulges and kneaded gently as the other arm wrapped around Eridan's waist, holding him up as Gamzee kissed and mouthed down his neck to his shoulders and chest. Eridan groaned and his head dropped forward, kissing the top of Gamzee's head as his bulge pulsed and tightened against his matesprit's. As he rolled his hips in time with Gamzee's, he too realized that there was an integral missing piece of the puzzle. He arched his back backwards, giving Gamzee better access to his chest as he reached behind him to fumble at the remote built into the cocoon's rim, finally managing to hit the button which turned on the ipod dock and stereo on the other side of the room, where it started to play quietly. He smiled once he rolled back into a sitting position. He was no acrobat like Gamzee, but his core strength was apparent.

Gamzee's eyebrow arched up some and his smile widened, sincerely amused. The more he learned about Eridan, the more Eridan seemed to be learning about him and the way he operated and that made things easier and a good deal more pleasurable. He tangled his fingers with Eridan's bulge and slipped his own away, giving the other a sleepy, affectionate look as he slipped into him, his bulge writhing gently into his matesprit until he was seated in to the hilt. He started to move after a few seconds to the quiet beat, leaning back against the wall of the cocoon and pulling Eridan close in his lap. He locked gazes with Gamzee as his matesprit penetrated him, making him let out a quiet groan, his own look loving and considerably softer than his usual sharp stares. He started to slowly work his hips to the slow rhythm of the music, and he brushed his thumb over Gamzee's cheek before he caught his lips with his own, the kiss light and lingering. Gamzee returned the kiss with a soft one of his own, his tongue flitting over Eridan's lips but never quite engaging in a deeper kiss, content to keep it slow and sweet. He rubbed his nose against the other's affectionately, still giving him that same content, sleepy-looking smile.

"Motherfuckin' beautiful," he said quietly against Eridan's lips, pushing up a little harder into him in that same slow rhythm.

Gasping sharply with the thrust, Eridan's smile went a little predatory and he ran his hand up into Gamzee's dreads, brushing them away from his face and shoulders and keeping them back with a gentle tug. "Yes you are," he responded as he flexed tight around his matesprit's bulge, dipping his lips and tongue down to Gamzee's neck. With the shift of the song and tempo, he transitioned their pace into one that matched - a little faster, but no less mellow. Gamzee laughed quietly at that and wrapped his arms around Eridan's waist, supporting his weight on the balls of his feet as the pace ramped up slowly. He lifted his chin to give Eridan more access to his neck as one hand fell to grasp at the strong, lean muscle of the other's ass while the other wrapped back around his bulge and started to pump it in time with the music. Eridan dipped his lips down to the hollow of Gamzee's shoulder and neck where he slipped his tongue out to trace along the sharp curve, before he nipped Gamzee's neck, not quite rough enough to break skin. He ran the palms of his hands up over his matesprit's chest and rolled his hips into the rhythm, while thicker, darker fluid started seeping from his bulge. He brought his mouth up to Gamzee's ear and let out a low moan before murmuring, "Harder, Gam."

Gamzee ran his tongue over his lips and shifted until his knees were against the bottom of the cocoon, giving him a more solid brace as he held Eridan around the waist and rolled his hips up in that same slow pace, putting more force behind each thrust. He let a quiet, growling moan into Eridan's ear, his cheek pressed to his matesprit's, their skin slipping together fluidly with the slime and the light sheen of sweat in between. With each snap of Gamzee's hips, Eridan's grip on his matesprit's back grew tighter, and his nails sunk deeper, until he had to pull his fingers back from breaking skin and reached for the bucket while his other hand slid into the hair at the back of Gamzee's neck. He had gone past coy moans at that point, letting out near-predatory hisses of sound, while he wrapped one leg more tightly around Gamzee's waist, pulling himself down into each upward thrust. Gamzee was slow to get to his peak, but that only allowed him to go until Eridan was completely spent. He dragged his tongue along the upper ridge of Eridan's earfin then pressed his nose into the side of his head, murmuring into his ear the closer he came. Eridan didn't stop riding Gamzee even after he'd spent himself, bearing through the oversensitivity as he needed to see his matesprit through. He peppered kisses across Gamzee's shoulder and smiled at the sweet, beautiful (though comically vulgar) things that fell from his matesprit's lips. He responded to some in kind, though less irreverent in nature.

Gamzee was smiling broadly as he listened to Eridan returning the sentiments, holding onto his matesprit tightly as he finally reached his peak, letting out a harsh groan as he started to pulse and quickly maneuvered the half-full bucket where it could catch the majority of the chemically sweet fluid. He huffed against Eridan's neck and shuddered gently as he laid back again bonelessly, looking up at Eridan glowing in his lap. He cocked a drowsy little smile at him and dragged a hand over the smudges of paint. Eridan had long since gotten used to being smudged with paint after they pailed, and found the situation increasingly comforting, especially when Gamzee took care to wipe it away. He set the bucket aside and sprawled against Gamzee, settled casually against his matesprit's side, one leg slung over the other's thigh.

After a few minutes of peaceful, comfortable quiet between them, Eridan spoke quietly. "Don't eat the slime, Gam. I knew you were after the little drips, but even that's... Please don't. I don't want ta wake up an' have you gone comatose 'cause it ate a hole in your pan too big to navigate around, alright?" He looked up into Gamzee's eyes, his own searching and clearly worried for his matesprit. "Don't do that ta yourself."

Gamzee chose not to say anything to that, his eyes falling closed as he ran his fingers back through Eridan's hair and scratched down the back of his neck tenderly, his cheek leaning against the other's forehead. His smile had faded off though, making it clear that he understood. He wrapped his arm around Eridan's shoulders and stroked his thumb along the line of his matesprit's jaw. If it ever got to the point that it was really necessary, they would talk about it. But for now, it was a single slip. And he wasn't even going to feel the effects of ingesting those few small drops anyway. "Wish you wouldn't worry so motherfuckin' much," he murmured, but left it at that.

Eridan simply sighed at that, and smiled a little. He _knew_ he should stop worrying as much as he did; Gamzee was careful with himself most of the time, and could certainly look after and protect himself if he had to. Shit, after all the time in the game, and all this time here, he still was the only one to have lived. That was admirable, or maybe just foolish luck. He just knew the kind of hell that shit wreaked on Gamzee before, and he didn't want to see it go any further. He loved him too much. And he said as much aloud, quietly against Gamzee's skin. He drifted off shortly after that, only to get two more hours of sleep before the phone went off with a text. He didn't bother grabbing the phone, he knew it was just one of the guys sending the message along over where they were going to meet to eat. He was comfortable where he fuckin' was, thank you. Gamzee fished around for Eridan's phone and squinted at the message then put the phone back, preferring to doze with Eridan for the time being. He could regale the others with the story of chatting with Tavros later on if the opportunity to do so out of Vriska's earshot presented itself. Getting Tav in on the festivities was a no-go, as much as he might have wanted to include him.

\--

Dave waited a minute to see if Eridan would answer, and then tucked his phone in his pocket. He'd gone home to shower, shave, and get dressed again, taking Karkat with him. He checked the posted grades for the final exams - something else that had been settling heavily on his mind and making him worry too damn much - and saw that he'd passed with flying colors in every class, save one. He hated that fucking class, but he managed to barely squeak through it so he could get to next year's classes without having to retake any. He had partyhouse-sitting duty with Karkat and Rose while Terezi and Vriska went off to do whatever it was they did without prying eyes, and Bro and Sollux went with Kanaya to go pick up some "essentials" that weren't already at the house. Namely a projection TV and some movies. Kanaya simply went along because she hadn't spent much time with Sollux in a while.

Karkat was able to breathe a long sigh of relief when he'd checked his own grades, passing with exemplary scores in most of his classes and decently passing ones in the others, opening up his schedule for the next year a little more. He had murmured the offhand idea of taking orchestra or at least some instrumental music course so that he might be able to play with a group, rather missing playing the cello after so long cramming and studying and writing. He was perfectly comfortable going along with whatever Dave wanted to do while the others were out, spending some time talking with Rose about his dissertation and getting some advice on what sources he might want to look into while he was at the Research Society.

Sollux seemed to hold himself a little bit easier the more he talked with Cass about what was on his mind, relaying more of his worries to him and to Bro, occasionally to Dave as well. Having the easy access to good weed between Cass and Gamzee had gone miles toward preventing an emotional breakdown. He was chatting off and on with Kanaya, handling the increasing feeling of dread with a good deal more grace than was his norm. It was likely the presence of people that actually took his feelings about the situation seriously and would actually talk to him about it rather than telling him that he was imagining it or that it wouldn't be as bad as he thought, that was allowing him to come back out of that shell. Dave had brought back his moleskine and pens with him to the townhouse when they returned, and listened to Karkat and Rose while they chatted, doodling aimlessly. Rose was happy to provide some insight, and smiled at the topic at large. She adored the idea of really digging into peoples' personal morals and what, at the base of their personalities, they were about. She'd always liked dissecting people's personalities, as they both knew, and truly enjoyed the in-depth analysis that Karkat was going for.

Bro, for his part, had a feeling that whatever it was Sollux was feeling wasn't going to happen until everyone's next get-together, and while nobody had made any solid plans, there were inklings there - from many sources, not just his matesprit - that things would be coming down in Boston. He already informed Mom to that effect, and she sent a return text peppered with typos that told him she was on it **like white on rixe**. He hoped that the duo that were still there were safe. He returned with Sollux and Kanaya and promptly started setting up the projector, affixing it to one of the other rafters, pointed towards the empty wall as he had Sollux set up the other parts of the system. He'd explained that eventually, they'd likely make this house their home, as was his plan before Sollux had moved in. It'd be a pretty substantial move, but Houston bore no fruit for him, and it was closer to Dave, which was what he wanted.

Once the system was set up, Bro ollied out to go grab some dinner for everyone, saying he'd be back in about an hour. Dave smiled and shook his head. "The only time you'll get him to stop is if you can nail his shoes to the ground before he's in them." He looked at the clock on his phone and then sent another text to Eridan and Gamzee both, to let them know food was on its way and a movie was going to be on.

"Even then, he'd only stop long enough to pull the nails out with his bare hands," Karkat snorted, shaking his head and watching Sollux start the fine tuning on placement of everything that had been set up. John was lounging on his opposite side, staying out of the conversation and out of the way for the most part but occasionally speaking up to ask Karkat or Rose a question that, while it seemed obvious to either of them, had predictably baffled him. Deep philosophical discussion was incredibly boring to him and indeed to many of them, so neither of them really blamed him and tried very hard not to be patronizing. Karkat slipped up of course, but it was to be expected.

Dave was in a very similar position to John, to be honest, and was really only tuning in on the conversation about half the time, mostly just to listen to Karkat's voice and the gentle, waving cadence of Rose's tone. After a while he dropped himself closer to John and showed him what he was working on with his drawings. To John's surprise, it wasn't some godawful comic, nor did it have anything to do with drugs, sex, dicks in general, or anything he usually associated with Dave. Dave chuckled and let John grab the sketchbook to look through it some more, and goggle slightly at what Dave had taken up doing in his free time. "So this is why Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff hasn't updated in a while!"

Dave laughed, rumpling his friend's hair. "You always were a sap for nostalgia, Egbert."

After everything was fussed into the perfect placement, Sollux retreated up to the hammock and lurked overhead, just listening to the others. He was left alone up there, which suited him just fine for the time being. Dave got a text from Terezi, saying that they'd be spending the night just catching up and doing sassy, naughty, unspeakable things.

"Looks like the Scourge has left the building for the night," he announced before sprawling out into a second beanbag, putting his head on John's lap and refusing to move it even after John whined about being uncomfortable. Sollux let a half-assed whoop from his place in the hammock at the news then went back to lounging, looking up at the ceiling and debating on asking Bro if he could install a skylight so that he could smoke up here. He chewed halfheartedly at the butt of a cigarette, refusing to go outside to smoke just yet. He smirked a little at John's fussing but refusal to actually do anything about it, rolling his eyes and shifting to listen for the sound of returning vehicles.

"Dave, seriously, if you don't get off my lap, I'm going to--"

"What. You're going to what."

"I'm going to kick your ass!"

"Right. Your legs are indisposed at the moment, so kicking's out of the question, and my ass is all the way over here, where you can't reach."

Rose sighed and shook her head at the boys and murmured to Karkat, "Well, at least they're getting along again. They might still be twelve, but at least they're getting along." She patted Karkat's hand and smiled, "My deepest condolences for loving the biggest dope in paradox space."

By the time Eridan and Gamzee arrived, Bro was on his way back and Dave had finally given up tormenting John, choosing to torture Karkat instead, which meant that Karkat's hair was being attacked by himself and Kanaya, being brushed and styled while Karkat was being sat on so he couldn't go anywhere. This was the only way Dave would agree to let Kanaya let her have her way with his hair afterward. He looked up and grinned when he heard the front door open to admit their local highbloods once more.

Eridan had opted for a pair of 7fam jeans, and a casual shirt/vest combo. Gamzee just let Eridan fuss him for a little while before turning to reapply his makeup, carefully sealing it when it was done then shrugging his shirt more comfortably down until it had simply fallen down one skinny shoulder, his jeans sagging down some on his slim hips and making him look like he was drowning in fabric. Unlike Eridan, he was wearing inexpensive Wal Mart carpenter jeans that had places worn in them naturally rather than by machine. Half his dreads were pulled up behind his head, the lower half hanging around his neck loosely. It didn't matter so much to him that the faint purple scratches down his visible shoulder were showing; everyone knew about them and it wasn't as if anyone there had ever walked away from good sex without a few marks.

"Hey, Gamzee! How'd it go with Tavros?"

"I hate you guys so much," Karkat was whining as he finally let his hair be messed with, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked around at the others, arching an eyebrow as Gamzee grinned.

"Man you don't even motherfuckin' _know_. I swear he's gotta be one'a them motherfuckin' lost boys, hasn't aged a fuckin' _day_. You know he's got a motherfuckin' matesprit now? Shit, man..." Shaking his head, Gamzee flopped down into the beanbags with his gangly limbs spread out to take up as much room as possible.

Dave chuckled at that. "At least he's happier now. Dude's never gotten the good end of the deal, and now he's doing all right." He settled back into texting Cass, smirking at what he'd been sent in return. He only started to fuss when Kanaya was finished with Karkat's hair and she started on his. "Not so rough, Maryarm, yeesh, my hair is delicate. Like a glass unicorn. Only swaggier."

"Stop fussing, I've finished with Karkat so now it's your turn," she said, her tone affectionate but absolute.

Eridan took a dignified seat near his matesprit, settling in a moon chair and looking up at the new projector. "Do we even know what we're goin' ta be watchin'?"

"No idea," Karkat replied to him as he settled down on the floor between Dave's knees with his elbows propped on his matesprit's thighs. He had been wondering the same thing, as well as whether they would actually need the shitton of alcohol that had been picked up before Gamzee and Eridan had arrived. He looked over at Gamzee sprawled out comfortably, smiling faintly. Now that was more like what he was used to. He glanced up as Kanaya scolded Dave for fidgeting as she harassed his hair as well, explaining to him as one might a child that she wouldn't be as rough if he wouldn't make it difficult. Dave shot back that he wouldn't be making it difficult if she didn't bother in the first place, but huffed and sat still. Rose just shook her head in amusement from the other side of the room, and went back to talking with John. 

Eridan sighed and shook his head as well before looking up and noticing Sollux's eyes glowing in the middling darkness of the rafters. "How about at least turnin' on some music 'til Strider The Large gets back, Sol?" He asked, before tapping his nails against his elbows.

A car approached while none of them were paying any attention and only moments later, Cass reappeared, grinning as he exclaimed, "Surprise visitor, come to make this party about seventy-three times better!" He stepped aside to let Tavros in, and he waved.

"Hi. I uh, hope I'm not intruding."

Dave beamed at that, turning his head just as Kanaya nearly dropped her brush. "Hey! Glad you could actually make it!"

Gamzee grinned and bounced up out of his seat, sweeping Tavros into a crushing hug then pulling him to sit down on the other side of him without listening to a word of argument. He pointed up at Cass, proclaiming him to be the best motherfucker that ever lived. Sollux had nearly fallen out of the hammock at the sudden upswing in noise level, looking down at Tavros and snorting quietly then grabbing the remote for the system that he'd squirreled away in the hammock with himself, pointing it down toward the stereo system to start one of the playlists that he'd loaded into it. It was a rather upbeat, eclectic mix of music agreed upon by himself and Bro, meaning a lot of electronica and ironic, incessantly goofy rock including that of Psychostick. John nearly laughed himself sick at _This Is Not a Song, It's a Sandwich_ , finding it even more entertaining that Sollux was singing along. Karkat was just rolling his eyes, muttering about the collective age and IQ of the party dropping exponentially.

"Third best, we have to have some wiggle room there for other fine heroes such as Bugs Bunny and Troll Will Smith." Cass dropped down into a seat and looked up at Eridan, tutting, "You still don't know what a party is, do you, mate?" 

Eridan huffed a little, "I partied too long with most a these idiots already." He looked over to Karkat and nodded towards the dining room, where it was at least a little less hectic and loud, before he went that direction, himself.

Bro returned with at least seven bags of food hanging on his arms, and even more booze - a case of beer in each hand - and started unloading and setting out food in the kitchen: party platters, hot wings, vegetarian choices for the picky people, and several different kinds of dessert that had looked too good to pass up. Sollux climbed down out of the hammock to help Bro get the food arranged in the kitchen, nodding to Karkat and Eridan as he passed. He grabbed one of the beers and headed back out to the living room, ducking around Tavros' horns and heading back out onto the patio. He could go back inside when the movie started.

Dave grinned and slipped up to Gamzee as soon as he was able, his hair pulled away from his forehead and out of his face, but still looking favorable and stylish, thanks to Kanaya. He handed over his moleskine to show his ink work - some were things that Karkat had sent pics of, but most were things that weren't drawn yet at the time of sending, or just hadn't caught Karkat's eye like the others did. "Figured you'd like to see all of 'em. That crow one was my rough draft for my back piece." He realized then that Gamzee had never seen his tattoo. He grinned a little smugly as Gamzee's head tilted a little at that and he reached over to tug up the bottom of Dave's shirt to get a look at his back, the book held in the other hand. Karkat had wandered off as soon as Eridan had moved off toward the kitchen, making it possible for Tavros to try and maneuver around them so that he wasn't sandwiched awkwardly between Dave and Gamzee.

"You art is lovely as always," Kanaya said with a soft smile as she glanced over the pages that Gamzee was flipping through. "I'd been thinking about a tattoo myself, but I wanted something more original than what most parlors seem to have in their portfolios."

Dave tugged the back of his shirt up further for Gamzee to see, looking up at Kanaya with a smile, "You have any idea what you'd even be looking to get on your infinitely hot body, Kanaya? I could help you plan that shit, maybe even draw it out for you." He looked over at Gamzee with a grin. "You should see what I'm getting next. Three pages from the last one I drew on, I'm probably getting that on my wrist." He had drawn out a negative space band that would wrap around, of the four aspects of his session, highly stylized. "I was thinking maybe of that one there, too," he said, pointing at a stylized Cancer symbol, "But I haven't asked Karkat if he'd be cool with that yet."

Cass,who also had a fair bit of ink, looked over at Dave's designs as well, brows arched high. "If you don't make it in Hollywood, there's always apprenticing as a tattoo artist," he suggested.

"You got a pen or anything safe for skin?" Gamzee asked as he looked up between Dave, Kanaya and Cass. "If you can sketch fast I can prob'ly do that motherfucker up on 'er in a mockup and see how it turns out."

"I didn't know you could draw too," John spoke up after a moment, goggling some at Gamzee. He just shrugged at that, replying that it was mostly just a hobby. "All of you are just hiding all kinds of talent under your hair or something, jeez."

Dave looked at his pens, and noted that they were non-toxic, and nodded. "If you promise not to ruin the tips on these, I think we can both use the same thing." He looked up at Kanaya, who was beaming at both Gamzee and him, before she gave them both a hug. She was done being worried about Gamzee.

Dave looked over at John and grinned. "You've got some talents, I bet. I mean, other than being a fantastic fucking pain in the ass. Pranking? That takes some skill." He looked over at Cass, who had decided to drop down beside John. "Dude can prank like no other. Who even knows how long he spent thinking up that last one. Holy shit, dude, you got us. We were _pissed_ , too." He stood up as Kanaya led both him and Gamzee out to the patio, turning on the light on their way through so the boys could smoke while she explained her idea for a tattoo.

Cass huffed a chuckle and shook his head, grinning at John. "Artists confuse the absolute hell out of me."

Tavros squirmed some as he was left alone, looking back over at John and raising his hand in a tentative wave, obviously unsure what to do with himself anymore. He didn't think he really wanted to get involved with anything John-related. Bro whistled over to Tavros and asked him to come finish up prepping everything. He hadn't met the guy yet, so he wanted to introduce himself and really get a good mental picture of this kid. He was surprised when the guy stammered through every sentence, and his brow furrowed in concern when he realized that it wasn't out of a speech impediment, but rather, a terrible lack of self-esteem. He patted Tavros on the back and said, "Well, I can think of at least three people here who are glad to see you tonight. You've been missed, bro."

Karkat had watched the trio retreating to the patio with an arched brow, figuring they were all up to something art-related and staying well out of it. Words were his forte, not visual arts. He looked back at Eridan and sipped from the glass of soda he'd gotten when he'd seen just how much alcohol there was going to be. _Someone_ had to stay sober to make sure nobody hurt themselves.

Sollux had sat down on the steps when he heard Dave and Gamzee talking to Kanaya about a potential tattoo, turning in place to listen to them with half an ear as he took his beer a gulp at a time. Apparently Kanaya wanted something large and intricate that would have to be done in multiple sittings if only to keep whatever artist she got from going numb halfway through. Dave was quick to the draw with his preliminary doodles, some less sketched out than others as he listened to her explanation of what she wanted, nodding to himself that it sounded a lot more complex and, in his opinion, beautiful than what her dancestor had gotten. Smiling to himself as he drew, he thought about how lucky he was to even be thought of as someone worth going to for this.

Eridan had decided to not drink tonight, as well. The group tended to get a little too loud and rambunctious without a good, solid mediator there. "You know, Kar, we're goin' ta have ta be the level heads. Might be the scariest fuckin' thought yet." He grinned a little as he watched Gamzee walk past. "What are they doin'?" He asked, brows arched.

Karkat just shook his head. "Art," he replied simply then glanced over at Tavros talking with Bro. Now that, he wasn't entirely sure what to think of, except for Bro probably trying to help Tav in whatever way.

Kanaya was standing with her chin perched on Dave's shoulder, her fingers laced together beside it as she watched and made small suggestions as he drew, describing to Gamzee where it would fall on her body as it was put down. He seemed to really be concentrating and paying attention, at least as much as he was able to at any given moment. Sollux was slightly baffled watching the three of them together, but he made nothing of it, knowing he'd likely hear more about it as they went. He made his way back inside when his bottle was emptied in the hopes of retrieving another one, stopping when he spotted Bro talking to Tavros. He glanced at Eridan and Karkat, then leaned against the wall with his arms crossed just to watch that happen. He leaned back when Tavros passed by to go back to the living room and settle in on the opposite side of the room from John to once more fidget as he listened to the music.

Bro popped out of the kitchen and gave Sollux a quick kiss as he passed by to the patio to tell the ~*artists*~ that the food was ready whenever anybody wanted anything. Rose had already absconded with the entire veggie platter, and settled down beside Tavros to ask what he'd been doing for so long, offering something to eat before she set the platter down between them. She smiled sweetly and patiently listened to Tavros explain that he was one of the managers at the ASPCA in town, and he got to adopt out the pets that they took in, and nurture some of the sicker ones back to health. He really seemed to love his job.

Bro returned back in and smiled over to Karkat and Eridan, tilting his head to the kitchen in a way that repeated his sentiment, before he went back to Sollux's side, smiling faintly as he looked around. "Think I'm gonna like it here. Big enough to stretch out in. Can you imagine havin' all these people at our place in Houston? Horns clashin' everywhere, fuckin' people steppin' on each others' toes."

Dave looked up when Bro popped out to tell them that the food was ready, and then went back to work. "Now I have to wonder how ink will take for you, Kanaya. And if it'll screw with your autoluminescence. We don't want you to ruin your shining glory."

"There are parlors that use inks that actually work with auto and bioluminescence in trolls," Kanaya replied. "It costs a little more but it is also safer and doesn't run the risk of marring anything. Now, I suppose we can put this on hold for a moment to retrieve some food before it's all demolished." She led the way back inside and took a seat beside Rose to share some of the platter she'd commandeered. She picked up on the end of the conversation and began to talk to Tavros herself, looking extremely content.

Sollux had taken to trailing behind Bro like a very bored-looking comet tail, eating from a handful of grapes as he did. He watched Gamzee head toward the kitchen to find something for himself then shaking his head when he came back with a full platter, picking at the cheeses and layering the different things together until he had a towering cracker-ham-turkey-cheese-cracker sandwich that he'd sooner end up dropping on the floor than fitting into his mouth. His solution was to try and smash it down a little shorter then simply bite off the top half and occupy himself with that.

"So, has anyone actually decided what we're going to be watching?" Karkat sighed as he watched them all settling in with various drinks and snacks between them, holding a bottle of water and a bowl of sunflower seeds in one hand, the other tucked up under his arm.

Bro shrugged. "Captcha'd my entire movie collection. Y'all can pick." He pulled out both DVD mock filing cabinets, making sure they settled into the corner instead of launched out the giant window. Dave grinned and hopped up from his seat, which he'd taken with a plate full of hot wings and a beer, and bounded over to open the cabinet and look through "Genre'd be easier to pick from with you guys, so what'll it be?" asked the younger Strider over his shoulder. 

Comedy was decided on without too much bickering amongst the guests; everyone there seemed in good spirits and once that was decided, it came down to several choices, whittled down to The Big Lebowski. It had pretty much everything this group could possibly want. Once Dave handed over the disc, and Bro popped it in, both settled in to watch the movie, Bro with his arms around Sollux's shoulders, and Dave with his pile of hot wings. Karkat had settled down on the floor at Dave's feet again with his comparably lame snack, prepared to try and enjoy the movie even if it wasn't in his personal preference. He was able to laugh some at least when the others were roaring, shaking his head at all of them as they became more inebriated. People around Tavros had learned to simply so that his horns passed over their heads when he moved.

By the end of it they were all considerably more horizontal than when they'd started, everybody more or less occupying everybody else's laps. John was well past simply buzzed as he leaned against Cass' side, repeating himself a few times as he talked about how much they'd never gotten to do this sort of thing during their sessions, even when they had to kill time for over a year before shit really hit the fan. Gamzee had very casually slipped to lie in Eridan's lap, sprawled across it with his shirt screwed up around his chest and showing the entirety of his stomach. It was fussed down by Karkat when it was finally noticed. He muttered about nothing about Gamzee obeying the laws of physics, jumping back when the highblood's head snapped around to look at him at an awkward angle, his legs moving while the rest of him stayed prone and craning up and over until his toes had touched the ground. He flipped himself upright from a spine-snapping bend and shook his clothes back out then headed back to the kitchen with the emptied snack platter in hand.

John and Karkat were staring after him, John paling slightly as Karkat shook his head and put it down on Dave's knee. "If anyone ever needs a reason to be fucking terrified of clowns, I'll just point them at him."

Eridan had simply smiled a little, turning to look at Karkat. "He's prone ta weirder than that, an' you know it." He raised an eyebrow at John, who had practically buried himself against Cass and then shook his head. "Lightweight," he murmured.

Dave huffed a chuckle at the entire thing, though he was somewhat unnerved, himself. "Duder's bendier than me, and that's saying something." He ran a hand through Karkat's hair as he watched Bro flip the sound system back from movie mode into music mode, and then walk to the stairs to go sprawl in the hammock some more.

Once everyone was back on their feet or settled back into talking once more, Dave wandered into the kitchen to pour himself a drink, and then gasped melodramatically when _oh nooo_ he made too much. He smirked and offered one to Karkat, then another to Gamzee. While it technically was a pretty fruity drink, he didn't seem to give a damn. It went down mellow, and would kick him in the face later. Karkat rolled his eyes at Dave's overly dramatic offering and took a sip of the drink, which at least tasted good despite being heavily alcoholic. He would have to pace himself, for certain. At the sound of gulping to one side of him he cringed, looking up to see Gamzee demolishing the entire thing. "Jesus fuck, slow down you imbecile," he barked, slapping Gamzee's elbow. He stuck out his tongue at Gamzee's hurt expression, shaking his head and taking more of the drink that Dave had mixed and refilling his glass. "Actually fucking make this one last if you don't mind. Now go before Eridan gets bored without you."

When Gamzee flopped back down into his seat half of him was back in Eridan's lap, his legs slinging over Tavros', the latter looking extremely unsure of everything in general. Gamzee took a few swallows of his drink then held it out. "Come on bro, you gotta motherfuckin' relax. Ain't nobody here gonna do shit to ya and if they do, well...I'll sort 'em out for ya, alright?"

Tavros looked at the offered drink and then smiled a little, taking it and murmuring, "Thanks, Gamzee." He took a sip and squinted one eye, before his nose wrinkled. "That's really strong... Sorry, I don't really drink that much." He offered it back to Gamzee and then made himself relax a little. "I'm sorry if I'm uh, being kind of a downer. I'm not really used to parties. And, there might be a possibility of her coming?"

Cass shook his head, "Not a chance in the world, mate. I've a feeling she's well out of range of mental earshot at the moment." She and Terezi both. Lord only knew where they went. He turned to John and smiled faintly, nudging him off his shoulder to look him in the eyes. "You're acting very chummy, tonight," he pointed out.

Dave took a sip of his drink and shook his head, "I don't get it, dude," he said to Karkat. "How the hell did this all happen? I mean, here we are, surrounded by all these people we've known since we were kids, and it wasn't even a year ago and we were convinced we were alone here. How the hell did we get so fucking lucky?"

"Rocks are going to fall and everybody's going to die," Karkat replied casually, sipping slowly on his drink then nudging his nose against Dave's cheek. "I prefer not to question it at the moment. Especially not when you've apparently made something whose effects are starting to resemble a Pangalactic fucking Gargleblaster." His case in point was Gamzee starting to sing along to the music in spite of the lack of an actual singing voice, his half-full glass balanced on his chest, which his shirt was once more rucked up around.

"For the record, it's actually exactly that."

"Needs more gold brick."

"Karkat ith a huge fucking nerd~" Sollux sang from his place at Bro's side, sucking down his third beer like it was water. He had opted simply to stay out of everyone else's way while they enjoyed themselves, taking a slightly more proactive approach to what Tavros was trying and failing to do.

"And Sollux is a gigantic whoremonger that needs to learn to eat his own fucking words, mister Joss-Whedon-Is-The-Best-Screenwriter."

Dave finished his drink, then facepalmed at their spat and chuckled into his hand, looking at the rest of the group. Eridan had decided it was time for the cup that Gamzee had to be out of Gamzee's control, and finished off what there was left in it, and then leaned over to kiss his matesprit, reminding him to take his evening meds before he was too drunk to function.

Cass nudged Tavros slightly and handed over his keys. "If you want to go home, you can take my car. I'll just borrow Dave's tomorrow like I did this morning." Tavros smiled and thanked Cass, shaking Gamzee's foot. "I'm going to go, Gamzee. I'd like to stay, but, it's not my scene, you know?"

"Man, I'm already too motherfuckin' drunk for that," Gamzee replied, poking the end of Eridan's nose then sitting up at the sound of Tavros' voice, pouting some then reaching up and wrapping his arms around the brownblood's shoulders. "Look man, you ever need to fuckin' talk or anything you got my handle and you know I'm up for chattin' with you any motherfuckin' time'a day you want." He kissed the side of Tavros' head then lifted his legs to let him go, waving him on out the door.

Eridan heaved a sigh; Gamzee was right. Luckily, the meds for the evening were only a sleeping pill and a pill that kept Gamzee from losing absolutely all inhibition. Eridan's jaw tightened as he pulled himself out of the chair and walked Tavros to the door to thank him for even showing up, as well as how much it meant to him, because it meant a lot to Gamzee. Once Tavros left, he slipped to the kitchen to take a shot - okay two shots - of vodka to brace himself for the incoming potential storm of what was likely to be a very surreal night.

Dave had a slight smile on his face as he watched Cass continue to talk to John, nudging Karkat a little. "Check this shit out, dude." He was surprised more by the fact that it was John showing the outwardly flirtatious behavior, while Cass took it all in stride. Karkat leaned his chin against Dave's knee and stared up at John, who had taken to talking at length about how much fun he was having and how he was glad that he had Cass there to keep him company when everyone else was paired off and had he mentioned that he really liked Cass' hair? Because he did. It was all Karkat could do not to just shove his face into the nearest beanbag and yell into it. Gamzee was watching him with an amused little smirk, his already unfocused stare slightly crosseyed by now.

The next time Karkat looked up he nearly choked on the swallow of his drink he'd taken. A song heavy on bass had started to hum and thump through the floor and, seemingly cued by the combination of the lack of Eridan in the immediate vicinity and Karkat's need for a distraction from an Egbert, Gamzee had taken to an empty spot in the middle of the floor, turning the music up just enough then starting to swivel his thin, slightly protruding hips with the rhythm. He hadn't bothered to fix his clothes this time, simply letting his jeans stay low and his shirt both pulled up and drooping down off his shoulder.

"Good thing Tav's gone, he'd get some kind of fucking nosebleed," Karkat muttered against Dave's thigh, watching the display with something between awe and horror. Dave was watching as well, head tilted slightly as he watched Gamzee move with some sort of bizarre grace he honestly could say he'd never seen before. He wasn't quite bellydancer graceful, but it was close.

"He _would_ be the one of you to get the groove on hot and heavy, of fucking _course_ ," he said with a tinge of awe in his tone, before he noticed Eridan slipping into the room, moving to the same beat. "Okay, we need to never give the highbloods alcohol. Or always. One of the two."

Rose had looked up to watch with an equally awestruck expression, nudging Kanaya, who simply sighed and shook her head. "Highly potent human soporifics, that is the only possible explanation," Kanaya said.

Eridan had shed his vest to dance more freely, his own grace on par with Gamzee's, though it was more controlled and certainly practiced. He didn't care, he knew he was good, and knew that the eyes on him were of baffled friends who had underestimated quite a fuckin' lot about him. Gamzee's turn was slow and terribly sensual as he took care to move just shy of touching Eridan until his arms had draped over his matesprit's shoulders, giving him a half-lidded stare and pulling a crooked smile as the dance continued. He had seen Eridan dance once or twice, just never had he been able to actually dance _with_ him. He was absorbed in the music and the motion, his head full of plum-colored smog.

"I blame you, Strider," Karkat muttered, "If they end up fucking in the middle of the floor, it's your fault." Between the pair dancing, the sounds of distracted making out high overhead and Egbert very blatantly flirting with Dave's friend, he felt like the only sane one left in the house.

"I think they might have a little more decorum than that, Vantas," Dave said. "Well, at least one of them does." He ran his hands over Karkat's shoulders and rubbed his back and neck. "Just calm down. It's not like we haven't dealt with weird shit before. Though I'm _pretty_ fucking sure that Egbert has repeatedly said he's straight."

John sat up a little and narrowed his eyes as he pointed at Dave, then at Karkat. "I _said_ I'm not _gay_." And it was true! He never once specifically said he was straight. That would have been a lie! And as if to _spite_ the pair, he leaned over and dragged Cass down for a kiss. Cass nearly toppled at the sudden aggression, but recovered and chuckled into the kiss, settling back after a moment, pointing out, "s'unfair of you to tease them."

"John Egbert is the biggest fucking tool in this room and that's really saying something." Shaking his head, Karkat picked himself up and stretched his arms over his head, starting toward the patio in the hopes of getting some air. With all of them together in the same space it was starting to get stifling and he didn't feel like watching John exploring his sexuality. He bent to press his lips to Dave's cheek then retreated with his glass in hand to sip in peace.

Eridan had put his hands squarely on Gamzee's hips, pulling him just a little closer before the song ended. He smiled faintly once Rose started clapping for both of them, and he settled back down into his seat, his cheeks burning purple. Rose pouted at Eridan going to sit down and then looked up at Gamzee. "Don't stop, that was entertaining!"

Gamzee had been about to settle himself down in Eridan's lap again when Rose spoke up, his head lolling back as he looked at her and gave her a wide, lazy smile. "You feel like dancin' with me then lil' sis?" He asked with a quiet chuckle. "Though it's up to miss Maryam. I promise I won't get all motherfuckin' handsy," he said to Kanaya, standing there in front of Eridan with his hips cocked.

Dave looked over at Karkat and murmured, "Mind if I join you on this trip to the sane part of the house?" He stood, shaking his head at the increasingly nasty makeout session above them, looking up briefly before wrinkling his nose and grimacing, "My god, Bro, I know this is your pad and all but can you find a room?" Bro's only response to that was to grab Sollux's ass tight and bite his lower lip. Dave sighed heavily and shook his head, walking with Karkat out to the patio.

Rose stood and laughed, "It's up to _me_ , though if _she_ wants to join us, that's up to her." She winked to Kanaya, who simply shook her head, laughing with her hand on her temple. "In a moment, I suppose." Rose hopped up and started to dance, unable to be quite so limber and graceful as the highbloods, but had a style that made up for it. Gamzee took her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it politely, giving Rose a wink then lifting her hand over her head to give her a quick twirl before settling into a not-quite-slowdance, rocking gently with her to the slow, interesting ambient that had just come over the speakers. He kept his hands where Kanaya could see them, desperately wanting to avoid being kicked in the crotch again. "Sorry I don't actually know any kinda motherfuckin' dance," he shrugged, then looked up at the ceiling briefly before amending, "Well no, I know a dance but not not anything a classy lady like you'd really care for."

Rose smiled as she settled her own hands on his hip and shoulder, and then looked up at him with a sly smile. "You're doing well enough without dance moves, Gamzee, it's just fine. But now I'm curious as to what dance you actually know." She looked over at Eridan for some clue, and he shrugged. Letting her go, Gamzee turned to the speaker system and started to fiddle with the music. Sollux and Bro were far too preoccupied to say anything about it, allowing him to swap their tunes out for his, fishing through his sylladex to procure his ipod and hook it up to the dock, grinning as he started the music, far removed from his usual tastes, much more upbeat as he danced back toward Rose doing a John Travolta face. Laughing brightly at the music selection, Rose put her hand over her mouth before taking on the Uma Thurman persona, twisting with a coy, dangerous little smile. Dave came back in about half a minute into their dance and, with amusement, he leaned against the wall to watch the most impromptu, mismatched reenactment of a Tarantino scene he'd ever seen.

Eridan turned to eye the two in the hammock above them, giving a subtle movement of his hand to scratch down Sollux's back and thigh with a flash of Science. Those two were starting to get on his nerves, and the faint flowery smell was setting him on edge. Overhead, Sollux hissed and arched some in response to the scratch, his fingers digging into Bro's shoulder as he glanced back down at Eridan, eyes flashing and sending a crackle of energy down the length of his spine to settle into his groin then dissipate as he was once more distracted.

Bro took a sharp breath inward and pressed a kiss to Sollux's jaw, before he realized what was going on and grinned to himself against his matesprit's neck. Eridan, on the other hand, let out a quiet, impatient huff of breath and he brought the energy down between Sollux's legs as well, pressing against his nooks and before settling it up around his throat, mimicking the distinct feeling of his hand where it was, including the tips of his nails digging into the back of Sollux's neck. He stood and slipped out of his seat, rounding the corner to the stairs.

Cass slipped away from John after a few minutes, realizing that the guy had been attempting to keep himself awake for the sake of more makeouts. He told John to get some rest before he stood and wandered out to the patio to get some air. The night was cool and the inside of the house was getting a bit muggy and warm. While John curled up amid the beanbags to sleep it off, Sollux pushed back on Bro's shoulders to get him to move, intending to drag him by the neck of his shirt if necessary toward the bedroom. He made a psionic grab for Eridan as well, the crackling blue and red energy coming down around his throat in kind.

Gamzee was laughing when the song ended and wrapped his arms around Rose's middle, kissing her cheek and telling her she would make a great Uma Thurman then glancing up toward the escalating scene around the hammock. He nodded out toward the patio then switched the music back to the original playlist before heading outside, his arm still looped around Rose, the other coming to rest around Kanaya's shoulders when she stood to join them. Rose looped her arm around Gamzee's waist, still giggling. Her favorite hobby outside of armchair psychology and waxing philosophical was finding new dances to learn to keep herself fit. She settled down in one of the chairs once they were on the patio.

Dave looked up towards where Gamzee had glanced, and rounded back out to join the rest of them once more.

Bro slipped out of the hammock and made the trek to the bedroom of his own accord, opening the door and letting his matesprit and Eridan in before him, closing and locking the door behind them. Eridan lifted his head to the choking psionics and once he was within grabbing distance of Sollux, he pulled his kismesis back against him, hissing into his ear that he hadn't forgotten to bring the restraints, as promised. He pushed Sollux towards Bro with a glare as he slipped out of his shirt. Sollux steadied himself with a hand against Bro's chest, turning back toward Eridan with his eyes flashing. He dragged the highblood's hands away from his shirt and pinned them up against the wall, his teeth bared as he stepped up and looked Eridan in the face while his nails raked down the front of the seadweller's chest hard enough to leave matching purple tracks. With the ability for subtle movement in his hands, Eridan hissed with his back arched and reciprocated with the white energy leaving welting trails of yellow across Sollux's sides, before wrapping tight around his neck once more. He curled his upper lip in a sneer as he pushed Sollux away with the energy still at his throat, hissing in Alternian that if Sollux could stop acting like a little bitch for a minute and get off of him, he could wind up making a _good_ decision for once, and let himself get fucked both ways. "You fuckin' follow me, _peasant_?"

Bro stepped back from the two of them and slowly undressed. He took his time, because he had a feeling the other two had some pent up aggression to sort through.

Rolling his eyes, Sollux tightened down his grip for a moment before letting go and throwing Eridan toward the bed, stripping out of his shirt and running a hand down his side where the scratches were standing out. He glanced back at Bro then snarled back at Eridan that he'd be choking on bulge if he didn't shut his mouth. He forced Eridan's back flat on the bed and his chin up, crawling over him then dipping to bite into the front of his throat. He dragged his tongue over the punctures, muttering about impatience as he finished unbuttoning Eridan's clothes himself. He sneered at the tag on the inside of the jeans, rolling his eyes. Fucking expensive-ass useless brand names...

Eridan snarled once Sollux was distracted by his jeans, force choking him down onto the mattress with a glare before he pinned Sollux's arms down hard enough to keep him from even _thinking_ of moving. He kicked out of the rest of his clothes, hissing into Sollux's ear, "if you try to pin me again tonight, I'll rip your throat out and bathe in your pretty yellow blood." The way his pupils were little more than slits, and the way his tone was little more than clicking and hissing, it was quite possible that he was telling the truth. He moved his knee between Sollux's thighs and ground his hips down against his kismesis', before he sat up and brought him back up onto his knees, looking sharply at Bro to get him to join.

Bro finally slipped in behind Sollux, his chest pressing against his matesprit's back as his hands ran down his sides, soothing over the welted trails on his body, murmuring beautiful sweet nothings into his ear.

Sollux straddled Eridan's hips as soon as Bro had taken a place behind him, pushing back down hard then rolling in the same motion, his head resting against Bro's shoulder as one hand reached out and hooked as he resumed his choke on Eridan, without pinning him down. "Fuck you, fishdick, you really think I'm fucking afraid of you?" He murmured then lifted his head back up and took a moment to peel out of the last of his clothes. They were tossed onto the floor and ignored in favor of Sollux running his fingers down and just inside Eridan's nook, ignoring his bulge for the time being, merely trying to rile him further. Bro brought one hand around to tease just above Sollux's sheath, smirking against his matesprit's neck as he brought his other hand up across Sollux's chest, brushing his fingers over bare skin as he rocked his hips forward against his matesprit's ass. Meanwhile, Eridan let out a smug, but choked chuckle as he slid one hand gracefully and _almost_ affectionately over Sollux's shoulder, his movements belying his intent; as soon as he could, he grabbed a fistful of Sollux's hair, tugging his head back to put his mouth around his kismesis' throat, leaving pinprick bites that he clearly held back from making far deeper. He ground his hips upward with the tease against his nook, and he slipped his bulge up against Sollux's sheath and caught against the tip of one of Sollux's bulges, wrapping and tightening immediately around it in a vicelike grip. He was done talking.

At the tease from both sides it was starting to grow difficult to hold onto his composure, but Sollux maintained just enough presence of mind to take hold of Eridan's bulge, squeezing down on it as his own crept out and would around Bro's fingers. He seemed to be ignoring the hand twisted into his hair that was pulling his head back, but laid his hand against the back of Eridan's neck and pushed his nails in at the nape pulling his mouth forward harder and encouraging the bite. The corner of Eridan's mouth twisted up briefly in a smirk as he sunk his teeth in deeper, slipping his nails down to dig into the nape of Sollux's neck. He huffed a little breath at the squeeze around his bulge, twisting it around Sollux's hand to slick his fingers over before he moved it down to tease firmly against his kismesis' nooks. He pulled away from Sollux's neck after running his tongue against the punctures, his breath gone sharp as he tasted his blood.

Bro murmured against the corner Sollux's jaw as he tightened his grip around his matesprit's bulge, "Eridan needs to lay down, and you need to be on your hands and knees," his voice low-pitched and thick. He looked over Sollux's shoulder to Eridan, who conceded that it'd be far easier for both of them to fuck Sollux at once if he wasn't vertical. Eridan slipped away with his nails rending Sollux's shoulders and chest, laying down to look up at the matesprits with a dark smile. Sollux's chest arched up into the passage of Eridan's nails with a soft groan, his free hand coming up and laying against Bro's neck as he turned some to press his lips to the corner of his matesprit's mouth, then fell away and came to plant against the mattress at the side of Eridan's head. His legs splayed some on either side of the other's hips, holding him up overhead as he reached for his sylladex, suspending the safe that dropped out before it could crush the end of the bed. He unlocked it easily and dug a hand inside, tossing out a bottle of lubricant. There were other things in it, all of it geared toward sex, under the single heading of "fun 2hiit". He captchalogued it again then looked back over his shoulder, giving Bro a smug little smirk.

Eridan huffed a half-amused chuckle at that, shaking his head, "Never got around to replacin' that POS modus?" He murmured, before the tip of his bulge finally slipped into one of Sollux's nooks. His hand slipped down as well and he teased the other with the tip of a finger.

Bro murmured his thanks as he caught the lube in one hand, uncapping and squeezing out a portion within a moment's notice, slicking himself over before brushing his fingers over Sollux's chute, moving only one in to ease the way, before he moved back into position.

"I happen to _like_ my moduth," Sollux hissed as he was penetrated, his lower lip pulling in between his teeth. He smiled faintly at the care Bro was still showing behind him even as he snarked back and forth with Eridan beneath him. "Bethideth, I can actually uthe it and it'th not like it affecth _you_." The Encryption modus would have to be replaced if only to make things like this more efficient, he'd long since decided, but he'd simply not gotten anything new that he cared to use. Rolling his hips back slowly and pushing back onto Bro's finger, Sollux let a quiet, shuddering sigh, then squeezed his nook down some around Eridan's bulge. Bro spent a little more time in prep before he pushed in slowly, wrapping his hand back around to pump Sollux's bulges in tandem as he rocked his hips forward. He let out a murmur of pleasure against Sollux's shoulder as he kept himself propped up with his free arm.

Below Sollux, his kismesis snorted faintly with a roll of his eyes, his bulge slipping deeper into him, only to the point where he knew he couldn't push in any further, and he brought his hand back around Sollux's jaw. He murmured into Sollux's ear, "When am I gonna be able to chain you up an' make you beg?"

Sollux moved slowly between the two of them, his slightly sticky hand pressed flat against Eridan's chest. "If you want it that bad then do it, athhole," he muttered, his eyes slipping closed at the overly full feeling. He moaned out quietly when they were both seated inside of him, his fingers tangling in the blankets beside Eridan's head.

Bro murmured against Sollux's shoulder, "I'll put rigging up for that soon enough," then let out a low groan as he set a rhythm for all of them, pulling himself away from Sollux's back as he sat up and put his hands on his matesprit's hips. It gave Eridan a chance to wrap his hands up and around Sollux's back, and drag his nails down.

"Then soon, I fuckin' will," he hissed as he flexed his bulge and rocked his hips up into the rhythm. He was quiet as he slipped into simply enjoying the sting of the scratches that Sollux had left on him and thought about various considerably risky ideas involving the three of them.

Sollux rocked with the rhythm, his back arching up into the scratches then bowing at a brush over a tender spot, his mouth falling open. He could discuss the opportunity presented with his matesprit later on. He lifted himself up halfway on his knees, dragging his nails along Eridan's chest down toward his stomach, running his hand back up and smearing the droplets of blood up over his skin. He looked back up over his shoulder at Bro, pushing back some into him and chuckling quietly. "Looking forward to that."

With a smile, Bro slipped his fingers lightly over the welts that Eridan had left and nodded, murmuring, "Figured you might," before he sped his own pace, the heady scent of the other two beneath him spurring him onto a harder, heavier rhythm. 

Eridan arched into the touch before he hissed a little in impatience, bringing his bulge out to sink into the other nook with a rough jolt. He let out a little growl before leaning upward to suck a bright mark onto Sollux's neck. Sollux swore quietly at the sudden shift and gritted his teeth, reaching a hand down to slip his own fingers into place where Eridan's bulge had moved off. Between the two of them it wouldn't take long for him to finish, but he could also recover and keep going after a moment's rest if necessary. As soon as Eridan moved away he moved down to bite into his shoulder deep enough to draw blood and leave a ring of toothmarks that would likely scar. Eridan hissed sharply and loudly, digging his nails into Sollux's back once more, this time without holding back from puncturing the skin as he bucked his hips sharply forward. He'd likely get off soon, if his kismesis kept up the roughness, if only because he was already sensitive after Gamzee had gotten through with him.

Bro, on the other hand, was likely not going to be getting off any time soon. He watched Eridan claw at Sollux's back and winced a bit in empathy before he tightened his grip once more on Sollux's bulges, dipping one finger between the twist to brush against the area where they connected. Sollux's hand wrapped around his and laced between his fingers in a tight grip, holding it and helping him somewhat as he pressed his face into the underside of Eridan's jaw and sucked a dark mark into the soft skin there. He was growing somewhat lightheaded from the sweet, cloying scent building up and filling the room the closer they came, murmuring quietly that one of them had better have a bucket handy before the bedclothes were ruined.

Bro was loathe to disengage, but at the request of his matesprit, he moved swiftly enough where it was really barely noticeable, except for the quick pull out and then the slow push back in with a slight groan, as he had to bring his sylladex within range of hearing what he wanted. With a quiet murmur of rhyme against Sollux's back, he retrieved a bucket (labeled 'pail') and a short cat o' nine tails ('flail') though the latter went unused and tossed aside as he set the bucket within reach. 

Eridan, had he been in any present frame of mind to notice what Bro had been doing, would have been wholly amused by the modus, if not a little smug that it was complete shit, in his opinion. As it stood, however, he was close to peak, and anything that wasn't Sollux's mouth, nook, or hands had no relevance to him. He grit his teeth as he withdrew his bulge, already dripping genetic material. He slipped up and away from Sollux gracefully as he could, grabbing the bucket as he knelt at the head of the bed, in front of his kismesis, and with a few long sprays that ricocheted and splattered against Sollux's face and shoulders, he finished off. He set the bucket below Sollux's hips, patted him on the head in the most patronizing manner, and went to collect his clothes and pull them on. Sollux's lips curled at that and he wiped a hand through the streaks of cool fluid, his teeth bared, stained slightly with the seadweller's blood. He reached out and grabbed Eridan's wrist, yanking him back and wrapping the other hand around his throat, nails digging into the skin.

"I _will_ kill you for that," he hissed against the back of Eridan's earfin before biting the thin membrane and leaving an arc of holes in his wake. With a gasp at the initial shock of being pulled down, Eridan tilted his head back and grinned smugly, though he let out a tiny sound of pain when his fin was further damaged. Sollux shoved him away after that and put the bucket aside for the time being, sitting up on his knees with his back pressed against Bro's, head tilted to lean against the side of his neck. The display had successfully helped to stave off his climax, giving him more time to focus on his matesprit's needs at least.

"If you killed me, you wouldn't have nearly as much fun," Eridan pointed out. He pulled on his pants and shirt, not bothering buttoning either of them until he went to the nearby bathroom to wash up.

Bro huffed an amused chuckle at the two of them, wrapping his arms around Sollux with a kiss to his neck. "Thought _my_ ego was massive," he murmured once Eridan was gone. "Fuckin' hell." He rocked his hips forward slowly with another kiss.

"Lookth good on you at leatht," Sollux replied then scratching his nails lightly along the line of Bro's jaw then pulled back up and off of him, pulling him around and laying him down to straddle his hips instead. He laid his hand against the side of Bro's head, thumb rubbing across his temple. "Are you ok? You don't look all that sure about what jutht happened."

Bro sprawled out and settled his hands on Sollux's hips, looking up at his matesprit, covered in blood and purple genetic material, and he shrugged passively. "Haven't ever really seen much by way of kismesissitude in action, outside of the public shit." He brought a hand up to brush his thumb lightly against the wounds left on Sollux's neck. "Dunno what I was expectin', is all." He smiled warmly and sincerely, looking into Sollux's eyes. "I'm glad the two of you kept it to a dull roar, at least, or else I really wouldn't have liked to intervene. Not my idea of a good time."

Laying his hand over Bro's, Sollux returned the smile and started to move again, keeping the pace slow as he did. He laced his fingers with his matesprit's and let them fall against his thigh, adjusting himself until most of his weight was off his knees, making it harder for him to make any dramatic moves but giving him a chance to rest and let his orgasm build back up again. He took a moment as he moved to broadcast a thought in Cass' direction, knowing that he would be the only one that would be able to pick it up, then focused back in on Bro and squeezing his muscles down some around him. Bro's movements were subtle but focused as he rolled his hips in a way that kept Sollux from getting overstimulated, and squeezed Sollux's hands lightly, before disengaging one hand to brush over Sollux's bulges, pumping him slowly.

Cass raised both brows as he sat up from his mellow resting and stargazing place on the back yard, thinking back at Sollux, "Second thoughts? About what, precisely?" He looked over at Karkat and waved him down to relay the message, though he pointed out to Karkat that he was not the bloody mental mailman, and had no intention of being used as such when people were too busy being...busy.

Karkat muttered that it wasn't his idea, then nodded. If Sollux wanted to talk, he would be there to talk later, provided that he wasn't completely hammered. He was still only working on the first glass of his drink and had a decent buzz going, but was thinking about cutting himself off when it was done.

"The relationship business," Sollux sighed mentally, his eyes falling closed. He'd tuned out the sounds of Eridan cleaning up and leaving, instead listening to the steady breathing of his matesprit. Something pulled painfully in his chest over it, especially when he thought back to the way Bro's hands had run over the fresh scratches in his back and sides. He tried to keep that one private from Cass.

Cass' brows shot up at that and then knit. He thought to Sollux, "Altogether, or one in particular?" He had a fairly decent guess as to what the answer would be as he watched Eridan stride through with fresh holes in his earfin, over to Gamzee as he expected. Gamzee had wrapped himself around Eridan as soon as they'd both settled back down on the ground against the trunk of the tree, chuckling quietly about the new holes in his earfin and how bitey Sollux was, if the other marks he'd spotted on occasion were anything to judge by.

Bro looked up at Sollux, noticing the slight distraction, and brushed his free fingers up across his matesprit's chest, and then slipped his hand back around to the small of Sollux's back. He didn't mind Sollux being distracted - he had a pretty damn good reason to be, after that damn mess - but he tried not to focus on that. Keeping his expression a careful neutral, Sollux ran his hands along Bro's arms, his head tipped back to face the ceiling.

"This isn't really something I want to talk to you about," he thought, somewhat apologetically. He didn't know Cass very well, which was why he'd just wanted him to tell Karkat, so that at least it wasn't completely out of left field when he went to his friend.

Cass responded with a kind, "fair enough," and then, "Speaking of, your distraction is distracting your matesprit. Get back to that." He sighed a little and shook his head, looking over to Karkat with a smile. "You're everybody's relationship guru, hm? You've every single one of my condolences." He was glad that he never had to deal with that.

"If my friends could actually handle their shit my life would be a hundred times easier," Karkat snorted then flopped onto his side in the grass, his glass put aside for now. With a chuckle, Cass laid back down with his back on the ground.

"You'd be surprised how much that speaks to you as a person, though. When everybody trusts you, and everybody comes to you. It's not a compliment to be taken lightly, Karkat." He closed his eyes with a grin. "Although a good portion of your friends seem fairly ridiculous. I wouldn't trade places with you."

Karkat huffed, shaking his head and deciding that now was as good a time as any to finish his drink and hope to sober up later. "All of them are ridiculous. All of them."

Cass laughed and shook his head, "That's everybody, though. I've never once met a non-ridiculous person. But some of your friends, and I'm not going to name other names, but John, is ridiculous." He shook his head. "I honestly don't know what he was trying to prove tonight, but I'm not entirely sure I liked being the one he proved it with."

"John is an ass. He's always been an ass. I'm pretty fucking sure he'll always be an ass." Karkat shook his head in kind then stood and headed back inside to find a bottle of water so that the hangover wouldn't be quite as intense later.

Bro looked back up at Sollux and shook his head, realizing that what Eridan had done had kind of blown his mood for sex. "Dude, if you're not feelin' it, we can stop for a while. It's cool." He ran a hand through his own hair and smiled faintly.

Sollux stopped, sitting up and letting his hands fall away, muttering an apology then pulling up and off, grabbing his boxers and carrying them with him as he went to the bathroom to rinse the slightly tacky purple fluid off his skin. Bro occupied himself by cleaning off as well and setting the bucket aside, his nose wrinkling at the plum scent. By the time Sollux returned, he'd put himself into a position to simply doze off at a moment's notice. Sollux had pulled his boxers back on when he came back after a few minutes, settling back down into bed beside Bro and sat propped up against his matesprit. He took his hand and lifted it to his lips, pressing them against his knuckles then just letting them linger.

"Hey," Bro said with a smile, bringing Sollux's hand to his lips as well after a moment, returning the gesture. "You wanna tell me what's on your mind, or do I have to guess?"

Sollux combed his fingers back through Bro's hair then turned to lie with his back pressed against Bro's chest, pulling his matesprit's arm around him. "Honethtly, I don't even know," he replied quietly. "But I don't think I want Eridan involved where we're contherned again."

"That's fine," Bro said with a nod, smiling as he wrapped his arm around Sollux with a kiss to his neck. "Didn't much care for that, myself." He brushed the tip of his nose against the back and side of Sollux's neck and then sighed against his shoulder. "At least we got the question outta my mind whether threesomes would be a good thing or not." He very much preferred just having Sollux to himself, though he didn't want to sound so greedy. Sollux finally gave a soft smile himself and curled up, one of his legs slipping between Bro's and resting there.

"Glad thith hath been a learning experienthe for everyone then."

Bro shook his head as he curled his arm up to run his fingers through Sollux's hair, before bringing his hand back down to rest across his shoulders. "I like what we've got goin', on our own. If you still want to do shit with him, I won't stop you or nothin', just don't kill each other." His eyes slipped closed and he murmured, "Doesn't mean I won't sit here all fuckin' worried about you, though." Sollux sighed quietly at that and tucked himself back against Bro, intending to at least doze some before he decided to head back downstairs and face the rest of them.

Gamzee had disentangled himself from Eridan after a while to fetch each of them another drink, ending up stopping on the patio to smoke, which was all he could do now that he had so much alcohol in his system that taking any of his medication would only do him more harm than good. He had opted not to go inside just yet, getting the feeling from Cass's conversation with Karkat and the way he'd spaced out a few times that keeping some distance might be a wise move. Eridan had been sore and scowly since he came back out, refusing to really talk about what was on his mind. He had been debating over whether he wanted to leave and let Gamzee stay, or leave and have Gamzee come along. After Gamzee wandered off to the patio, however, Cass sidled up next to him and they had a brief conversation.

Dave grinned as he saw Gamzee return to the patio, and nodded to him, offering a light, since he'd just finished lighting his own. He was back to working on designs for Kanaya. "What's going on, my jester friend?"

Gamzee took a deep drag and let it out the corner of his mouth as he peered at Dave's drawing, his free hand in his pocket. "Not much, Eridan's all up and on fuckin' edge so I'm givin' him a little space. Looks like you got Kanaya's situation pretty well motherfuckin' down. Final version's gonna look real legit."

Dave grinned a little at that and shrugged. "I'm not usually able to really focus on drawing anything specific like this, but she's great at describing shit so my brain can wrap itself around it." He shrugged and sat back, taking a long drag of his smoke as he rolled his shoulders, having been slouched over the moleskine for at least an hour. 

Eridan finally made his way back up and slipped up to Gamzee, murmuring to him, "I'm goin' ta go back an' get some sleep at the hotel. You can stay here if you want, I'm sure someone'll bring you back if you feel like comin' back tonight." He wrapped his arm around his matesprit's waist and gave him an apologetic little smile. Gamzee blinked then leaned down to peck Eridan's cheek, letting him go without argument. He shrugged a little at Dave then looked back at the drawing again, thinking back to his offer to draw a mockup on Kanaya herself. He poked Dave's shoulder as he got an idea. "Hey, what if the project we're tryin' for, what if we did like a body art thing? Not like tattoos or anything but paint. Makes it more motherfuckin' expressive, y'know?"

Dave smiled at that thought and turned to Gamzee with a grin. "I never would've come up with that. That's great, that's fucking amazing." He looked over at Cass, who had pulled himself up off the ground to join them on the patio, slipping down into a chair. Dave grinned back up at Gamzee and suggested, "We could work on the designs together, but you'd have to be the one painting them. I can't handle paint. I'd photograph them, though, no questions asked."

Cass mentally poked Sollux to let him know that if he decided to come back out at any point, it would be an Eridan-free experience. Sollux didn't seem to want to respond, just continuing to tune out the world in general as he laid there with Bro. He didn't even feel like making an effort to get either of them off anymore just then, content with how they were simply lying there.

"Man if we can get people that wouldn't fuckin' wiggle all over the place I'd be all over that," Gamzee nodded then smiled faintly at a thought. "Eridan'd be all over that. Dude really likes to show off."

Dave shrugged at that, and then smiled faintly. "I could sit pretty still, but I'm not much of a canvas," he looked down at his thin body and then back up to Gamzee. "With the generally huge population of shameless fuckers in our lives right now, I doubt finding volunteers is going to be much of a problem." He looked down at his sketches, then went back to a page that he'd been working on that represented the various aspects of God Tiers, evoking their powers, not just using their symbols, and then up to Gamzee. "You know what? I have an idea."

Looking down at the concept designs, Gamzee tilted his head some, smiling and nodding some to himself. "Lay it on me, bro. You got some kinda solid idea to work with now?"

"Well, not solid, yet," Dave said with a brief crinkle of his eyebrows, looking up at Cass, "You said basically everyone is a player or guardian here, right?"

"Or a carapacian, but that's really... that's dangerously hard to explain, and very hard to tell," Cass said, taking a drag off his cigarette and french inhaling.

"Right, okay," Dave said with a shake of his head. "Anyway, if we can find people whose aspects are matching to the design, it might shake other players of that aspect awake to see others? Maybe I'm overthinking it, but like..." He leaned back and scratched his head as he took off his glasses, having been squinting in the dim light the entire time. "Okay, what if we used the type of player as the canvas for the design. That's really all I'm saying here."

"So like, painting Terezi up with Mind shit," Gamzee nodded, crossing his arms after finishing his cigarette and flicking it into the wastebasket. He continued to look over the designs then shook his head some. "I'd volunteer for the Rage thing but I can't exactly paint that shit on myself and have it look decent."

Dave chuckled at the mental image that provided. "Dude, you're one of the most limber dudes I know, but I'll believe it that you can't. I don't know any other Rage players, though. Might have to find a way around that." He settled back and rubbed his face. "Okay, I'm officially not sober enough for this. Let's figure this shit out when I'm less completely fucking drunk," he said to Gamzee with a grin, standing to go in and find Karkat and tell him the progress on their project, actually somewhat excited.

Cass chuckled and shook his head, looking up to Gamzee. "You got his gears spinning with this. Haven't seen him this focused since the film project."

"Just thought it'd be a cool fuckin' take on the project we already started talkin' about. An' between you 'n me, I've been wanting to paint on someone anyway. But what about you?" He asked suddenly, pointing back at Cass. "You're a motherfuckin' Mind player, might get you in on this shit, have a double shoot with you and Terezi. That'd be motherfuckin' sweet, man."

"Oh, no, I'd have to pass. Not out of modesty, but out of respect to everybody else's eyes," he said with a laugh, "and I'm _far_ too hirsute to be a canvas." He took another drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out and tossing it in the bin. "S'going to be hard to find another Rage player, though."

"If you know anyone that can paint that'd work out maybe," Gamzee shrugged then leaned back against the patio railing, looking off after Dave as Karkat draped himself over the other's shoulders and pulled him down to sit so that at least he could keep from hurting himself. "Paitin' Karkat in some kinda blood motif's gonna be interesting. He was all up and motherfuckin' terrified for so long about people findin' out the color of it even though he really kinda motherfuckin' sucked at hidin' it."

Cass nodded. "Dave's said. And I don't really see Karkat being one to sit nude. Far too modest, really. For you and Dave, maybe, but I'd be surprised if he'd let the photography go public. You saw him yesterday after the showing. He wanted to crawl into a hole and die after all that praise." He pulled out his pipe and started to load it. "I think the only real setback you'll find is in people who can't get past the past, at least as far as finding canvases is concerned."

"He ain't all motherfuckin' used to it," Gamzee nodded then laced his fingers together behind his neck, looking up at the sky thoughtfully. "Maybe...We just have his name in real small letters on the back of the pictures of him. Don't show his face or anything, just have his back or whatever ends up painted being the focus so nobody notices his face is covered or cropped out or whatever Dave does with it. He'd be the one to ask about all that shit."

Cass considered that, and smiled faintly. "Paint his back, not his chest, sommat. I dunno, I'm not an artist. I'll leave it to you two." He smiled faintly at Gamzee and handed up his pipe. "Greens for you, mate."

Gamzee grinned at him then took it with a thanks, lighting up and taking a couple of pulls before handing it back. "Wish you would work with us, man. Be real motherfuckin' nice to have someone that actually knows how to get his chill on around."

Cass smiled and took a long hit before leaning back. "What could I _possibly_ do other than lend moral support?" He raised an eyebrow to Gamzee, before setting the pipe down on the table. "If you're really angling for me to be one of your canvases, I've told you, I'd be a pain to paint."

"Nah man, just havin' you there in general'd be pretty fuckin' sweet. Also if we go and do some kinda studio shit we'd need some kinda help anyway, movin' shit around, whatever else comes with all that, I don't fuckin' know. 'Sides, pretty sure I ain't actually even seen you without your shirt. I don't know if you'd make a bad canvas or some shit." Smirking some, Gamzee slouched down into a chair and stretched out until it looked like he would end up sliding right back out of it again.

Cass got a sly little smile at that, "No, you haven't, and neither has Dave. I'm rarely without my shirt." He settled back as well, though not nearly at the level of slack that Gamzee had managed. "I suppose if you both need someone there to do runs for supplies or what, I could lend a hand." He shrugged fluidly before he sat up. "Let's see what's left in the kitchen, yeah?" He made no move to get up, however. Gamzee nodded and pulled himself upright, stretching out then heading the expedition to the kitchen. There had to be something left; they couldn't have eaten everything in there after already inhaling the party food.

Cass grinned once he realized that what was put out to eat wasn't all; the fridge was loaded and stocked with other trays. "A Strider with forethought? I never would've suspected." He offered one of the platters up to Gamzee as he grabbed himself a soda to at least dilute what alcohol he'd already had.

Gamzee took the platter and balanced it on his arm then grabbed for one of the bottles of juice stacked there himself, uncapping and taking a few swallows as he turned and headed back toward the living room to settle in amongst the beanbags. He looked over at John curled up to sleep and chuckled, shaking his head. "Lil' bro's just all motherfuckin' confused, man. Doesn't know what he fuckin' wants."

Cass took a seat nearby to share the platter, grabbing a mini-sandwich as he looked over to John. "He'll figure it out eventually. I'm afraid he's not my type." He smiled softly, clearly still hung up on someone, himself. "It was nice to kiss again, but it wasn't what I was looking for, and neither is he. He'll get his head back together and find somebody eventually."

"He was tryin' to prove something that didn't really need any motherfuckin' proof." Gamzee shrugged, crunching down on a stick of celery. He looked back at Cass with a small, soft smile, his head tilting some as he thought, then held up a fist for a bump. "Then here's hopin' you do find whoever it is you're lookin' for, man."

Cass bumped Gamzee's fist with a lopsided, easy smile. "He'll be around eventually, once all this shit's settled. Most of the Space players are kind of hung up on working their asses off, y'know?" He grinned and sprawled more easily into the beanbag that he'd decided was officially his for whenever he was invited to one of their parties. "Maybe one day they'll get done and he'll be able to come back down here and live like the rest of us."

At the sound of others coming back into the house finally, Sollux sat up, groaning quietly and pressing the heel of his hand into his back. He glanced down at the marks that Eridan had left, no longer caring to have them anymore. For now he just felt kind of sick. He turned in place and scratched his nails back through Bro's hair to bring him back to focus, murmuring that he was going to get dressed and go downstairs. Bro opened his eyes and blinked up at Sollux, smiling faintly before noticing the number that Eridan had done to his front as well as to his back.

"Should fix those up before they scar," He murmured with a furrow of his brow, brushing his fingertip down beside one particularly deep scratch. "Christ," he whispered as he sat up, looking more concerned than anything. "Lemme fix those up before you go down there." Sollux sighed quietly but conceded, sitting up and simply letting Bro do whatever he pleased for the time being.

Bro brought out his first aid kit from his sylladex, and with meticulous care of fixing up Sollux's scratches and bite wounds, he started talking about their blog, and how he'd managed to find time to check it, and post some replies to comments. He always spoke about the blog with the same kind of loving reverence that he usually saved for his original site. He looked into Sollux's eyes as he worked to numb and then stitch up the deeper gash that Eridan left across his shoulder, his care and ability just as skilled as any doctor.

Sollux waited until Bro had finished patching him up, careful not to move until the final stitch had been tied down, then turned in place to lean his back against Bro's chest. "Thankth," he murmured, one hand coming up to rest against the other's jaw.

Bro wrapped his arms easily around Sollux's shoulders and turned his head to kiss his matesprit's palm. "It's nothin', dude, don't worry about it." He listened as the voices downstairs stayed at a fairly quiet level and smiled a little. "Not really feelin' up to goin' back down there, myself. Kinda just want to crash and sleep. Maybe work on the sites a little before I do." He kissed Sollux's shoulder and smiled a little. "You go ahead though, if you wanna." Sollux listened for a moment himself, then nodded and turned to kiss Bro's temple, lingering there a moment then slipping out of his grasp. Bro smiled at the kiss, though there was still that tugging feeling in his chest as he left, still littered with clawmarks. He clenched his jaw and shook it off, before grabbing his laptop and starting on work. He had a lot to catch up on - both with his businesses and with other, less fun business regarding the other Guardians. Sollux didn't intend to be downstairs for very long anyway, just wanting to look in on everyone else and find something to eat, get a drink then come back and sleep awhile himself. He pulled on his jeans as he went, walking in on the end of the conversation and smiling faintly.

"It'll be good to thee Aradia and Jade again whenever that dethideth to happen," he added before heading to the kitchen to see what was left. He back came to the room about five minutes later with a bottle of water in one hand and a sandwich in the other, settling down at the foot of the bed to eat without disturbing Bro.

Cass smiled faintly as Sollux returned, though the expression faltered a little and he sighed with a shake of his head. "I don't know, it's just the weirdest damn thing. Knowing that they're up there, towing this shit out to who-knows-where." He fidgeted with the band of his gloves. "I just hope shit is still around when they're done, you know?"

Gamzee took it upon himself to invade the last bit of empty space in Cass' beanbag, draping an arm around his shoulders and leaning into his space, poking his chest in a friendly manner. "I know we're still gonna motherfuckin' be here. We're gonna keep this place all fuckin' safe just so they have somethin' to come back to. It's all good, motherfucker. We got this."

Cass chuckled and poked back, "You can't know that for sure, mate, you've got just as much idea of what'll happen as anybody else without precognition." He grinned at that, though, "But that kind of optimism's just what's needed to get through this, I feel."

Gamzee looked up at the ceiling, grinning some as he said to the thin air, "Yo, Harley. Give this motherfucker some real reassurance, would ya?" He waited for a few seconds, then laughed as, instead of a note as usual, a little shower of confetti popped into existence just above Cass' head. Upon closer inspection, they all had a curly "don't worry! :D" on every colorful strip.

Dave laughed at the sudden spray of confetti over Cass' head, even moreso when it disappeared and was replaced by a single piece of paper, on which was written, "Harley's right, don't be a spaz." The handwriting was familiar to Cass, at least, and he grinned. "Fucking hell, if I knew that was possible, I'd have been chatting up all the intangible shites up top." He pocketed the note and laid his head back to smile warmly. "You're a good guy, Gamzee. You and all of your friends. Might be a little left of center, but nobody interesting isn't."

Bro looked up once Sollux returned, having dozed off as he read through a couple emails. He smiled faintly but went back to work, quiet and thoughtful as he sent one-sentence responses to most of the shit he received. Sollux crawled up Bro's legs when he finished off his food, washing his mouth out with his water then leaning over the top of the computer to getup into the other's face, pecking at his lips a couple of times then sitting back to let him finish what he was doing without getting up off his knees. Bro chuckled at the way Sollux practically stalked up on him like some sort of particularly affectionate cat, finishing off the last email quickly before shutting the laptop and setting it aside. He leaned forward to kiss his matesprit quickly, laying back down with his arms behind his head.

"You know they've got a branch of IBM just outside of town here?" He wasn't really looking to sweeten the deal of moving for Sollux, but an email reminded him to bring it up. "Your old boss probably could swing some shit, get you back into the legit business."

Sollux smirked some and nudged his head against Bro's. "You thaid bathically the thame thing when I moved in in Houthton," he pointed out, then turned in place to wedge himself between Bro's thighs and sit there with his shoulders back against the other's chest. yawning widely. "The thooner thingth thtabilithe and we can quit worrying about whether or not the world'th gonna end, the better."

"Difference between here and Houston's that the one here is literally _just_ outside of fuckin' town. Not halfway 'cross the fuckin' state," Bro pointed out, wrapping his arms around Sollux as his eyes closed. "Secondly, it ain't gonna end, because I _say_ it ain't gonna end. There's gonna be setbacks, there's gonna be death, but I'm promising you, dude, we'll see it through." Once people started catching on and getting wise to what was going on, he knew there was no turning back. All he could hope for now was minimal casualties and maximum firepower, and with his group, Bro knew there was a damn good chance of a good fight. He squeezed Sollux's shoulders and murmured, "How the hell else am I gonna get a chance to say I told you so?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: Neither CH nor Meebs condoned drunk, buzzed, or any kind of influenced driving.
> 
> Second: THREESOME. Gods Eridan is such an ass and we love him to bits and pieces.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Affectionately nicknamed The Vast Doki.

The move north really didn't take much more than filling both Bro and Sollux's sylladeces and driving. They'd planned the entire network's downtime and gave their loyal fans two weeks' notice of a three-day server outage, which was how long it took to take down the servers, pack them into Bro's sylladex, and then move and bring them back up online from the cool and large basement of their house. They wound up replacing a vast amount of the furniture that was there; the beanbags and moonchairs were moved up to the second floor loft, alongside the turntable setup and the rest of Bro's various musical instruments. The first floor wound up being a comfortable living situation, _almost_ respectable, if it weren't for all the smuppets that were there. The three guest bedrooms were predictably comfortable, if not a little unhinged in their decorating, and the place wound up being the ideal party location, all things considered.

Not that they had done much partying since moving. Bro had been too busy between work and continuing to give Karkat weekly lessons on self control and, in turn, control over his powers, though the off time that he had - and granted, that was more than Dave and Karkat had - was spent with Sollux doing various projects, collaborations, or simply fucking around and/or just fucking. 

The fact that Bro was the one who was hosting the party was a surprise to literally nobody. Dave had suggested it, on account of the fact that their own new apartment, while more spacious than the one that Karkat and Dave had lived in over the past year, still wasn't enough to hold all of their old friends as well as Karkat's school buddies, and frankly, between Terezi and Dave, it was always sort of cluttered, even when clean. The table in the dining room was piled high with presents from everybody, the kitchen was predictably stuffed with food, drinks, and guests, and the back yard had a few extra seats tossed onto it, just so people could escape the chaos of the inside when they needed.

Dave, Terezi and Karkat arrived fashionably late, with Dave _still_ trying to convince Karkat that he'd have a good time.

"I still don't know why you'd think this is going to be a disasterpiece. It's nothing but your friends here, man." He grinned as he parked, seeing that they were far from being the first people to arrive. In fact, Gamzee and Eridan had found their way to the house, as did Cass and Tavros. Eridan had unpredictably been very well behaved as he arrived, nodding quietly to Sollux, almost amicable if it weren't for the constant sharpness in his expression. He'd struck up a conversation with Ferrus shortly after, and was still at it when the man of the hour walked in the door.

"First of all, how many times have I told you that 'disasterpiece' is not a fucking word? And second, do you not _see_ how many people are here? Good fucking god, Strider, I'm going to suffocate with everyone breathing all the fucking oxygen out of the house." Karkat continued to whine and mutter until he was set upon by Gamzee, jumping badly when he gave a single loud honk behind him and wrapped his arms around Karkat's shoulders. He shouted at the ceiling then started complaining to Gamzee instead to give Dave a break. He groaned even more loudly when he spotted the presents, muttering that he didn't need any more shit cluttering their new place. He didn't put up much of a fight when Gamzee pointed out the one from himself and that from Eridan though; the former was obviously a painting given the size and shape. He pried himself away from Gamzee and went through the kitchen to find something to drink, coming back with a solo cup full of slightly questionable-looking punch.

Ferrus had by then wandered away from Eridan in the hopes of meeting some of the others, surrounded by people he didn't know but had heard about from Karkat and Dave in passing. He had taken to conversation with John, though it was obvious that he didn't seem to know what to make of the guy as he started getting long-winded. Conversation with Sollux had proven somewhat fruitless, curt answers and cold disposition making him hard to approach just then. Gamzee, on the other hand, was proving to be some flavor of social butterfly as he went around and chatted up everyone he could. He smelled heavily of shisha, and Ferrus could see off to one side of the patio near the wall of the house that a standing pipe had been put down, presumably for later use.

By the time Gamzee made it back around to Eridan's side, he'd spoken to nearly everybody for at least a couple of minutes and was ready to stick with his matesprit for a little while. He'd taken note of the stiffness after running into Sollux and was now taking his time trying to draw Eridan back around to a better mood with light touches and sweet nothings and the occasional honking laugh at something someone nearby said in passing. Dave had started to make the rounds about the time Gamzee had found his way back to Eridan, grinning and talking to everyone who had come to the party, thanking them for showing up and apologizing for Karkat's initial grouchiness, though it was generally unnecessary; everyone there knew that Karkat would be reticent to enjoy himself. 

Cass had already made the rounds, and had settled himself into a perch on the back of the sofa, talking to Tavros idly about the campaign that the latter was running, and debating the dynamics of switching over to the latest rule set instead of the outdated method of gameplay. The books would run a pretty penny, but it was a far more user-friendly system. John had overheard the conversation and wound up butting in, much to Tavros' dismay. Why did they have to like the same things?

Eridan finally relaxed after a few minutes in Gamzee's care. He put his head against the highblood's shoulder and wrapped his arm around his waist, chuckling at his own behavior. "I don't even know why I was bein' such a fuckin' prick; it's just one fuckin' guy," he said, as close to an apology as he could get, before he spotted Karkat. He squeezed Gamzee's hand and left a quick kiss to his matesprit's lips, and went to Karkat's side. "You look so excited you could burst," he stated flatly.

Bro, in the meanwhile, had sequestered himself behind the turntables upstairs and was providing the music that played throughout the house, and through the smaller speakers that fed out onto the patio. He'd been watching the partygoers downstairs, and one in particular. He smiled every time Sollux looked up, blowing a kiss or winking every time he did. Dave eventually came to take over for him, and he walked down the stairs to Sollux's side. Sollux had been consistently wrinkling his nose or rolling his eyes at the gestures though over time he had started to lighten up, eventually cracking a soft smile when Bro came back down to his side. His hand dipped into Bro's pocket as his arm wrapped around his matesprit's waist, head leaning against his shoulder. He was still watching the others from his perch on the stairs' railing with unfocused eyes.

Gamzee had retired to the kitchen to find something to snack before something was actually started for the night's dinner, coming back with a trio of apples that he idly juggled as he passed through the crowd of both humans and trolls, another one crammed into his mouth. One was snagged from him by Terezi in passing, interrupting his rhythm and nearly making him drop the fruit. He took the apple out of his mouth and stuck his tongue at her, then went back outside to sit on the patio railing to watch the others wandering back and forth, glancing back over at Karkat and Eridan talking. Karkat had wasted no time in telling Eridan, just like he'd told everyone else, that he hated huge get-togethers and that he would end up pitching a fit by the end of the night, he was certain. Eridan huffed a chuckle and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Even when the party's for you an' it's everyone who fuckin' cares for you. Typical a you to not see the forest through the trees." His serious demeanor fell after a moment, and he nudged Karkat with a smile. "If you really want, you can get shit rollin' a little faster, get this party wound down quicker. Go start unwrappin' shit. The more you go along with it, the faster it'll go."

Meanwhile, Terezi smelled the owners of the house together and narrowed her eyes in a conspiring way, before she walked over to Karkat and Eridan. "'Scuse me, o' princely fishboy, I need to borrow Karkat a minute." She gave Eridan a sharky grin before she pulled Karkat away to nod vaguely towards the matesprits on the stairs. "Why are they still doing the thing?" She asked, as if it was Karkat's fault that they were still fronting. "I thought you said you'd talk to one of them."

Bro grinned and wrapped his own arms around Sollux, murmuring that he really didn't have to stick around and be sociable if he didn't want to. "You made your appearance. But I like havin' you here with me," he murmured, slipping his fingers into his matesprit's back pockets as he looked at the crowd. "Makes me less likely to go and make a fool of myself when you're here to distract me."

Sollux leaned up to nudge the bridge of his nose against Bro's, sighing quietly as he muttered back that he wasn't going to leave just because he wasn't feeling up to being social. He did, however, feel like sequestering himself upstairs, maybe playing with the turntable setup and the Midi Fighter. At least that way he would be doing something productive to the party. He pecked the corner of Bro's lips and slid off his perch to go do just that, nudging Dave over and muttering to him what he wanted to do. They would be able to work together, presumably. Not quite as well as he did with Bro, but he hadn't had the chance to work with Dave much anyway and this was something they could both work on. Bro let Sollux go and smiled up after him, before moving off the stairs to go hide himself behind something else to do. He found his out when he ran into Gamzee in the kitchen.

"Hey, mind teachin' me a thing or two about cookin'? Got a way with grills, but I'm fuckawful at most everythin' else." 

Karkat sighed and kneaded the space between his brows with his fingers, the other hand tucking up under his arm. "Yeah, I talked to Sollux. He's still scared shitless, that's all," he muttered, looking up as Sollux made his way upstairs. "Remember Dave saying that Bro wasn't the type to get into the serious relationships like that? He doesn't want shit to go sour and fall apart just because he's flushed enough to put the First Ship to shame."

Terezi snorted unattractively and then pointed. "Oh my _god_ , Karkat, you can't _smell_ that? I'm _sorry_ , but anyone with a nose should be smelling the pheromones that big dumb Texan is giving off!" She huffed. "They're _both_ obviously beyond flushed for each other, Karkles." She pouted as she took a bite of her apple, waving it at him. "I bet he even makes those big dumb orange puppy eyes at Sollux whenever they're nearby and Sollux can't see him."

Dave grinned as he scooted over, turning off the turntables and covering them, and then putting the secondary table over the covers, so he and Sollux could plug in the midi fighters and start their battle-duet. He could flow with any groove that Sollux could concoct. Sure, the guy had speed on his side, but Dave had practice and experience behind his jams. He'd been mixing and messing with this shit since he was twelve. "You go first, I'll follow." His programmed samples were set up in such a way that the two pads - one a sixteen-button Spectra, and the other a 64-button Launchpad - were for beats on one hand, and tunes on the other.

With the 64-button pad situated, Sollux took a moment to listen to some of the samples before setting the pad up and starting with a mellow beat then building up when it hit a good, solid rhythm. A few of the people still in the house had turned to watch them, a couple relieved that Sollux seemed to be relaxing finally instead of scowling at them all. Dave set up another 64 pad for himself - he'd gotten out the Spectra for the extra vocal samples - and set that on the other side. He started in after Sollux with a nod to the beat, grinning as he formulated the melody to dance around the sick rhythm that Sollux had established. He was in his element, and it showed as he swayed faintly to the music, looking up at Sollux at every bar change, making sure they were in agreement to when the drops would be, and when to transition. Every improvised song was about 3 minutes in length, give or take to account for tempo shift.

Karkat rolled his eyes. "Terezi, you forget that I can't smell shit like you can. Anyway, it doesn't exactly matter if the feeling's mutual if neither of them are trying to do anything about it. And I'm not going to interfere past just talking to Sollux if he needs it. Bro... He doesn't talk to me all that much about his own personal shit. But that doesn't really matter because even if he did I really doubt he'd tell me shit about what's going through his head." He looked up at Sollux and Dave keeping one-another occupied at the turntables, then glanced around to find that Bro had disappeared, though his guess that the elder Strider was in the kitchen was justifiable.

Gamzee looked up from the drink he was pouring for himself to turn to Bro, shrugging a shoulder. "Sure, you got somethin' specific in mind? I don't really go off recipes and I don't know who's allergic to what, except the shit that bugs Eridan and Egbert can't have anything with peanuts? Dunno what else past that but sure, you wanna get some shit made up I'm all motherfuckin' for that."

Bro shook his head. "Nothin' special in mind, just need to get my head outta mindfuckin' a thing for a minute." He added, "Dave can't have soy stuff, and Cass has a peanut allergy too, but other'n that, I think we're good." He raised both eyebrows to the music that was being made upstairs and looked genuinely proud. "Damn, they're good," he murmured. "Figure learnin' how to cook outside a recipe's probably easier," he said with a shrug. "Way more flexible, at least."

Terezi sighed a long-suffering sigh. "Fiiiine, _I'll_ talk to Bro. _You_ need to focus on enjoying yourself, anyway!" She gave Karkat a bear hug and tucked her head under his chin momentarily, before going off to trail after Bro's scent. Once she found him in the kitchen, she pointed at Gamzee. "You. Out. I need to talk to Bro."

"We're doin' somethin' a little cookingish, Terezi," Bro pointed out. "Can it wait?"

"No."

"Aw man, c'mon sis, we were about to start doin' this shit up," Gamzee whined then huffed and left anyway, moving back out through the crowd to watch Sollux and Dave apparently communicating nonverbally over turntables. He smirked some and perched himself on the back of the couch to listen. Karkat plunked himself down beside him, with his elbows on his knees, kneading his fingers into his eyes and shaking his head some. He was stressed, but at least he didn't seem miserable. The entire crowd was seemingly drawn into watching Dave and Sollux as they worked the sample pads with deft precision, slipping seamlessly from one song to the next. Eridan took a seat next to Karkat and patted his shoulder. It was a pretty stressful situation, he knew, but he could at least enjoy himself.

"Ok," Terezi sighed and shooed Bro back some in the kitchen out of earshot of the others, looking up a him with her arms crossed, looking up at him with a small frown. "Karkles apparently sucks at setting things right so here I am. Why haven't you told Sollux yet?" she demanded, leaning toward him and poking the center of his chest. "And don't say 'told him what' because you know better than I do 'what'."

Bro put his hands up defensively and then let out a quiet "oof" at her poke, "I... 'Cause..." He scowled and shook his head, "It's fuckin' complicated, can you please not poke me like that?" He huffed and leaned against the counter. "I don't have a fuckin' glorious track record of professin' my love, okay? Zero for three. And that shit - at least when it comes to _me_ \- could be dangerous. Last time I fuckin' said anything, it wasn't even a week and he got pounded into paste by the big-and-nasties. I don't want that shit to happen again."

Terezi groaned some and looked up at the ceiling then went to poke him again, only just stopping herself and shaking her head. "For one thing, if Sollux got squished he'd come back again like last time so you don't have to worry about some big-ass tentacle falling out of the sky on him doing any permanent damage. _And_ I have it on pretty good authority he feels the same as you," she added, looking back toward the living room then taking one of Bro's hands and giving it a small squeeze. "Look, you've got flushed feelings coming out of your ears over him, it doesn't matter what you try and excuse it as. The sooner he knows he's not the only one, the better off you'll be. You both already know you're way past pale and there's nothing casual about anything you do together anymore."

"No, I know that," Bro protested, "It's pretty much understood we got that shit covered, but this goes _way_ beyond that." He sighed as he rubbed his face, trying to find the right words. "This isn't just flushed, angel. It transcends that. I don't even know if there's a word for it in any language I know. It's impossible for me to even quantify." He took another moment and got his words together more thoroughly, before his voice became just a slow murmur above the music. "It's breaking every inch of me to simply wrap my mind around this depth and strength of emotion. It's not like me to feel this much about anything. And to impose that on him, Terezi, would be something I don't think either of us could handle. I have no qualms telling him I love him, I do that every day. But that is a shameless, terrible mockery of all that I truly feel, so attempting to put it into a quadrant, or labeling it with any human term would be loathsome."

Terezi smiled up at him, reaching up and laying her hands on either side of his head, pulling him down and bumping her forehead against his, seeming to look him in the eyes over the top of his shades. "Ok that? That's what you need to tell him. And then you need to let me know when you do that so I can start planning what to wear to your silly human wedding." She kissed the end of his nose then twirled back around, grabbing an orange as she passed the bowl of fruit sitting on the counter and looking extremely content as she went back out into the throng. Sollux was still upstairs with Dave, though by now fewer people were paying attention to them and were taking turns harassing Karkat instead until he'd just let himself fall backward over the back of the couch to lie there on the cushions upside-down, his legs still propped up vertical. Terezi shook her head at him and leaned down over his knees, dropping a couple of orange slices on his chest and telling him to go outside if he was feeling that claustrophobic.

"Weddin'?" Bro repeated, thrown offguard by that more than anything. "I... Can we do that?" He scratched his head with a browfurrow, and then chuckled at his own bafflement, and at the revelation that fuck, even if they couldn't, he would _find a way_ , even if it broke every fucking rule of the universe. He shook himself out of his astonishment and pushed off the counter to round the corner, up the stairs to where his little brother and matesprit were still playing. He shooed them both away from the controllers, and quickly established a loop that wouldn't take much for Dave to look after and add to, before taking Sollux aside, walking down the hall to get away from the crowd before he took off his shades and hung them from his shirt collar, and looked into Sollux's eyes.

Dave blinked and tilted his head at Bro's sudden appearance, usurping, and departure with Sollux, then shook his head, going back to playing the controllers like there was absolutely nothing to it. Sollux reflexively thought the worst for a few seconds until he registered the look on Bro's face, his eyebrows arching up some in mild concern. "I can't tell whether I should be athking what'th wrong or where you apparently got a bottle of E," he muttered. He laid his hands on his matesprit's neck, scratching gently at the nape.

"I don't even know where to fuckin' start." He looked overjoyed, but there was a trace of panic in there. Bro shook his head with a chuckle, and pressed his lips to Sollux's. "I don't think I can say it any better'n how I just managed to get it out to Terezi. Girl's got a fuckin' great way of pushin' me. So I'm just..." He took a deep breath and sighed it out to get himself level, and attempted to repeat what he said. There was some variation, of course, and when he spoke, it was clear that he did so with no intention of holding back, even with as nervous as he was about the outcome.

It was likely due to his aspect that those in the immediate vicinity were suddenly hit by the upswing of deep, emphatic emotion. Those in love would know the grip of it in a way that was all too familiar, while those who hadn't would know the longing and deep-seated desire and yearning for that feeling to be with someone. However it was felt, it was powerful. Downstairs, Karkat's agitation faded off some, his expression softening as he picked himself up off the couch, climbing the stairs to stand beside Dave and watching him work with his chin hooked over his matesprit's shoulder. Dave stopped playing, setting the sound system to play off of pre-recorded megamixes as he wrapped his arms around Karkat, smiling into his neck as he simply held him close. "Where's all this coming from?" He asked quietly against Karkat's shoulder, though it was obvious that he wasn't really interested in an answer. He was simply happy that Karkat was there to share it.

Likewise Gamzee had climbed back into Eridan's space and hooked his fingers around the other's as he talked with Rose and Kanaya, who had started standing just a little closer together. Eridan was simply happy that Gamzee was there. He brought his hand up to his chest, Gamzee's hand still in his grasp, and smirked faintly, his own bad mood finally melting away. Those who were without their matesprits or lovers nearby were suddenly gripped with the desire to talk to them, and Terezi texted Vriska, telling her _all_ about her personal victory in the ways of interspecies auspisticizing.

Sollux simply looked shellshocked, standing up in front of Bro looking as if he either wanted to run or to disappear between the cracks in the floorboards. He was absolutely, morbidly terrified by the weight of the other's words and the impact compounded by pulse of pure, uninhibited feeling.

After a few silent seconds he slipped his own glasses off and folded them in one hand, reaching the other up and winding it into the back of Bro's hair, moving forward and wrapping his arms around his matesprit, clinging to him tightly and just hoping that where words were failing him, even just some small modicum of what he was feeling would translate into the touch. He buried his face against the side of Bro's neck, letting a thin, slightly shaky breath into his shoulder. It felt as if his chest was simultaneously imploding and bursting outward with the sudden intense swelling of unnameable feelings.

"Good thing for me you're better at wordth," he whispered, pressing closer to him and hiding his face against his matesprit's shirt.

Bro held Sollux close and tight, shaking his head, murmuring, "I'm sorry it's taken 'til now to say so. Wouldn't've been such a diatribe if I'd just out and said it months ago." He pressed his lips to Sollux's neck before stepping back to look Sollux in the eyes again, tipping his matesprit's chin up with the corner of a knuckle before kissing him. He didn't have anything more to say. Everything else seemed dull in comparison.

Returning the kiss with a faint smile, Sollux ran his hand up the small of Bro's back and tangled it into his shirt, holding onto him even after the massive wave of feelings finally began to subside. He let a quiet, slightly unsteady laugh at the sudden downswing of noise downstairs and pressed his nose against his matesprit's cheek, his arm still tight around the other's neck. "Better late than never?" He shrugged then stepped back just enough to take Bro's hand in the hopes of drawing him back downstairs and resuming the party. He glanced up to get a glimpse of Karkat and Dave holding onto one-another likewise, his smile going lopsided. "I think everyone elthe ith having a hard time containing themthelveth now."

Karkat was pecking at Dave's lips every few words, talking under his breath in sweet, sap-laden nothings. Downstairs things were getting a little more normal, the babble of conversation resuming as everyone started to separate again and put their phones away. Those of whom that hadn't been affected were simply looking between one-another with slightly bewildered expressions.

Bro chuckled sheepishly and shook his head, leaning over the railing that separated the loft from the living room and called down, "My bad, guys, sorry," before following Sollux towards the stairs with a soft smile at Dave and Karkat as he rounded the corner once more.

Dave laughed quietly against Karkat's lips and shook his head. "Stupid brother," he murmured as he stepped away from Karkat, looking him over with a grin. "You ready to go back to the party?"

"Not really, but I don't really have a choice in the matter do I? Go back to your music, dickmunch." Rolling his eyes, Karkat took Dave's hands and pressed one more lingering kiss to his lips before finally heading back downstairs, going back to the kitchen to grab another drink then facing down the pile of presents with the expression of a man trying to stare down a denizen. As Eridan had said, the sooner he finished with this, the sooner they could get on with the rest of the party and spread back out to eat whatever it was Bro and Gamzee had yet to start cooking.

Bro walked past Karkat after mingling a little and catching Gamzee's attention, swatting Karkat lightly on the shoulder. "No presents 'til after the cake, that's tradition," he scolded as he rounded back into the kitchen. He was smiling like he'd been just freed from prison, and took a moment to get out some ingredients to work with.

Dave, in the meanwhile, scratched his head as he looked at the setup and shrugged, letting it continue to play the megamix as he walked back downstairs to start talking with Tavros. He was glad that he could make it, honestly, seeing as how he'd missed out on all the fun in the beginning. Tavros looked, predictably, mildly uncomfortable with everything, staying out of the way and just people-watching now that his conversation with Cass and John had long since ended. In the kitchen, Gamzee was starting small with frying things, explaining in his own casual way about the oil that he usually went with and how he did breaded things with what kind of breading, what kind of things he'd found that could be substituted, all the while talking slowly, making it more of a conversation than instruction. He had a small audience as he sliced up a few different vegetables, having Bro mix his breading and dip the slices into the egg mixture, using him as prep help. He turned and answered the occasional question, getting confused at the official terminology a few people tried to use, just going with his own methods and phrases. There was a round of quiet laughter when someone suggested he make up his own cooking manual entitled "Cooking Like a Motherfucker". He shook his head, just continuing on with it until it started getting too hot in the kitchen, shooing them all out before anyone could get overheated.

Bro chuckled, but managed to take all the instruction in fairly quickly. He grinned at Gamzee's easygoing nature, and for once, managed to relax around the guy, despite the nagging knowledge that _this_ was the guy who thrust Cal into the lives of all Striders, and how vaguely disconcerting it was that he had that kind of power. He put all that aside, because there was nothing more interesting at that moment than learning that he didn't have to follow some strict bullshit regimen to make some damn good-looking fried chicken strips.

Dave smiled and patted Tavros' shoulder, telling him that he was more than free to introduce himself to strangers and butt into conversations in a casual way. Mingling, he said, was good for self confidence. He wandered off and walked outside for some fresh air, which was quickly replaced by cigarette smoke as he sprawled into a chair next to Karkat, looking over at Sollux with a grin. Karkat was sitting in one of the patio chairs with Sollux beside him, raising an eyebrow at the strangely contented look on the other's face that he'd only ever seen there once before, years ago. He reached over and grasped his friend's hand briefly, murmuring that he was happy for him.

"Man, I'm with Karkat on this one. I'm really glad for both of you."

Sollux smiled faintly and ran his hand up under his hat, scratching some at his hair then smoothing the beanie back down, just fidgeting as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. "Jeeth, guyth...it'th thuppothed to be Karkat'th birthday thing, why am I the one getting the attention?"

"Because I don't want it?" Karkat snorted and leaned his shoulder against Dave's, waving a drift of smoke away when it floated in front of him. "But we're serious, man. You and he both really deserve this. You've been through unbelievable amounts of shit to get to this point."

Dave nodded to that with a chuckle. "It's good to see him smiling like that as often as he does. It's a little bit Twilight Zone-y to see, at least for me it is, but yeah. I don't have words for this one, you guys just make me fuckin' grin like an idiot, that's all." He held his hands up in a sign of defeat over the inability to express himself. He put his free hand up into the back of Karkat's hair, playing with the ends of it and looking out into the yard and past the fence into the field. Bro came out with a plate of chicken strips and some experimental fried mozzarella sticks as well, setting them on the table beside the standing pipe.

"Dude, I'm pretty fucking sure Gamzee is some sort of magician on top of also being a clown-ass contortionist. Check this shit out, I helped make these." The amount of pride in his tone was almost comic.

"Oh shit, the end really ith nigh if Thtriderth are learning how to cook now," Sollux laughed then picked up one of the sticks, turning it over in his fingers then biting off the end, shrugging some. It was edible. Needed dipping sauce. Karkat nodded in agreement as he took one for himself, shaking it a little in Bro's direction.

"Just wait, he'll pull some other random-ass shit out of nowhere that makes all this look like child's play. He's good about that sort of fuckery."

"I don't doubt anybody's talents in this group," Bro said with half of a chicken strip in his mouth, before tilting his head and going in to retrieve some ranch dressing.

Dave grinned a little at that and hook his head, "Wow." He turned to Sollux and raised an eyebrow. "You keepin' him? Dumb taste in TV and all?" He finished his cigarette, stubbing it out in the ashtray.

"I'm hoping I can improve it over time," Sollux shrugged with a slight smirk and finished the cheese stick, looking out at the small group that had situated themselves in the yard to chat where they had a breeze. Tavros seemed to have taken Dave's advice and was trying to make smalltalk, though mostly he just stood and listened.

When Bro reappeared in the kitchen Gamzee sent him back out with the ranch and a huge plate full of slices of fried zucchini, squash and tomatoes both red and green. He had started something in the oven in the short amount of time that Bro had disappeared, fishing things out of his sylladex to supplement what he could pull out of Bro's admittedly meager supply. He had his headphones in his ears by now, swaying his way around the kitchen as he continued to cook, shooing away the occasional someone coming to pick at something sitting out on the counter. Eridan hadn't seen his matesprit in a while, but once he smelled things frying, he immediately slipped into the kitchen to lean against the wall and watch Gamzee cook, as he often did, quiet and simply enjoying the way his matesprit moved. He chuckled when Gamzee shooed someone away with the spatula, his calling them 'motherfucker' seen as something of an insult. "He calls everyone that, don't take it personally," he said with a sharp grin.

Bro returned with a plate of veggies this time and Dave reached over for one. "Shit yeah, man. Love this stuff." And then he pointed at Sollux, shaking his head, "He won't give up the ponies, believe me, I've tried."

Bro snickered and took a bite of fried tomato, surprised by the texture of it more than anything. "Nah man, I'm over the new ones. Back to the 90s series." He had a lopsided smile as he proclaimed, "Lickety Split is a fuckin' great stripper name."

Karkat picked up one of the slightly limp slices of zucchini and bit it in half, shaking his head at the talk of My Little Pony. "It's a show geared toward small human girls. Last I checked, you are not small, nor are you a girl, and from what I've seen the 'human' part is debateable."

"Dude, don't even thtart. You watched Thcooby Doo jutht to yell at how thtupid the chathe thequentheth were."

"Fuck you, man, have you actually sat down and watched that shit? It's fucking ridiculous even by cartoon standards." Shaking his head, Karkat just focused on grabbing a piece of chicken and the ranch, pouring some out onto an empty portion of the plate so they could dip into it.

Dave chuckled, "Yesterday, I had on Dexter's Lab for background noise and he started picking apart how unfeasible a lab like that would be in a suburban home. Cartoons are definitely not your strong point, Vantas. There's a little thing called suspension of belief, and if you live with this walking acid trip, you need to become intimately familiar with that shit." He pointed at Bro as he spoke.

Bro grinned as he slid into a chair beside Sollux, squeezing his hand before going for another slice of tomato. "Sure, blame me for that. I see how it is."

"I lived for four fucking years in a video game. My belief is long since permanently suspended. But no, that's just stupid. Cartoons have proven time and time again to be a prime example of stupidity. It doesn't matter whether they come from troll or human producers."

"You'd go around telling human children that Thanta wathn't real," Sollux muttered, shaking his head and popping a tomato into his mouth, arching a brow then fishing another up and shoving that into his mouth as well.

"Santa's not real?" was the response in Strider Stereo, both of them looking completely shocked at the revelation, though it was clear after a moment that this was another moment where it was simply Bro and Dave being, well, Bro and Dave. 

Cass came out about then and raised his eyebrows high. "Okay, _who_ told?" He looked accusingly at Sollux and Karkat before grinning and lighting his cigarette.

Sollux put on a sour face, crossing his arms and glaring at Karkat. "Way to go, Nubth, you jutht ruined Chrithtmath."

"What? You're the one that said it!" Karkat protested, looking similarly outraged around his mouthful of masticated chicken.

"I honestly don't know what to do with myself now. Well shit, if Santa doesn't exist, who is that fat guy I strife with on the roof every Christmas?" Bro asked, pouting with a confused look on his face. Dave broke character first with a none-too-subtle chuckle. Cass smirked at the lot of them and took a seat on the steps.

"Koolaid man," Sollux answered nonchalantly, picking up the beer he'd been slowly sipping for the last half hour and looking at them over the top of it completely straight-faced.

"Oh, yeah, that would explain all the busted walls," Bro said with a slow nod, and looked over at Karkat with a shake of his head. "That motherbitch keeps coming in and leaving sugary drinks all over the damn place. I was like, damn, Santa, what'd I do to deserve this kind of shitty present?"

Dave huffed another, muffled chuckle as he took a sip of his soda. "Oh my god, Bro."

"Henthe why he needth hith ath kicked whenever he dropth by." Finally cracking a small smile, Sollux slouched down some in his seat and laced his hands together behind his head, looking out at the others in the yard then listening for a moment to those still inside. He nursed his beer until he was sucking nothing but foam then looked up when Gamzee peeked his head out to let them know that the rest of the food would be done soon. He slipped back in and went to Eridan's side to kill a few minutes until he had to check the oven.

Dave looked up with a smile at Gamzee and then chuckled, grinning up a storm. "That guy is awesome, I don't know how anyone can stay mad at him." Then again, he wasn't there to see the full extent of the carnage. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket as it received a text, and he got a wide grin. "Hold up a moment, kids, I got some shit to discuss with the sisterlady and aforementioned awesome guy." He uncurled from his seat and went inside to go to talk to Rose, who had joined in on the party via video feed. After he found Gamzee, he curled up in a chair in front of Bro's cam.

"I was thinking about your painting project," she said as soon as they'd gotten comfortable, "and I just realized that our house has some amazing lighting and backdrops." She picked up her webcam to show them as she continued to talk. "If you indeed wish to showcase your painting, Gamzee, the backdrop is essential." Dave grinned as he settled in, having only seen a few walls of Rose and Kanaya's place since they had moved. They seemed to live in luxury, in a mansion that was all corridors and marble, much like Rose's childhood home. "And of course, there are hundreds of galleries in Boston that would love to display art by the winner of the international student film festival, and of course, by a very well known California artist like yourself, Gamzee."

"Sssh," Dave hushed Rose, "I'm kinda trying to keep that shit on the DL, okay?"

Gamzee looked genuinely surprised at the "well-known artist" comment, looking between Rose and Dave then shrugging. "So what, we go to Boston and set up shop there, take a bunch of motherfuckin' photos at your place, set up display there when it's done? Sounds legit." He sat back and shrugged again then looked back at Dave. "It's gonna take a lil' time gettin' the paints n' shit together and then you still gotta get out the concept art. And it'd be better if we do this before Kanaya gets her ink done that way it doesn't interfere with whatever you decide to put on 'er."

"Oh, I'm done with the art," Dave said. He'd spent a lot of sleepless nights drawing in a larger sketchbook that he got specifically to work on the full body projects that he'd decided to undertake, both in ink and in charcoal. "I mean, mostly. There's a couple things I'm not quite getting out the way I want. And Kanaya's piece should be pretty fucking high-class, especially if I'm there with her to go shop shopping."

Rose turned the camera back around to face her and smiled at the boys. "The house is big enough for you and your matesprits, of course. You can come stay here for the duration. I won't dream of putting you in a hotel here in the city."

"Now that you guys don't have school or anything should work out real motherfuckin' good," Gamzee nodded, then got up to find Eridan, hoping to talk it over with him as well given that he would be coming along as well, if not to model then at least to keep him company. Eridan had slipped upstairs to watch another person that had been invited mess with the launchpads. Not nearly as talented as Sollux and Dave were, but entertaining in its own right. He smiled when he saw Gamzee approach and tilted his head.

"What's goin' on, Gam?"

Gamzee propped his chin on Eridan's shoulder, his hands coming to rest on his matesprit's hips. "Art project with Dave, bro. Rose n' Kanaya are offerin' there space for us to work with since they got the fancy digs an' can afford to let us stay awhile."

Eridan considered that and nodded then, wrapping his arm around Gamzee's waist. "Any excuse to visit Kan is a good one. Don't gotta twist my arm on this one."

Dave grinned and blew a kiss to Rose once they got some tentative plans underway, and went to talk to Karkat about it. He settled down and grinned faintly, asking, "Would you like to go visit Rose and Kanaya in a couple weeks?"

Karkat already knew what Dave had gotten underway and nodded, reaching up and fussing some with Dave's hair, asking, "How long do you intend for this to last? Either we can leave Em with Cass again or bring her with us. I'm sure there's at least one cat wandering around the Lalonde household."

"Mutant foureyed freaks," Dave said, having seen at least one during camchats with Rose. "Ergh. Probably a month or more. We should take her with. I'll ask Rose if it's okay. She'll probably say it's fine, but she might wind up catnapping her." He grinned and bounced just slightly at the prospect. "I can't believe this shit is even going down. I never thought I'd do something this fucking legit before."

Karkat chuckled quietly and wrapped an arm around Dave's shoulders, bumping their shoulders together. "I'm excited for you. I've absolutely no doubt that the outcome of this project is going to be fucking groundbreaking and you honestly deserve the recognition." He pressed his lips to Dave's cheek then stood, taking a deep breath at the whiff of the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen. Someone had had the presence of mind to stop the oven and take the pans off the heat while Gamzee was off talking to Eridan at least, meaning there had ended up being only minor burning on the bottoms of a few pieces of chicken. There were a few storebought containers of things, including potato and egg salads, everything carefully picked to avoid as many allergies as possible.

"Alright, all you motherfuckers line up and we can do this up assembly line style," Gamzee called over the top of the crowd, taking a couple of large pans out of the oven and putting them up on the stove burners. He'd taken care to make food that he knew Eridan could eat, keeping it mostly separate from the rest.

With lunch served and Bro helping dole out the food beside Gamzee, the noise died down in lieu of satisfied and delighted eating sounds. After that, Bro bugged John, and John grinned, taking the cake out of his sylladex. It was very well made, as per Dad Egbert's par for course accomplishments. It was an understated but very nice cake, nothing like the ironic masterpiece served to Dave on his birthday. With Bro's help to rearrange the gifts, John set the cake on the table beside them.

Dave couldn't help but sneak a peek at it and grinned. "Holy damn, that looks awesome, what is that? Chocolate?"

John grinned and shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it's hazelnut, actually."

Karkat stared down at the cake, having expected some terrible gaudy (but still delicious) disaster similar to Dave's cake. He was pleasantly surprised and smiling faintly as he laid his hand on John's shoulder, thanking him quietly. For once, John dropped the usual smartassed attitude he'd taken to putting up around Dave and Karkat, shrugging and muttering that it was his dad's doing, he'd just helped with the smaller decisions like the decoration. Karkat shrugged some in kind and replied that it still looked good, then glanced around and told the rest of the crowd that the first person to sing would be punted. Terezi took that as her cue and started the discordant song until everyone else followed her lead and left Karkat yelling at the ceiling. Dave winced at the singing as well, but mostly because everyone was _so goddamn bad_ at it, completely on purpose. Bro lit the candles - ones _he_ put on there, knowing better than to trust an Egbert to put regular, non-prank candles on a cake - and then stood back for Karkat to blow them out.

Dave actually wondered if Karkat even knew the protocol there. It wasn't as if anybody celebrated their birthday on the meteor, and the whole candle-blowing to make a wish thing didn't even make sense to _him_ , and he was a fucking human. He shrugged it off and took a perching seat on a fold up chair nearby.

While Karkat had never celebrated an actual birthday in his life, he had been invited to at least one and once had actually stayed at a party long enough to see what was supposed to happen after the cake was basically _set on fire_ , waiting until the singing had stopped then blowing them out in a couple of hard breaths before the wax could drip onto the frosting. He pointed out to Dave that it was a stupid tradition, but plucked the candles out anyway and sucked the bits of cake from the ends. The cake was sliced by Bro given his lack of trust for anyone but him handling the cake knife and handed out to those that wanted a piece.

"Hold the fuck up," Gamzee spoke up before anyone could get more than a fork full, making his way back through the kitchen to the refrigerator, lugging out a huge, generic-looking plastic container and letting it thump down onto the table, followed by an ice cream scoop. He opened it and explained to Bro he'd spent some time before they'd arrived that afternoon getting together stuff so he'd be able to make ice cream rather than trusting any that he'd be able to get from the store. It was swirled with a few different colors of fruits through the vanilla and he'd had to shoo Terezi out of the kitchen several times while he'd been making it. It was still soft, having only had a little while in the freezer before then. "Long as everyone's gettin' cake, might as well have some motherfuckin' ice cream, right?"

"Holy shit, dude," Dave said with a look of awe on his face, "You _made_ ice cream?" This was not a 'santa isn't real' moment of put-on ignorance and childlike surprise. This was straight up wonder. He didn't even know that ice cream was a thing people _could_ make. He was the first in line to get a scoop, having to pick Terezi up and set her behind him to do so while she scowled and shouted and hit him playfully. He made sure she got twice as much before he sat down, tucking in with a look of complete amazement. Bro just chuckled to himself and got a slice of cake, taking only a small portion of the ice cream for himself. Eridan passed on both desserts, but was still clearly quite proud of his matesprit. Gamzee made sure to keep Karkat's portion small as he asked, giving his friend a tight hug around the shoulders before letting him go to sit down by Dave and laugh at his expression.

"What, did you think ice cream was just manifested out of the void or something?" Karkat snorted, popping a spoonful into his mouth and making a small, impressed noise. It tasted rather like gelato, but not quite as smooth. He'd nearly forgotten about the pile of presents still waiting for him until someone walked by with their cake in hand, chuckling about how much he was getting spoiled by his friends.

Gamzee had a large scoop on his own plate when he flopped down at Eridan's side, offering him a bite with a small pout. He knew Eridan's habits about passing up sweets, but this was one thing he'd never tried to make before and he was waiting for his matesprit's opinion. After a wholly put-upon, dramatic sigh, Eridan conceded and took the bite from the spoon, and then smiled. "Fine, you win, that's delicious." He said, pressing a quick kiss to Gamzee's lips.

Dave shrugged wholeheartedly, "Dude, I never _thought_ about it until now! It's just like, okay, there's some ice cream in the freezer, where did it come from? The store! Store got it from a factory. I dunno, I never really think this inconsequential shit through." He took another bite of the ice cream, humming in delight.

"And what do you think people did for ice cream before factories?" Karkat rolled his eyes and papped Dave's cheek lightly then went back to his dessert with a content smile.

When there was finally another upswing of noise after the decimation of the cake and ice cream, the last of it was put away in the refrigerator to be sent home with Dave and Karkat and Karkat was harassed forward to finally face down his pile of gifts. "You guys suck, you know that?" He groaned about the sheer amount of stuff. He just reached for the top of the pile, picking things down to unwrap and hand over to Dave to captchalogue. The little box in his hand was marked in Jade's handwriting and he had to pause a moment, wrinkling his nose. "Come on, Harley, not you too." He flipped open the lid and arched an eyebrow up at what looked like a snowglobe, but with glitter in place of the snow. It was warm to the touch and glowing faintly, the landscape inside a very small replica of the landscape of the Land of Pulse and Haze. There was a note in the box as well, warning him not to shake; the glitter would continue to move on its own. The blood would just get everywhere if he wasn't careful. He set it down gingerly, unsure how he really felt about the softly glowing artifact. Dave had his suspicions that Jade had actually globified a part of the actual planet, and he eyed it curiously before captchaloging it and putting it in his sylladex. He knew the wrapping paper from one was from Bro - how his brother found wrapping paper themed for Thanksgiving, he never would know, nor would he understand how Bro seemed to have a neverending supply of it to use for birthday gifts. Inside the box was a well-knit sweater that was neither corny nor ironic. The smuppet that came with it was clearly idiotic but the sweater was simple, and soft, and was suitable for the colder weather. Eridan's gift was a watch - subtle, but elegant, and clearly worth a mint. Kanaya had tailored Karkat a three-piece two-button suit after months of pleading from Dave, which was understated but well-cut and clearly made to fit Karkat's personality as well as accentuate his best features.

And then came Aradia's gift. It was in a small box, and she apologized in a note if it didn't fit anymore.

It was his crab watch.

Karkat turned it over in his hands, tilting his head as he wondered faintly about it, then grinned and bumped Dave gently, holding it up and muttering about putting him on speaker crab. Dave rolled his eyes with a nostalgic smile on his face, looking up at the ceiling and wagging his finger at Aradia from very, VERY afar. It wouldn't fit around Karkat's wrist anymore though so he put it down on the table, turning back to the remainder and pulling down the canvas in its prismatic paper, peeling it away then goggling at the painting. Gamzee had seen fit to stick with a classical dark background behind the subjects, Karkat himself in red tones and Dave in orange, facing one-another in an embrace. He looked back around at Gamzee, who was lounging back against Eridan without paying much attention, laying the painting aside with the intention of berating him for being amazing later. Tavros had seen fit to give Karkat a variety of things for the cat, as well as a small, intricate figurine of the Signless that looked as if it would have been used for tabletop gaming campaigns. Terezi's gift was actually one of the photos that Bro had taken of all of them together, framed and very casually hearted on the back. The rest of the gifts ended up being less personal and more practical, ranging from gift cards to cooking supplies from those that knew he was the one feeding the three of them living in his apartment.

Without the packages, the pile of gifts was smaller, easier to manage. He was flipping through one of the books that Rose had sent, smiling faintly as he read snippets here and there. Most of them were books he'd been looking through in the Research Society, others were simply ones that he didn't have but had intended to pick up for himself eventually. He let Dave captchalogue everything but the book in his hands, sitting cross-legged on the sofa as he read with a soft smile on his face.

Dave set to captchaloging everything as well as he could. Hashmap was a pain, but at least everything seemed to fit well enough once it was cleverly labeled. He buried his nose behind Karkat's ear once he was done, and then looked over his matesprit's shoulder at the book. "Of course, you have other gifts at home that Terezi's going to yell at us about using eventually," he murmured, and smirked against Karkat's neck. Karkat snorted quietly and nudged his head against Dave's, muttering about him being completely shameless. He turned to press his lips to Dave's then settled back against the arm of the couch and propped his legs up over Dave's comfortably. By then the house had started to clear out, several of their friends having work or other engagements that they couldn't get away from.

When it started getting dark out, Gamzee collected a few people that he knew would smoke with him. They went out onto the patio, Gamzee dragging his hookah into the middle of them and settling down in the middle of the floor. He prepared the bowl, lighting the coal and sucking on the hose until the smoke had filled the water chamber. It was a fruit shisha he'd opted for and soon the air around him smelled of smoke and berries. He hollered inside to try and get Dave and Karkat out to join him, assuring Karkat that he wouldn't get completely stoned. Dave likewise promised that when he hit his limit, he'd come back and sprawl all over him. He settled himself down to relax with his friends, Cass joining to settle down across from Gamzee. Terezi had considered coming with, but eventually just stayed back with Karkat, settling up against him, asking him to tell her about some of the things about her that he'd been considering including in his dissertation.

After Bro tidied up a little, he joined the crew on the patio and dropped beside Dave, wagging his finger at him, "Didn't I ever tell you not to do drugs?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure you followed that up with, 'without me'? So... Not really, no," Dave retorted with a lopsided smile.

"Besides, man. This shit don't all up and fuck up your pan like some shit you could be doin'." Gamzee winked, passing Dave the hose of the pipe. He draped an arm around Ferrus' shoulders companionably as the other sat down beside him, starting to talk about arab scholars and consumption of shisha as a meditative practice. Ferrus just went with it, generally unnerved at the highblood being so friendly with him but reminding himself that he was apparently like this with everyone. He could hear Karkat inside chatting with Terezi and he settled in to stay for a while. John had settled down just outside the smoking group to join in the conversation but keep from partaking, preferring to spectate the increasingly abstract scenarios going around the circle.

Cass looked over to Bro with no outward prompting and then nodded, mentally pinging Sollux to get his scrawny, objectively nice ass out to the patio or he'd miss his turn. Dave took a long drag, impressed not only by the smoothness of the smoke, but the taste of the tobacco as well. He passed clockwise to Bro, listening as Gamzee explained the history of shisha, his expression almost a smile, but not quite. Settling back into his chair, he looked around at his friends, and quietly thanked Jade and Aradia for doing another amazing day's work. Without them, this thing wouldn't even be possible. They deserved to know it.

Cass looked up and grinned as he added that more recently, hookahs in the middle east and eastern Asia were a status symbol, indicative of high caste and elitism. He grinned a little as he passed the pipe folded over so it wasn't facing the next in line. "My grandfather spent a good deal of time around Bangladesh. He also spent a good deal of time telling me all about it."

"I don't travel all that much, just learn shit when I feel like learning shit," Gamzee shrugged then scooted over some in his chair to let Sollux settle in beside Bro. He was holding a bowl of the last of the fried vegetables, munching contently then rinsing his mouth with a swallow of water before taking a pull from the pipe and letting the fragrant smoke back out through his nose. He leaned up and kissed the corner of Bro's mouth, leaning on his matesprit's shoulder with his hand tucked under his cheek.

"If you asked Eridan I imagine you'd be able to travel quite a bit," Ferrus pointed out then took the pipe himself when it was passed along. "Of course, then there would be the point of whether he would go with you, given that he's apparently allergic to everything."

Cass shrugged, "That's no excuse." He didn't give more detail than that, however, and smiled at Sollux and Bro as Bro leaned to kiss Sollux's cheek and wrap his arm around his matesprit. 

Dave just shook his head with a smile. "Man, even if Eridan didn't want to go with you, that's no reason not to go places. I mean, shit, if that's what you want to do, do it. Gain some culture firsthand, really soak it in. Wind up some fuckin' serious guru." He considered it, himself; once he had the means, he wouldn't be the stay at home kind of person. He'd want to go and see the world firsthand. Preferably with Karkat there with him to explain cultural significance of things.

"Legally, I can't," Gamzee shrugged. "Wouldn't wanna go without 'im anyway. He'd be all about travelin' an' learnin' shit if it served a purpose for 'im. You ever seen 'im sit down with a book by Sun Tzu? Shit's intense, man. Never seen 'im that focused." Shaking his head, Gamzee smiled faintly and slouched down in his seat, glancing inside where he figured Eridan had retired to talk with Karkat and Terezi about Karkat's work.

Dave smiled at Gamzee's dedication, then the first part hit him and his smile faded down into a frown. "Oh damn, you can't actually travel without him? That blows. Man, nah, whatever legal bullshit's keeping you classified a threat to society or whatever it is needs to get bent. You're clearly in a way fuckin' better headspace than you've been basically ever. I mean look at you, dude. You have outlets, you've got Eridan, you've got _us_." He shook his head. He just couldn't believe that they wouldn't be able to see that.

Cass pointed out, "It's likely for his own safety rather than society's. Beyond that, though, you need to relax, Dave." He didn't really go into the whys.

Gamzee shrugged again and held the pipe between his teeth when it came back to him. Cass had it right, more or less, even if he didn't have all the details. There hadn't been any more news reports since Eridan had become his custodian and there was no more information on where Equius had gotten. He wasn't detained, that was more worrying than anything. There hadn't even been news coverage of a court case. "Well, for whatever it's worth, I'm real motherfuckin' glad I got you guys on my side."

Dave settled as well and smiled a bit. "I'm glad to be there." His thoughts drifted off to the art project and to Kanaya and Rose's place. Something nagged his mind, however. Bro had said something about Boston, and it was a negative something, but he had completely spaced what it was. He figured if he didn't remember, it wasn't so bad.

The night wore on and Cass chose to turn in, having work in the early morning. He and Tavros both left, with Tavros giving Gamzee one last quick hug before he followed Cass out. John had long since tottered off to one of the guest bedrooms and curled up to sleep, and Terezi had claimed another to do the same. Dave stretched out beside Karkat once he came in, and Eridan came to collect Gamzee and get back to their hotel. Bro and Sollux were the last to vacate their patio, still talking with each other. Sollux had turned down smoking with Gamzee for a little while longer in favor of having time alone with Bro, casually waving the highbloods off. Inside, Karkat had curled up around Dave and lapsed into talking about the project with Gamzee instead and staying with Rose and Kanaya in Boston. He would be glad to get out and see more of the country after having refused to travel for the last four years outside of that he'd been doing with Dave. After the excitement of the day it was a welcome reprieve for all parties.

"Going home tonight or staying here again?" He yawned after a while, tucking his cheek against Dave's neck and fiddling some with his fingers.

"Terezi's stuck here if we go home, unless we want to incur her half-sleeping wrath," Dave murmured, turning to press a kiss to the crown of Karkat's head. "Pretty sure they won't kick us out for sleeping on their couch tonight."

Muttering that he thought Dave had had something for him at home, Karkat turned and let himself lie limp against his matesprit, looking up at him with a small pout then conceding, unwilling to try and harass Terezi into the car and back to her own bed. "What if we just...let Bro know we're gonna leave her here for the night then come back in the morning?" He mumbled.

Dave would have liked to go home, all things considered, but he was in no condition to drive, and Terezi wouldn't ever let them hear the end of it if they tried rousing her and getting her home. He laced his fingers with Karkat's, and squeezed them lightly, before whispering, "You have a good birthday?"

"Yeah. Better than expected anyway. Human traditions with this shit are still baffling but I'll get used to it."

"Mm, I do. Couple of things. But unless you feel like driving, I'm not doing fuckall about going anywhere." The thought had crossed his mind more than necessary. He'd gotten a few toys that he'd wanted to try out - the top of the list of which was a ball end to his tongue's barbell that vibrated. He sighed and sat up. "I guess we could tell Bro that he's on platonic girlfriend duty until we can pick her up tomorrow."

Karkat whined quietly and refused to get up, letting his arm hang over the edge of the couch, fingertips brushing the floor. "I hate driving... Besides, I really don't think Bro wants to be in charge of Terezi when he's preoccupied with Sollux like he is. Just...christ, did you _feel_ that before? They went from casual flirting public sexual deviants to full-fledged fucking matesprits and now...I don't even know what to call them anymore. But they're not going to want to have to worry about her."

Dave huffed in amusement and laid back down with his arm over Karkat's waist. "So make up your fucking mind, Vantas. And yeah, I don't even know what's with them anymore. I'm just glad for 'em, you know?" He closed his eyes and sighed, before brushing his fingers lightly over the skin just shy of the edge of Karkat's healing tattoo. "Mm, let's just stay here. I'm nowhere near feeling like getting up."

Bro walked past on his way to the stairs and grabbed a blanket from under the sofa to unfold and spread out over the two of them. "Get some sleep, you dumb babies," he murmured. He started back on his way up to the bedroom.

"I'm too tired to give a shit anymore," Karkat yawned and put his head down on on Dave's shoulder, a light tingling running up his spine from the tickling sensation of Dave's fingers running over the still sensitive skin; he'd gone back and forth for months about getting the little gear on the back of his neck, but in the end it felt like something that he just needed to get and after a trip to the same parlor that had done the other body mods between them, he was happier for it. He just wished it didn't itch so much. He pulled the blanket up around his shoulders, already set to doze off. The stress and running around and claustrophobia of the day had taken a heavy toll on his energy levels. He glanced up as Sollux passed by to throw away some leftover party detritus before following Bro upstairs, leaving the two of them to themselves.

Dave buried his face against Karkat's shoulder and squirmed into a comfortable position before he closed his eyes and murmured, "g'night."

\--

After his little speech to Sollux, Bro had been in higher spirits and simply just seemed lighter on his feet, though just then, he was dragged down by comfortable exhaustion of the day of party throwing. He loved the party, but it tapped him out. He pulled off his shirt and shucked away his pants before sprawling out in the comfortable sheets, grinning to himself as he thought the day over. "You know, I should've maybe saved tellin' all that for a day we didn't have like twenty people here. Still don't know how far that shockwave went."

"Thurprithed everyone didn't collapthe clutching their chethtth and yelling about their feelth," Sollux commented, stripping out of his own clothes then crawling up over Bro's back, sitting down in the small of it and rubbing his fingers into the other's shoulders. He smiled faintly and bent to press his lips to the back of Bro's neck. "I'm almotht willing to bet your Alpha felt that one."

"Man, probably," Bro said with a contented grin as he slid his arms up under his head, tilting his head forward as he briefly arched his back up to pop it. He groaned as he melted back down into the mattress. "But that's one of the many reasons I try to temper my emotions. I mean sure, cool party trick, but how often am I going to wind up confessing my love to you? Probably just the once. Maybe twice if you forget somehow in some bizarre head injury."

"Bizarre injurieth do theem to be a habit of mine," Sollux snorted then sat back up and dragged his fingers down along Bro's spine, stopping here and there to press the heels of his hands into a tight spot and lean his weight into them until said spot popped. He continued to rub his hands up and down the length of Bro's back, tracing the occasional scar with his fingertips. "I don't think paradox thpathe could handle another burtht of that magnitude, though if the horrorth feel it maybe they'll lay off for a little while longer."

"You really need to lay off the morbid and grotesque damage to your person, dude," Bro said with a chuckle of amusement before Sollux got a spot in his mid-back to pop that had been giving him trouble for over a week, at which point he groaned and grinned from ear to ear. "See, I saved everybody with my sappiness. That means I win." His eyes slid closed and his grin tapered off. "The guys are heading to Boston soon." The tone implied the worst was imminent.

Sollux sat back, nodding as his own contented smile faded off. "I know." He'd been doing his best up to that point trying to ignore the dread still settled in the back of his mind, and had almost been able to shut it out entirely after Bro's confession but now it was back, and weighing on him like a metric ton of bricks.

"I have to go with 'em," Bro added, his own demeanor darkening as he turned under his matesprit to look up at him. "You don't have to come along." He looked up into Sollux's eyes with a furrowed brow. "Rather you not. Keep you out of the line of fire for once."

Sollux lifted himself up to let Bro turn over, settling back down on his stomach with a deep frown of his own, taking the other's hands and squeezing down. "I don't think tho. You're not jutht going off and being thome big fucking hero and leaving me here to be bored off my ath. If I die again, I'll be ok. Tho will you tho don't try thome bullshit reathoning like I shouldn't have to go through it again. It'th barely a thing for me to go through anymore. Bethideth," he added, "if I'm itholated from the retht of you and thomething dethideth to happen here like it did back in California, it thtill defeatth the purpothe of leaving me here."

"There you go being reasonable again," Bro said with a scowl. "Fine, but if you die again, I'm pretty fuckin' sure I'm going to do something somebody'll regret." His scowl slipped away as he put his hand up to Sollux's cheek. "Just because you're used to it doesn't mean I'm gonna be. I see too much of this stupid bullshit on the regular and it never gets any easier." He slid hand down to Sollux's shoulder and then down his chest, and his mood went back to its baseline. "Once this shit's over, though, it should be pretty smooth sailing for a while."

"I can be ath reathonable ath I damn well pleathe. And I promithe you, I'll try my damnedetht not to die at all." Smiling faintly, Sollux laid his hand over Bro's then brought it back up, kissing his fingertips then biting the tip of one, his teeth barely affecting the callouses. With a soft gasp - less due to pain and more to the sentiment - Bro smirked and leaned up to pull Sollux down into a kiss, sliding his hand down his matesprit's spine.

"Got two weeks before anything bad'll happen," he murmured, "No use in getting gloomy about it now."

Sollux returned the smirk and and leaned into the kiss himself, his hand coming up to lace into his matesprit's hair. "I thought I wath doing pretty well there up to now," he replied then nipped at Bro's lower lip, bringing it between his own and sucking down gently.

With a murmur against Sollux's mouth, Bro ran his hands down his matesprit's back, resting his hand at the small of his back, his fingers brushing over his ass. "You were. Still are," he assured, while he brought his hands around and over Sollux's thighs. "Easier to turn around and calm."

Pressing his lips to the center of Bro's forehead, Sollux let a quiet sigh and draped his arms around the other's neck and shoulders loosely. "The betht we can do ith jutht focuth on what we have right now and prepare for the wortht when it'th due. Ath thuch, I think thome thleep ith in order. It'th been a long-ath day."

Bro put one arm around Sollux's waist and nodded to the suggestion. "I could sleep for two weeks," he murmured in amusement, before he slipped over to his side, settling Sollux beside him, and tangled his legs with his matesprit's, ready to pass out right then. "Someone'd better come up with a word that's like love only bigger pretty soon or I'm gonna have a serious problem tellin' you somethin' true every night." He kissed Sollux's jaw before he dozed off.

"Athk KK about that one, he probably knowth by now," Sollux murmured as he tucked himself against Bro to sleep, completely soundly for the first time in his life.

Terezi was the first one up in the morning. She was moving slowly and carefully through the house, sniffing curiously to determine whether she'd missed anything and coming to the conclusion that everyone had simply passed out, lying around like a lot of lumps. She smiled some at that and started a pot of coffee, hoping that sooner rather than later they would wake up so that she would have someone to talk to.

Dave slipped gently away from Karkat - a method perfected after months of sleeping tangled with his matesprit and always being up first - and he wrapped his arms around Terezi once he shuffled to the kitchen, murmuring "G'mornin', cutie," into her hair before grabbing them both cups of coffee, working to stir just the right amount of cream and sugar into hers before handing it over. He nodded out to the patio so he could have his morning smoke and they wouldn't wind up waking the sleeping monster upstairs, or Karkat, who deserved to sleep in after putting up with so much mental stress of seeing all of his friends the day prior. He knew, due to how Bro's circadian rhythm worked, he'd be out for at least another hour. Terezi followed him outside after taking a moment to sip from her coffee, leaning against his side with her head down on his shoulder. She looked up after a moment though at the sound of the door sliding open again, letting Sollux out onto the patio to settle down at the table with his head back, unlit cigarette hanging from his lower lip. When he finally moved to light it he looked back up at them with a small, tired smile.

"Thomehow I thtill expect to thee Karkat ath the firtht one awake," he muttered, keeping his voice down as if to keep from disturbing the morning's peace.

Dave chuckled at that. "He deserves his sleep, dude. Mornin'." He stretched and then flopped his arm tight around Terezi, grinning a little. "Usually I'm the first one up, actually. I have a theory that back on the meteor, he just stayed up until it was physically impossible for him to move." He sipped his coffee and smiled faintly at the memories of both of them staying awake until time made no sense, even to him, and then crashing in Can Town.

"Maketh thenthe to me. I'm pretty thure I only actually thaw him thleep a few timeth. Motht of them were with you after you guyth pathed out after boring each other to death," Sollux snorted then stretched his arms up over his head, groaning quietly. 

Dave looked over at him after a moment of taking a drag of his cigarette. "Thanks for hosting the party, dude, it was great."

He scratched some at his sides through his undershirt and shrugged. "We have more thpathe than you do. It'th only reathonable that we'd try and cram people in here rather than your plathe. Bethideth, you know Bro wouldn't be able to path up the chanthe to play hotht to another party."

"That's true, Bro is the embodiment of party hard," Dave murmured around the filter of his cigarette. "Never did get to thank you for that asskicking duel yesterday, either. That was some pro shit we were throwing out there." He grinned a little as Terezi went back to casually dozing against him. "We should hook that shit up to my computer some time, record some of it."

"That'd be pretty fuckin' thweet," Sollux agreed. "Freethtyling again or arranged? Either one'd be good."

"Should just go around DJing clubs doing that," Terezi murmured then yawned widely, her eyes closed as she spoke. "Just playing the shit out of your controller thingies for big crowds."

Dave huffed a chuckle and ran his hand through Terezi's hair, brushing it away from her face. "Could, wouldn't. I mean, I dunno about Sollux, but I've got enough on my plate, in the creative department. I mean, there's this thing with Gamzee, and Kanaya's tattoos, and fuckin' all the photography shit I'm working on in general. I don't even have any room for another film until we get this collaboration done." He turned to Sollux with a smirk, "Freestyle's how I roll, I dunno how anyone can arrange a goddamn song without jumping out and improvising."

"I've got time to do it but I'm not really club material. Got a lot of work to do before I'm that good," Sollux shrugged and finished his smoke, grinding it out then tossing the butt. He stood and yawned again then turned to go back inside to crawl back into bed beside Bro just so that he wouldn't wake up alone. "We'll talk about recording thomething later, Dave," he said over his shoulder as he went back inside.

Terezi scoffed at Sollux's modesty and shook her head as Dave nodded. "Sounds good, man." He put out his smoke and went back to his coffee, grinning a little. "Let's go wake up nubby, babe." He nudged her and proceeded to walk inside.

Bro had noticed - albeit in a half-asleep sort of way - that Sollux was distinctly missing from the bed. He figured his matesprit was probably just off to go use the can or have a smoke, and drifted back off, only to be woken up a few minutes later as the door opened and the bed moved under Sollux's weight. "Mmph, hey you," he groggily muttered, a sleepy smile coming over his lips. He had, as usual, decided to take up as much of the bed as he possibly could in that time, sprawled on his stomach, with his arms shoved under the pillows. Sollux had no problem working around the sprawl, stretching out pressed against Bro's side with his limbs tangled with his matesprit's.

"Morning," he murmured and laid his cheek against the other's shoulder, ready to doze off again now that he'd quelled the nicotine fit. When he'd passed by Karkat, his friend had barely moved save to pull the blankets up around his shoulders, clutching them under his nose. With a quick sneak of a kiss to the corner of Sollux's lips, he murmured wordlessly with his matesprit's lips still vaguely tasting like the cigarette he'd just had. He was already just awake enough to know he wasn't about to fall back asleep, but he was reluctant to move.

Dave and Terezi both snuck up to Karkat and while Dave leaned over his matesprit to kiss one side of his neck, Terezi took the opportunity to press a kiss to his cheek. Karkat took a deep breath as he stirred, tensing up then stretching out under the blanket and looking back and forth between the two of them with an arched brow. He huffed a quiet chuckle and turned to kiss Terezi's cheek, then back to nudge his nose against Dave's and nuzzle against the side of his head. "Better wakeup than an alarm," he murmured, still lying back comfortably.

Terezi grinned and pecked his cheek again in return before going to go find herself some cereal or otherwise breakfast-type food to eat and get rid of what little hangover she had. Dave, meanwhile, stayed where he was, peppering his matesprit's cheek with kisses, trailing down to his lips. "Only things that would have made that better is if we were naked and at home, I know." He smirked and kissed Karkat's forehead before sitting up. "I'm gonna go get us some hot breakfast. What do you want to eat?"

"Don't care, as long as it's edible," Karkat groaned as he stretched out again before pushing himself up to sit, rubbing his hands into his eyes then back through his hair. He let his bangs fall back down over his face as he looked up at Dave with a soft pout. "Coffee?"

"I'll get you a cup," Dave said with a nod as he walked to the kitchen. He was planning on making a breakfast run, but then he saw, as he retrieved the creamer, that Bro had already thought to buy breakfast burritos and tucked them away in the back of the fridge so they wouldn't easily get picked off by partygoers the night prior. He picked those out of the fridge as he set the creamer back in, and tossed them in the microwave for a couple minutes, heating up three - one for everyone who was currently downstairs. They were pretty substantially sized.

Bro grumbled a little as he stretched out, tensing his muscles before relaxing once more. "I really should get up," he muttered. "Gonna just lay here otherwise."

"We don't really have to do anything unleth one of the athholeth downthtairth dethideth it'th a good idea to thtart getting loud," Sollux argued, sitting up some to lean against Bro's back. He looped his arms around his matesprit's waist loosely, thumb grazing over the space just below the piercing in his navel.

"Damn dude, twist my arm," Bro conceded with a quiet chuckle, slipping his hand over Sollux's forearm with a smile, before he reached back to run his hand from his matesprit's hip to his thigh. Sollux chuckled and pressed his lips to the back of Bro's neck then nipped his shoulder with a playful chuckle.

"I could, if you like. Or pin you down." He smirked against Bro's shoulder, arching an eyebrow at him as he scooted a little closer and arranged his legs on either side of Bro's hips. Bro's smile went tilted and he rolled all the way to his stomach as Sollux moved to straddle him. He liked that idea, and it began to grow apparent when he rocked his hips into the mattress.

"Might like that a little too much." He turned his head to look over his shoulder at Sollux with an arch of his brow. "Might wind up actually enjoying myself or some shit."

"Can't have that, now can we," Sollux muttered and sat up perched atop Bro's voluptuous rump, running his hands along his matesprit's back again then bending to press a series of light kisses down the back of his neck. He bit down gently on the curve of the base of his neck, sucking at the pale skin a moment and lying down flat against Bro's back.

With an appreciative and quiet groan, Bro's breath went short and he rocked against the sheet below him again. "No sir, that'd be a fuckin' travesty," he said, his tone _almost_ sounding sincere. He arched up against Sollux's chest and spread his legs just enough to make it an unspoken offer.

"God forbid you take any pleathure in life," Sollux continued as he drew his legs back and pressed them up behind Bro's legs, spreading them just a bit more then reaching down between them and dragging the tip of his finger along the dry skin of his entrance. With a loud, long gasp, Bro arched at the small of his back, moving his legs enough to bring his hips up, while his arms pushed up under the pillows and he lifted himself partially off the mattress.

"Would hate to give people some crazy idea that I live for it or somethin'."

Letting his fingers run up and down the tender patch of skin, Sollux chuckled quietly into the back of Bro's neck then shifted just enough to lean his weight back and balance on his knees, his free hand dragging across the tips of his bulges and draw them out. He guided one to pick up where his fingers had just left off, the other one sneaking down to wrap in a steady grip around his matesprit's balls and the base of his cock. "Of courthe, it'th not like anyone'th willing to help you out with that even if it were the cathe," he continued the teasing conversation without missing a beat.

"Who would do such a thing. C'mon now," Bro said with a groan rolling out as punctuation, before he rocked back against Sollux's hips, finally moving up to his elbows as he looked over his shoulder again, grinning at his matesprit. Sollux returned the smile and pressed forward, rolling his hips up and pushing in, his bulge twisting some as he fit inside. He pressed his lips to the space behind Bro's ear as his hands came to rest against his matesprit's hips, fingers digging into his skin.

"Thomeone truly bored with hith lot in life, perhapth," he huffed quietly as he braced his feet against the mattress. Bro shifted his weight to rest on one elbow as he slipped his hand down to brush against his own erection before slipping lower to firmly brush against the bulge around his balls, rolling his hips only to get Sollux seated as deep inside him as he could. After he took a slow, calming breath, a twitch of a smile flit over his face.

"Hn, I think I know that guy," he huffed, before he murmured, "I like him, might keep him around for a while."

"You might want to athk firtht, what if he hath other planth?" Sollux smirked against the back of his neck as he rolled his hips, his hands resting against Bro's thighs as he leaned over him and nosed against the underside of the other's jaw.

"Wanna stay a while?" Bro said after a shuddered breath, squeezing around Sollux's bulge before slipping his hand up to tease against his own cock, his fingertips running over his ladder before he wrapped his hand around, pumping himself.

"I don't know," Sollux hummed against the side of his neck, "I did promithe your brother I'd try and record thome muthic with him.." Grinning, Sollux pulled back and remove himself slowly from Bro's ass only to twist his bulges together, slowly pushing them back inside and pulsing the muscles gently until he was once more seated inside him to the hilt. Bro's jaw went slack when Sollux slipped away, and he closed his eyes to regain his composure. He continued to pump himself, albeit more slowly.

"I didn't mean short-term, and I'm pretty sure you know that," he sassed.

Sollux smiled faintly and hooked his chin over Bro's shoulder, starting to thrust once more and running one hand up along Bro's side to come to rest beneath him against his sternum. "You're thtuck with me for the retht of your life," he murmured then kissed his cheek just in front of his ear. With a content smile, Bro let go of himself to reach over his shoulder to put his hand on the back of Sollux's neck, which was as close as he could get to an embrace in that position, rolling his hips with a shudder of breath. It took him a few moments to find words, but when he did, they were thought out and spoken clearly, despite the fact that he'd been breathing heavily for a while.

"I'm glad we're on the same page, because you're stuck with me, too." It wasn't going to be much longer before he'd hit his peak, although he needed just a little more stimulation than simple fucking, and he knew Sollux knew it.

Sollux drew it out though, keeping Bro up and sensitive all the while muttering in his ear anything that came to his mind, mostly sweet, reassuring things thinly disguised as sarcasm. He drew out and pushed back in in languid stroke, sending shivers of psionic energy down the length of Bro's body to envelop his cock, arcing between the piercings. With the heightened sensitivity and the way Sollux had learned to eke every precious modicum of pleasure out of a situation, Bro had to stabilize himself by putting his hand up on the head of the bed, gripping it tight as he let out a loud groan. He couldn't deny that he was holding himself back from his own orgasm, just as much as Sollux was, but he knew that it was going to only make things much, much better for himself. He gave one more look over his shoulder to his matesprit, huffing a breath of "Not comin' 'til you're done," before his head dropped forward with another groan through his clenched teeth.

Sollux smirked faintly and pressed his nose into the back of Bro's neck, reaching down and pressing his fingertips into the base of the other's cock, into the thick vein that would facilitate his orgasm, effectively holding it back. He bit into his matesprit's shoulder with a soft chuckle then dragged his tongue over the pinprick wounds. It wasn't long before he would need a pail at least and he paused just long enough to fish over the edge of the bed, snagging the handle and positioning it just below Bro's hips.

When he came he had just enough time to pull out and position himself downward to keep from making a mess, preferring not to ruin the bedspread. He pushed his fingers in in place of his bulge, running the tip of his middle finger around Bro's prostate, sending another wave of energy down the length of his body to envelop his cock again.

Bro shuddered every breath he could manage to take through his clenched teeth, staving himself back as best he could, though Sollux's care to pinch it back was necessary and for that particular bit of it, Bro was grateful. Once Sollux pulled out, he was lightheaded and nearly out of breath, his own peak hit him hard enough to send his back arching and his muscles tense. The flash of white before his eyes as he hit his release was enough to make him clench them shut, as he came into the bucket below him as well, only managing to move it out of the way just in time for his legs to give out under him. He held the bucket up with one hand as he groaned deeply into a pillow, chuckling at the intensity of that one.

"Fuckin' shit, dude," he said into the pillow, before he set the bucket down at the side of the bed and turned over. "Now I don't think I'll _ever_ get up today."

Sollux chuckled quietly as he eased himself to one side, curling up on his side and tucking his face against his arm as he came down into the afterglow. "I'm pretty thure it'th not really a nethethity until thomeone downthtairth needth thomething from uth," he murmured, looking back at Bro through half-lidded eyes.

Bro silently wondered what would happen if they stayed upstairs. He figured Dave would get bored and usher Terezi and Karkat out without a word. But Sollux and Dave wanted to record some music, and that was rude as hell to consider, anyway. He turned his head to look at Sollux, before rolling to his side to wrap an arm around his matesprit's waist, leaving a lingering kiss on his lips. "I'll have to be all fuckin' polite and shit and actually have to get up eventually, though. I've got tons of shit I need to do today."

"Gueth if you really have to get up and do thomething, might ath well get a head-thtart on it tho we can get on with our liveth that much thooner," Sollux muttered against Bro's cheek, yawning widely and sitting back up, scratching lightly at the pattern of freckles on his matesprit's shoulder. He crawled over the top of him and sat up on the edge of the bed, leaning back against him. "When the time cometh we'll have to go to Bothton and run interferenthe jutht tho Dave can focuth on hith project. We're probably not going to have much time to retht in between," he sighed.

As much as Bro wanted to procrastinate and slouch around in bed all day, he really had to get up. He sat up as well after smiling faintly at the scratching. "Might as well call up Rose and make some plans, see if she'n Kanaya have room for two more." He leaned over to give Sollux a quick kiss, before slipping off to the bathroom, to get himself cleaned up and ready for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey, it's the chapter that Meebs' Gamzee DW account, [cookinglikeamotherfucker](http://cookinglikeamotherfucker.dreamwidth.org/profile), got its name from.
> 
> And also here's that [tattoo](http://datmeebs.tumblr.com/post/78981626064/welp-i-am-unreasonably-proud-of-this) on the back of Karkat's neck. He got it as a birthday present to himself.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Artsy shit and then dramatic shit.

Dave hadn't stopped working on his photography in the weeks leading up to their departure, though once they arrived in Boston, he had wished he hadn't wasted so much film on mundane bullshit back home.

"Holy shit, this architecture," he said as Rose drove them from the airport, through the city. He was gawking through the window with a look of complete awe. "Dude, I want to marry this city, what the hell?" 

"Great, he's got a boner for buildings," Karkat muttered at Dave almost literally drooling over the places they were passing, massive catholic churches and ancient-looking apartments and hotels.

Rose laughed and shook her head. "Get a hold of yourself, Dave, they're _just_ buildings. Gamzee and Eridan have already arrived." She looked to her side, to Karkat, who had the passenger seat, while Dave sprawled out in the back. "Eridan has surprisingly had nothing negative to say this entire time. I think Gamzee may be doing him a great deal more good than we give him credit for."

Karkat pressed his cheek to the window and looked back at Rose, nodding some. "Yeah, every time I turn around I'm getting a text from Eridan about some damn stupid thing Gamzee's done. He's just as fucking twitterpated over that fucking clown as Bro is over Sollux." Crossing his arms over his chest, Karkat looked out of the window with an arched brow. "You're going to spend a lot of time just wandering around with a new roll of film aren't you," he sighed back at Dave, glancing at him through the rearview mirror.

"Maybe, depends on how much time I get to do that. Might grab Gamzee and drag him along with me," Dave said with a grin. Rose simply shook her head in amusement and started down a side street, closing in on their home.

"You can fondly regard crenelations later, bulge-for-brains," Karkat sighed then sat up, scanning around the property as they traversed the long drive up to the Lalonde estate.

Their house was on the same ludicrously large plot of land that Mom's home was, as well as the lab. It was still somewhat secluded, and, true to Rose's tastes (As well as Kanaya's), it was lavish and Gothic in design. As Dave walked in, he almost felt like he was dirtying it just by existing. "Jesus, Rose, you really don't mess around with your living space, do you?" He muttered as he gaped at the foyer, looking like the set of an opulent movie mansion. He was immediately assaulted, however, by a large black cat twisting between his legs and butting its head up against them. "Aaaand I have a friend."

Karkat looked down at the mutated cat and smiled faintly, crouching down to pick it up and scratching behind its ears. He turned some in place to look around the inside of the house, shaking his head at the lavish affair. He followed Rose through the halls to find where they would be staying for the duration. He could hear Gamzee and his music down one hall, the acoustics of the house amplifying it to carry.

"As soon as Gamzee set foot in their room he insisted upon setting up a small music dock specifically so that he would be able to have his comfortable living space," Kanaya commented as she came out of one room, pulling the door shut behind her then wrapping her arms around Karkat's and Dave's shoulders. "I trust the two of you will want something similar."

Dave grinned and leaned back to kiss Kanaya's cheek, "Thanks for that, really, but I'm pretty much good with whatever. You don't need to dote on us. Well. Me. Karkat might need some super rock star treatment, though," he said with a tilted smile to his matesprit. "You know, pamper the shit out of him 'til he passes out from all the attention." He followed Rose and grinned at the four-eyed cat, scratching under its chin. "Cute mutant, Rose."

"Mm, he's one of Mom's experiments that survived. His name is Antares. He's not shy like Minerva. I'm sure she'll come to inspect you both some time soon." Rose opened the door to their room and stepped aside to let them through.

"Karkat resents the idea that someone thinks he needs to be treated well," Kanaya laughed quietly and pressed her lips to Dave's temple then led them toward their bedroom with her hands on each of their backs, watching Karkat doting on the cat. "I don't suppose you brought your little girl with you," she asked regarding Em, unsure whether they'd left her with Cassidy again or not.

"Cass has her," Karkat nodded and rubbed his thumb over the space between the smaller set of Antares' eyes, smiling faintly as he started to purr. "We just weren't completely sure she would get around with other cats since she hasn't been around any strange ones since before we got her. Is Eridan in there with Gamzee? He doesn't listen to that stuff."

"Eridan _very much_ listens to that stuff," Eridan responded behind them, his hands tucked in his pockets casually, smirking a little. "Just...not all the time, an' certainly not while on my own. I just finished givin' myself the tour. They got a flower garden, so I stalled there a while."

Dave chuckled at Rose's little jump of surprise and then her immediate putting a hand over her lips to hide her chagrined smile. "You walk almost as quietly as Kanaya," she scolded, and then looked to Dave. "Come along, brother dear, let's get you fed. You were probably too distracted to remember to eat. Karkat, while you're here, you get a reprieve from cooking, unless you really wish to. Eridan, could you be a dear and show Karkat all the peak points of the house?" As she led Dave away from the posh guest bedroom in which they'd be staying, she kissed Karkat on the cheek then took Kanaya's hand, leading her away as well.

Karkat wrinkled his nose at that and rubbed his hand over his cheek, then looked back up at Eridan, his arms crossed over his chest, hands under his arms. "Yes, be a _dear_ would you?" He snorted in a mimicked Lalonde voice, arching an eyebrow up at his friend. The only person Eridan had ever intentionally been a "dear" to was Gamzee, he was certain. "Since when do you listen to the shit Gamzee likes? Let me guess, you only listen to it because he's always playing it."

Eridan gave the most indignant of eyerolls as Rose slipped past, and then cracked a smile when Karkat imitated her, and stepped closer to his moirail. "You got it in one, though I'll admit that some a it's actually not shit." He shook his head. "Doesn't say much to the rest of it," he put his arm around Karkat's shoulder and led him back down to the main floor. "I'm guessin' our artists will be busy beyond all comprehension once they're started in on this project, so until it's our turn to play fuckin' canvasses, we gotta entertain ourselves."

Karkat nodded, giving him a shrug as he leaned a bit against Eridan's side. It was still something of a novel thing to be able to do so and still be able to look Eridan in the face. "Yeah, the two of us are going to have to occupy each other for a while. I have my research and some of my books with me but I'm pretty sure Dave would throw a fucking fit if I spent our entire stay here working on my dissertation."

"Kar, you gotta be fuckin' jokin', since when does Dave care if you worked on your dissertation? I don't even talk to the guy an' I know he's been behind you on doin' this. It's one a the few reasons he's garnered my respect." He smiled a little. "An' wouldn't you know it, our hostesses happen to have a very respectable private library." He motioned that direction before he started to walk there. "Anyway, what the hell would he even say to it, it's not like he's got anythin' better for you to do."

"He'd get on me for working myself to death again." Karkat snorted then followed after him, looking around the house. When Rose had been telling them the basics of the layout to keep them from getting lost, she'd neglected to mention just how ornate her living space was. He should have expected something like this from their resident intellectual ladies. "When they actually get the project underway, we're going to need to find more people so that they can cover more aspects. As it stands we have Time, Blood, Doom, Heart, Hope, Rage even though I have no idea how they're actually going to manage that one, Light and Mind whenever Terezi actually makes it. She had to stay behind for a few days for whatever reason."

"We're missin' a few. It fuckin' blows that Fef won't get her shit in order an' talk to us, or we'd have Life, Breath would be hard to do without Tav, an' unless Equius fuckin' _bows_ to Gam for tryin' to kill him, there's absolutely no fuckin' way I'd let that muscle-laden horsefucker anywhere near Gam, so Void's right out." At this point, it wasn't so much about hemospectrum - though it always was in part, in Eridan's mind - but rather that Equius had to make up for throwing Gamzee's life up into turmoil once again. And sure, while Eridan benefited from Equius' idiotic, thickheaded, completely justified rage, Gamzee didn't need that bullshit.

He took a seat in the library, and his lap was immediately claimed by a smaller white cat with three eyes and two tails. "Hello, Minerva," he murmured as he pet down the cat's back. "I'm convinced their cats like me 'cause I'm a seadweller."

Karkat sank into one of the deeply cushioned chairs with Antares kneading his thigh, scratching between his ears as he looked down at the little white cat. "For one thing, I know you don't care about the hemospectrum quite as much as _you_ seem to think you do, or else you wouldn't come within twenty god damn yards of me. But yeah, what Equius pulled was beyond fucked up. Yeah, I understand why he did it, but I'm with you. I don't want him coming anywhere near Gamzee without some sincere fucking apologies and a bottle of Faygo at the absolute least."

"First, you're different because you're you," Eridan pointed out, "And even if you weren't a fuckin' mutant, and you were just a limeblood like you ought to be, you'd still be you, and you're just about the only fuckin' bein' in all a paradox space outside a Gamzee who hasn't dropped me like a hot nutrition plataeu a bullet ants at their first opportunity. You don't see me makin' a bigger deal out a our group a players because they say the friends you make in your formative years are the strongest bonds you can ever make." He shook his head and leaned back to look at Minerva with amusement. Cats always liked him, and he was usually indifferent to them in return, but this one was pleasant.

"An' it's less about me an' more about that blueblood asshole's hangups on it. If he _ever_ gets within eyesight a me or Gam, it'd better be to prostrate himself before the highblood an' swear fuckin' fealty or whatever it is he thinks is an appropriate response for tryin' to kill him. _He's_ the one with the hangup on hemospectrum." He looked over at Karkat with an arched brow. "Not that Gamzee would give half a shit. He'd probably be okay with a handshake an' a 'hey sorry', but you fuckin' _know_ that in the _very_ unlikely situation where Eq apologizes, it'll be with the fuckin' grace of his status."

"'The grace of his status', huh? Please, I've never met a fucking blueblood with any sort of grace, social or otherwise." Rolling his eyes, Karkat finally let himself look around the room, clearly impressed with the sheer amount of knowledge in just a private collection. He would certainly be going through them first thing in the morning if not later that evening. He looked back at Eridan, letting the cat out of his lap when it got up and hopped onto the tabletop to make its way across to Eridan instead. "And you're a giant asshole but I'm not going to just brush you off without getting to know you, especially given the fact that we were crammed in basically the same room for a long-ass time. I don't regret making friends with you any more than I could regret making friends with Gamzee, or Dave or any of you. Blood's really not that fucking important. Equius needs to get that through his head. A lot of people do."

"Well, perceived grace, I never said he's any good at it," Eridan smirked and gave Antares a little scratch behind his ears. "An' I've noticed through my work that with the exception of lifespans an' the powers that the ones lower on the hemospectrum can get, there really _isn't_ much difference, neither genetically or otherwise, in the spectrum, but those differences are key and pretty fuckin' important, you gotta admit." He shrugged one shoulder and put the larger cat down on the floor, shooing him off.

"Shit's goin' fuckin' terrible in that front, by the way, thanks for askin'." He rubbed his face at that. It hadn't been going well in the reproductive front. The shit wouldn't coalesce, and what few eggs they managed to produce in trial runs of the labs, were either duds to put it bluntly, or the grubs died shortly after hatching. It was really fucking depressing.

"I can't really say I expected anything different," Karkat sighed, his expression falling. "I'm sorry though. I know you were really banking on this to work. All of us were. What we need is the fucking matriorb..."

"Tch, yeah, and how the fuck are we gonna get that? That's off in the other bubble," grumbled Eridan. "S'probably already fuckin' hatched by now, those lucky sonsofbitches don't know how good they have it." He rubbed his forehead and looked down at the cat, rubbing under her chin. "And thanks for rubbin' it in that I destroyed the last one I had my hands on, that's real nice." In spite of the words though, there was no heat to his gripe.

Karkat closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers over the bridge of his nose, muttering. "Eridan, don't. You know that's not what I meant."

"Yeah, I know." He sighed and shook his head, pushing the thought down and waving it off. "If there _is_ some inexplicable fuckin' matriorb here, we haven't fuckin' found it, and even if we did, the chances of it bein' viable after not bein' looked after is slim, an' even if it _was_ found and viable, there's no fuckin' way I'm gonna give up tryin' to do this, anyway. It's possible. I just gotta find the right way."

Karkat opened his mouth to continue arguing that of course there was going to be a way, freezing at the sudden quiet honk, his hands gripping down on the arms of his chair. He relaxed as much as he could when Gamzee peeked around the door then stepped in to drape himself over Eridan's shoulders.

"What's up with you guys?" He asked amiably, giving Karkat a lazy smile.

"Oh. You know. Talking," Karkat replied somewhat stiffly, then forced himself to unclench and slink down some in his seat. No matter how much he reminded himself that Gamzee was _ok_ now, there were still some things that were going to set him on edge, and that honking was definitely one of them.

Eridan, on the other hand, calmed considerably with the arrival of his matesprit, pressing a quick kiss to Gamzee's jaw. "Just tellin' Kar my reservations about the reproduction project. Have you found Dave? I'm pretty sure his sister walked him off to the kitchen, they're probably still there."

"Don't worry about it so motherfuckin' much. It'll fall into place then you'll all up and feel real motherfuckin' stupid about stressin' the fuck out of everything," Gamzee nudged his nose against Eridan's cheek then straightened back up, his hands resting loosely against the base of his matesprit's neck. He looked back at Karkat, shrugging a shoulder. "Comes right down to it, no reason getting all motherfuckin' upset. Just makes it harder to make progress."

"Easy for you to say," Eridan said with a huff and a pout, "you don't have to see the failure firsthand." He sighed and turned his head to brush his lips against Gamzee's wrist. He looked over at Karkat with a browarch. "At this rate, by the time I get anywhere with it, it'll be too late for some a the lower castes. That's somethin' I don't really _want_ on my conscience." He looked up at the door as it swung open again, Dave coming through it with a half-eaten slice of strawberry rhubarb pie on a plate. "Bro'n Sollux are here," he announced quietly, and then smiled with an upward nod to Gamzee. "You ready to get this shit underway?"

"Hatched ready, motherfucker," Gamzee grinned and removed himself from Eridan's shoulders, heading back to Dave's side and peering at the pie, leaning back to see if he could spot anymore in the general vicinity or if he'd have to actively search for it. Instead, what he saw was Sollux walking in with his hands in his pockets, staring around the hall and whistling quietly. When the highblood was noticed he raised a hand, flipping Sollux a quick wave then turning his attention back to Dave. "You all up and motherfuckin' showered? Don't wanna have to deal with some motherfuckin' dirt all up in my brushes, y'know?"

"Should probably take another one, I'll be a few, get my camera set up and stuff before my hands are all paint." Dave handed the rest of the pie off to Gamzee, and nodded to Sollux with a grin. "You're next, pornstar." He leaned down to kiss Karkat's forehead as he walked past to go get a shower and ready to be canvas.

Eridan was already in a shit mood, why the _fuck_ did he have to put up with this? He gave a curt nod to Sollux as he arrived, and then went back to silently petting Minerva, who had curled up into a ball on his lap. "It's goin' to be a long week," he murmured to himself.

Gamzee had already set up what he needed, setting aside the concepts for each piece and leaving everything where he could easily get to it, leaving him with nothing to do for the time being. He'd already more or less figured out how he was going to do his own aspect, it would just take a little bit of help from whoever could take direction well enough from a really vague source. He settled back down behind Eridan and rubbed his fingers up behind his matesprit's earfins. Dave would be able to help with painting Gamzee where he couldn't reach once it got to that point, but as it stood, that was a long time off. Once he got his camera and lights set up like he wanted them - getting Rose to help by standing where everyone would be, to adjust the lighting - he went off to take a shower. Once done, he walked down in his robe to the library to fetch Gamzee again.

"We're good to go, bro."

Bro and Kanaya were off to one side of the room that Gamzee and Dave had commandeered for their project, already quietly talking with each other about the project at large, while Rose went to tuck herself back into the library with Karkat and Eridan. As interesting as this was, the last thing she really needed to see at this point was her brother naked. Karkat had taken to trying to rationalize to Eridan and keep him from mindfucking himself into an even worse mood over the reproduction project's setbacks. He didn't seem to be doing a very good job. He looked up when Sollux peeked in on them again and asked Karkat if he wanted to come in and watch the process; while seeing Dave stripped down did absolutely nothing for him, it was an interesting process to watch Gamzee at work in person.

He was using his hands just as much as he did a brush, having already discussed with Dave how he normally worked so that he at the very least knew what to expect when it came to how he painted. He'd changed into his usual painting clothes, his hair all pulled back away from his face, a brush in his mouth, tubes in one hand, another couple of brushes in the other and red paint streaked halfway up his forearm. There was a large portion of Dave's torso already coming together in just gestures of shapes and backgrounds that would be refined as he went. There seemed to be absolutely no quarrel over scars, or hair, or the fact that Dave was completely naked. Dave had put his earbuds in and was listening to music while Gamzee worked, half-sitting, half-leaned against a bar stool as he mouthed the words to the music playing, sitting as still as he possibly could. He looked up when Karkat came in, a tiny smile creeping over his lips. "Doesn't Rose have a place to watch movies or something? This can't be that entertaining."

Bro chuckled at that. "It's endless fuckin' entertainment, dude. You shoulda thought to bring your video camera, get some behind-the-scenes footage of this shit to show at the galleries or somethin'."

"That would have been interesting," Karkat nodded, watching the process with his head at a tilt. He skirted around the outside of the tarp that had been set up on the floor and settled against a wall. He wrinkled his nose as he watched Gamzee's hands, trying not to think about how the paint would feel as it was spread over his own skin later. At least Gamzee had thought to get some that seemed to be relatively quick in drying.

Bro looked over at Karkat, brows knit in something between amusement and concern. "You gettin' cold feet, shortstack?" He had yet to let that nickname go, and probably never would.

Dave reached over to the pocket of his robe and grabbed his sylladex, "Actually, now that you mention it, I have my camera with me. If someone wants to take control of that while I'm up here, that is." He was pointedly looking to Sollux. Sollux arched an eyebrow then shrugged and held his hand out for the camera. At least it wouldn't have to be terribly professional, giving him leave to walk around some and get better shots of a few things.

"You intend to walk around in that paint for the retht of the day?" He asked with a quiet snort then glanced over at Karkat. "I'm sure Nubth wouldn't mind that."

"Bite me," Karkat replied then turned his attention back to Gamzee starting to add more of the details, dabbing a little bit of the paint out of the tubes here and there and dragging it across Dave's skin. There seemed to be a Persistence of Memory theme, with a little less desolation.

Dave snorted. "Hells no, but this is going to take like, two hours just to get the paint applied and dried, and then another twenty minutes in front of the camera," he pointed to his setup. "Catch for me," he said, before the camera launched from his sylladex and he hoped that Sollux had quick reflexes. The camera sailed over his head but slowed and came back in the grip of his psionics, drifting back into his hands as he quickly worked the settings to keep things in focus as he looked down at the little LCD display, walking around and doing some vague commentary. Gamzee had dropped to one knee as he leaned close to Dave and worked on the details around his stomach, tongue poking from between his teeth. Karkat walked around to settle next to Bro, his chin resting in his hand.

"What's really going to be entertaining is watching Gamzee having to paint himself," he muttered, already internally wincing at the contortionist act that was going to be.

Dave chuckled at that and looked down his body at Gamzee, "I dunno, dude, I think that'll be pretty fuckin' awesome. Not like anyone expects him to be nothing BUT some slinky fuckin' acrobat." He directed the conversation to Gamzee then, "After that dancing you did at the party a couple months back? Bro, did you see that shit?"

Bro looked up and shook his head. "I must've been distracted. Hey, I'm gonna go check on Rose and Eridan, got some shit I need to talk to them about regardin'... stuff." He stood and slipped over to Sollux, kissing him before he left.

Dave sighed and leaned back to give Gamzee a better angle to work with. "You know, I don't think any of us were prepared to get this chummy after finding each other? Like, shit dude, even after everyone started coming together? I never would've expected runnin' into Eridan."

Karkat watched Bro as he left with a small frown then shook his head. "Eridan didn't want to have anything to do with us when we ran into him at first anyway, remember? The only thing that made him actually acknowledge any of us was Sollux-"

"Wrong," Sollux interrupted him. "The firtht thing he notithed wath you. He said himself he would have walked the fuck away from all of uth if it weren't for you."

Dave nodded to that. "Sollux is right, man. He completely blew off Terezi but when he saw you..." He shrugged slightly, careful not to mess up Gamzee as he worked. "I dunno. I actually kind of wonder if it's this way to other sessions, other players, you know. If they're drawn to each other as well." There were just some connections that were beyond coincidental. He furrowed his brow to that and looked down at Gamzee, "And I'm a hundred percent fucking certain that shit wouldn't have gotten together like it did if it weren't for this guy with his hands all over me right now. Didn't Vriska say that it all started when she tracked you down?"

Gamzee looked up at him with eyebrows raised, shrugging a shoulder as he sat back some, tucking one of the brushes behind his ear. "You wanna get technical, it all started with Vriska herself. She wouldn'a fuckin' tracked me if she didn't remember in the first place. I wasn't gonna look for you guys yet, bro. Didn't want to put you into the line of fire until absolutely necessary. I told 'er that but she still arranged to have me locked up."

"And yet she contacted us to say we shouldn't talk to anyone else. Kind of ass backwards logic there," Dave said with a furrow of his brow, raising one arm so Gamzee could get to his side and hip better, "And Karkat and I just kinda _happened_ to run into each other. Seriously, it was just coincidence at work there."

"Or something else," Kanaya said finally from her place on an armchair near the window. "Rose and I met completely by chance as well. I surmise it was around the same time that you and Karkat reunited." She stood and came closer to look at the finer details coming into place on Dave's body, smiling at the work that Gamzee was doing. "Though, I've discussed this with Rose, and we are in agreement that the coincidences are far more than that. As if we were _meant_ to be pulled together. Do you have any insight into this, Gamzee?" She'd noticed, over time, that Gamzee knew much more than even he probably realized.

Gamzee continued to work, focused in on the smaller details starting to branch up Dave's side and blending with his thumb along one of the lines of scar tissue. "I don't know about the timing of this shit, sis. Seems like it's all coming together along some kinda schedule but fucked if I know what kinda grand scheme's in place. Used to be, I just wanted people to wake up so the world'd get all up and motherfuckin' real that much faster. Now I just want 'em around to protect it. We can't do it alone, y'know?" He looked back up at Kanaya, his expression sobered and focused. Kanaya was taken slightly aback by how clearheaded Gamzee looked, having never seen that, save for once when he was rampaging, then collected herself with a dainty smile, looking back to Karkat and Sollux.

"I think we can all agree to that. That it'll take more than just our little ragtag group of outliers to keep things safe. As much faith as I have in us, this is a far larger undertaking than we could ever hope to accomplish, even when we work together." She smiled then and put her hand gently on Gamzee's shoulder. "Which is why this project is so important, not just to you, but to everyone. I'm grateful that the two of you have the forethought to do this."

"Forethought, shit," Dave half-drawled, "I just wanted to give the girls up there some help. I shoulda been up there with them, y'know? ...Well, I mean..." He hadn't ever said that aloud, but it had weighed heavily on his mind. "I mean, that's just the feeling I get. I can't really remember why I feel that way." He gave a weak smile and then put his earbud back in, turning his music back on.

Karkat frowned deeply at that but kept himself from moving forward, crossing his arms with his hands under them instead. He wasn't sure how much his opinion counted for anything, but _he_ was certainly glad that Dave wasn't up there with the other Time players. He looked up when Kanaya moved to his side, laying a hand against her back then looking back at Gamzee. The only time he ever saw the highblood this committed to anything was when it involved his art. It was such a stark difference from his normal persona that Karkat had to remind himself that yes, this was Gamzee that he was watching. He was startled when a small music player was set up on the ground, an ipod docked between a pair of small speakers, starting to play his mix of mellow hip hop. The makeshift studio had been more or less silent between conversation up until then.

It didn't take more than another hour before Gamzee had finished, and Bro returned to help with the photography part. Dave posed subtly to show the parts of the design that were integral and gave _him_ the most visceral reaction to the design, not cracking a single smile during the shoot. Once done, he pulled on his robe and started out to wash off the paint. "You're up, Captor," he reminded, before he left the room.

Bro was grinning when he took over control of the videocam. "You just can't stop gettin' naked, can you?" He teased his matesprit.

Karkat had remained quiet throughout the shoot, his chin resting in his hand. He looked up at Sollux as he rolled his eyes then stripped down without bothering to leave the room, fancying that he could count every vertebra as his friend moved. Sollux didn't really seem to think anything of it as he turned back to Bro, winking then ducking around the camera to steal a quick kiss before Gamzee had washed the red off his hands to switch out for the darker shades of green, grey and black. Sollux was even thinner than he was, with less muscle and curve, more sharp lines and dramatic bone structure.

Gamzee's work went a little quicker with Sollux, the design simpler in spite of spanning more of his body. He'd worked in vaguely birdlike shapes, taking hints from Dave about the foreboding nature of certain birds. Spanning up one half of Sollux's back was a skeletal wing, the painstaking detail taking the longest of all of it. Sollux was very good at holding still at least, even while he chatted back and forth with Bro.

Dave came back shortly after washing off most of the paint, not quite getting it all off his neck and below his jaw, though he tried. He came to collect Karkat, wrapping his arms around his matesprit and buried his face against his neck.

"I'm glad I'm not up there, you know," he whispered against Karkat's ear. "I'm so glad that I was here for you." He tightened his embrace and watched Gamzee work. Karkat leaned into him with his arms tight around his waist, fingers tightening around the fabric of his robe. He had nothing to say to that, simply glad that Dave had been there at all. He watched Gamzee stand and circle Sollux then turn back to them, waiting for Dave with a soft smile on his face as he let the two of them have their moment. Sollux was leaning his clean shoulder against the wall, smirking some at the display then reaching out a hand to take Bro's. There would be a lot of time lapsing and a few edits to get rid of dead space in the filming but for the time being, the video camera could be turned off to rest a moment.

Dave grinned into Karkat's neck and whispered, "you're next, dude," before nudging Karkat towards the door. "C'mon, Sollux, before the paint starts cracking," he started towards the camera, giving Bro and Sollux however much time they'd need to stop being perfect at each other.

Bro grinned as he ran his hand down the unpainted section of Sollux's back, kissing his matesprit's hand once he was holding it. "Go be amazin'." He smirked a little. "Dude, Dave, get some fuckin' clothes on."

"Says the guy who spends every Tuesday nude. No." He grinned smugly from the light setup, having to adjust it minutely to take into account the brightness of the sun coming in from the windows. "Karkat's next, and then Bro, keep the reds going, shoulda thought of that before we did Sollux."

Karkat rolled his eyes at the exchange and took a seat to the side once more, watching Sollux as Dave directed him into positions that would emphasize his bone structure and the paint climbing his body in the most striking ways. Just like when he had to shoot material for any of the sites, he seemed entirely at home in front of the camera, moving naturally into position any time he was moved. The shoot went easily and he was able to straighten back up, wrapping his arms around Bro's neck loosely and pecking his lips before heading off for a shower. He stopped when Rose reappeared, announcing that they would be having dinner soon. It would be much easier to continue afterward rather than stopping halfway through the next part to eat. Dave grinned at the idea of dinner, not realizing how hungry he'd gotten since the half-slice of pie. "Lemme go get dressed," he said, kissing Karkat before heading upstairs to put his clothes on.

Once everyone was situated in the dining room - which, like the rest of the house, could have been just as easily been found in some episode of Dark Shadows - dinner was served. It was a comfortable situation, if not a little upper-class for Dave's tastes. He listened as Eridan and Rose continued the conversation that they'd been having about the history of metaphysical and spirituality-based hysteria, and how it played into political climates. It was *way* over his head. He was just amazed that those two hit it off so well, considering the amount of disdain that the seadweller showed him.

Karkat eventually chipped in on the conversation between small bites of his dinner, bringing up the history of human affairs with the subject as opposed to the abject terror of stark reality in troll culture. It was obvious, at least to him, that humans seemed to be a lot more willing to be controlled by hypothetical fear rather than real threats. The debate grew more heated over time while still remaining very polite, the three of them talking all throughout dinner. They would have time for at least one more shoot when it was done, more if they could go on into the night.

Karkat was showered down and waiting for Gamzee to finish setting up within another hour and fidgeted some in place. Dave had made sure to design the blood motif where Karkat's ticklish, tender areas around his grubscars were left pretty much alone, though he'd consulted with him if it was okay for the design to incorporate his scars along his thighs and upper arms, to make them look like open wounds. It was a risky question, but it'd wrench the viewer of the art out of their comfort zone, to really *look* at the picture, and to feel what they were going for.

While Gamzee worked, Dave settled down in front of Karkat and spoke to him while filming him, making smalltalk as he was painted. "I know I told you what this project is about," he said, "but what does it mean to you?" Interview question, he figured, but it was something he wanted to hear Karkat's opinion of.

At first, Karkat didn't seem to know what to say to that. What *did* it really mean to him? He was sitting with his legs spread as Gamzee painted around the scars down his thighs, his arms crossed over his chest, thumb rubbing against the scars on one.

"I don't like being exposed, you know that," he said quietly. "But this isn't about being comfortable. Exact fucking opposite. Make people uncomfortable. Make them think. Bring around some real fucking introspection. A lot of people have forgotten who they became over the course of their games. They lost a huge hunk of themselves. I want to bring that back."

Dave looked around the camera to Karkat with a tender smile. "A lot of people probably feel like you and I did, you know. Lied to, questioning reality, questioning themselves. A lot of people are probably wondering what happened, how they lost so much time." He set the camera down on a tripod and settled down in a chair, keeping it rolling on the progress Gamzee was making.

"If this helps even one person get back to themselves, give them a life they lost, give them strength to go on... shit, I don't even care if it doesn't get them strong enough to help fight, I just want to make sure nobody goes through the horseshit we went through." He bowed his head slightly when Rose came over to press a kiss on top of his head, patting his shoulder.

"Nobody deserves that gaping hole in themselves." Looking down at Gamzee, Karkat leaned back with his hands clasped demurely in front of his groin. He offered a small, tight smile when the other looked back up at him, trying not to twitch at the paintbrush dragging over the sensitive skin between his thighs.

When it was done, Karkat was stuck sitting, painted down part of his throat and chest, his arms and his thighs looking as if they'd been laid open, the blood design running into fantastic shapes as they crept down his skin. The way that Gamzee had captured exactly what Dave had thought up for Karkat was eerie, and in its own way horrific. He shivered a little once he got a full look at it and brought his camera into focus, brow furrowed as he asked Karkat to pose almost stiffly, wrists out towards the camera to show the trails of blood down his arms, head facing away so only his jaw could be seen in the shot, then more relaxed as he took another few shots, working to get exactly what he needed.

As he worked to shoot Karkat's paint, Bro walked off to get undressed, coming back in with a casual saunter and taking a seat against the stool. His initial design had been scrapped to go with something that Dave had been inspired to make after the confession Bro had made to Sollux. It was by far the most expansive piece, not just because Bro was a built guy, but because it showed the duality behind his aspect.

Karkat held still until the shoot was done then stood and moved gingerly, picking up the robe to go and wash up before he would be asked to do anything else. He laid his hand on Gamzee's shoulder then went to Dave's side, letting out a slightly shaky sigh. It had been easy enough to give Dave the stiff, slightly uncomfortable poses as he himself was a little stiff and uncomfortable. He pressed his lips to his matesprit's forehead then left to go and shower. Dave smiled weakly at Karkat, squeezing his hand before he had a chance to slip away too far. That broke him in a small way. But it was worth it, he felt. He switched out film and then took a perching seat in a chair. He was off in his own little world, watching the designs he'd thought up come to living color at the hands of the highblood, and it was exciting, but at the same time, the raw emotion they both put into them was something he wondered if it would go over well, if it would even be understood at all. When Karkat returned he settled down on the edge of the set to watch Gamzee painting over the rippling wall of musculature that was Dave's brother. After this, they would be able to rest for the night. Tomorrow's spectacle would be Eridan, Rose, Kanaya and then Gamzee himself. That would definitely be something worth seeing.

Sollux was sitting on the floor on the other side of the room watching Bro getting multiple shades of red and pink smeared across his skin in Gamzee's peculiar method, his focus only half there. The dread was starting to creep in on him again, making his stomach plunge to around the region of his feet. Bro noticed the shift in Sollux's disposition and, while he was concerned, he didn't bring it up. He simply gave his matesprit a pointed look in warning that he'd need to get that shit out and in the open once he wasn't busy being a canvas.

Eridan slipped in after a while to watch his matesprit paint. He'd been holed up in the library most of the day and keeping to himself, with the exception of talking with Rose. He'd talked to her about setting up a meeting with the elder Lalonde, as Mom clearly understood biology in a way that most people didn't. It was sideways, but Eridan had begun to understand sideways approaches over the past few months. He thought she might have insight into why the project wasn't going as planned.

Dave burrowed his face against Karkat's neck and murmured, "Once Bro's done, I'm going to pass the fuck out. This has taken it out of me like nothin', Jesus fuck." Karkat leaned his cheek against the side of Dave's head and held onto him loosely, agreeing in a quiet murmur then putting his head down against his matesprit's shoulder to watch Bro being painted. Gamzee was working more slowly, clearly exhausted after spending the majority of his day doing nothing but this. He would need his evening medication soon and a good night's sleep.

Rose smiled as she slipped away toward the door. "I'll see you all in the morning...or, rather, when everybody is awake again. Sleep well, gentlemen." She gave a nod to the group and walked out, up to the bedroom. Kanaya smiled sweetly at her retreating matesprit and then to Eridan, who she took to the side to quietly discuss what had him in such a sour mood all day. It wasn't long at all before she had her hands in his hair and was braiding it demurely while he complained dramatically all over again.

When Bro stood to take his place, Gamzee was able to stand and stretch, groaning quietly and rubbing the slightly tacky paint between his hands. He stepped over his supplies and approached Eridan while the Striders worked, glancing at Karkat, who was dozing some in his seat. He smiled faintly and leaned against his matesprit's shoulder, reaching up and smudging a bit of the reddish paint over his cheek. He glanced back at Kanaya with a soft, sleepy smile and took her place behind Eridan as soon as she'd moved, his elbows propped on his matesprit's shoulders with his hands hanging out away from the other's clothes. "You ok man?" He asked quietly, leaning down over the top of his head.

"I don't know," Eridan murmured as he leaned back against Gamzee, putting his arms against the clown's legs. "Somethin' has been gettin' me down. It isn't the work shit, it's just..." He tried to justify the intangible sinking feeling of hopelessness; while he was familiar with it, he couldn't be sure what it was that made him feel so out of it. He shrugged when he couldn't find the right words. He looked over to Sollux, and then back up to Gamzee. "Seems like whatever it is, it's contagious," he murmured, before chuckling mirthlessly at Gamzee's arms still covered in paint and how his face was harboring color on top of the white. "C'mon, let's get you into a shower, an' into the cocoon." He slipped away before turning and offering his hand for Gamzee to hold as they started up to their room.

Gamzee nodded and slipped his hand into Eridan's, looking down at the paint smearing across the other's skin with a small smile. "Shit's happenin'. Gonna get real motherfuckin' rough," he said quietly and bumped his nose against Eridan's head, walking slowly beside him. "But we'll be ok, promise. Gonna get worse but then we'll be good."

Eridan settled closer as they walked and murmured, "Yeah, basically." He sighed and moved into the guest room, immediately slipping into the bathroom with a weak smile. "It's more personal than the last time, I feel it." He unbuttoned his shirt slowly and took his time setting the clothes aside, as if he was prolonging doing anything just to spite the feeling growing in the back of his mind.

"Sure that's not just the Hope shit makin' it feel like that?" Gamzee asked as he stripped out of his shirt, standing up in front of the mirror with it knotted between his hands. He knew better than to ask things like that, but the last thing he wanted was to give Eridan a reason to stress himself any worse. He wet down his hands after tossing the shirt aside then turned back to his matesprit and dragged his palm down the middle of his chest. "Focus on your work. Right now that's a lot more motherfuckin' important than this."

"No, I don't fuckin' think it _is_ more important. This has been hittin' me somewhere between my blood pusher and my stomach, fuckin'...wrenchin' at me," Eridan said as he watched his matesprit move, and slipped out of his slacks. He as he slipped into the shower stall, taking Gamzee's hand. "And as much as I want to stop payin' it any attention, I can't. Somethin' is gonna go down, an' it's gonna be as a direct result of some fucked up miscalculation. An' shit's gonna be enough to drop us to our knees."

Gamzee sighed and leaned against Eridan's back, hooking his chin over the other's shoulder and wrapping his arms around his matesprit's waist. His hand slipped up to rest against the space just below Eridan's ribcage. "Things fuck up. It's our job to get over all that and keep goin' right?"

"I don't see why it's our job, but it's not like we can shirk it so easily," Eridan murmured, putting his own arms over Gamzee's, rinsing them of the paint. "You did great today, you know. Best art I've ever seen you do. Kar's design especially." He shook his head. "They're all fuckin' powerful pieces. It'll do the world a lot a good seein' those."

"And that's why it's our responsibility. We're settin' this fucker into motion. We gotta be there to see it through."

When they were finally able to rest for the night, nobody spent much time talking, simply wrapping around their matesprits until early morning. Karkat and Dave would predictably be awake due to their own circadian rhythms, but when Bro and Sollux were forced to wake, it was by a pair of cats attempting to nest between them. Only Gamzee and Eridan were left alone, simply because of the forethought to lock the bedroom door behind them. Dave had taken it upon himself to familiarize himself with the Lalonde estate before anybody else was up, walking down long corridors and around beautiful rooms with lavish furniture.

He managed to get into Mom's house through a fenestrated plane. When he saw the elder Lalonde's house, he realized that _all_ Lalondes were insane. Lavish, but insane. He looked up at the large wizard statue in the foyer as he scratched his head in bafflement, before owlishly inspecting the bronze vacuum cleaner set on a pedestal.

He returned after an hour or so, half a roll of film less, and half a cup of Irish coffee more. He found Karkat and smiled. "I think I'm going to adopt my mother," he said as he sat down with a lopsided smile. "She's good people."

Karkat looked up from his book and took the coffee from Dave, taking a few long swallows before handing it back. "For a lush and a Lalonde, yes." He scooted over in his seat to let Dave sit down beside him. "So I'm guessing that we're off the hook for the day so that Gamzee's arms don't fall off."

"That's my plan," Dave said with a nod, finishing off the coffee and setting the cup aside. "She's basically insisted we come to dinner, all of us. So that's the plan for the evening." He was still smiling over the encounter. He hadn't ever really gotten to talk to Mom much, and he'd regretted not doing so MUCH sooner. "Want to go explore the city with me?" He knew the answer would be no, in a general sense, but he wanted to give Karkat the option.

"What purpose would I served on that little trek?" Karkat sighed, looking back at Dave with an arched brow as he marked his book with his finger. "If you intend to go and take photos, I won't stop you."

"You'd be with me? What purpose, oh my god, Karkat," Dave said with a chuckle, shaking his head in amusement. "Fine. You can be your usual fuckstick in the mud self over here, keep the cats company. I'll drag Gamzee out and we'll go poke around some old buildings together. I'm not gonna stop you from digging through Rose's ridiculous library." He grinned and kissed Karkat's cheek.

"If Gamzee's going with you, might as well take Eridan. He needs to get out before he turns into Sollux." Returning the kiss, Karkat shrugged and settled a little deeper into the couch just to make it clear that he really didn't feel like moving just then.

"Mom said she's going to be having 'a whole lots of chit-chat' with him today, so I'm pretty sure he's going to be fine. It'll just be me and Gamzee," said Dave as he slipped away. "Speaking of Sollux, could you maybe use your camp counselor voice at him today, see what his deal is? I told him he doesn't need to worry about us not listening to him, and he's doing that thing he does. You know. The thing that's starting to give me a Pavlovian response of needing to start gearing up for something huge and catastrophic?" He walked to the door, picking up the cup to go bring it back to Mom's place. "I'll see if I can't shove those guys awake."

It wasn't long before Eridan was up, less because of the knocking on their respiteblock door, more because his subconscious was making it hard for him to sleep to begin with. He pulled out of the cocoon and rinsed down before pulling on a clean set of clothes to walk down for breakfast. He was cornered by Kanaya to come eat in a side room overlooking their gardens.

Bro slouched down the stairs in a pair of slacks and a sleeveless t-shirt, feeling like a freight train hit him even though he had no excuse for it. He looked out a window on his way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, and sighed. They were just biding their time, not yet making themselves apparent. He could feel their eyes on the entire city. He could practically feel the heat of their breath. He sneered as he left the window and went to find where the coffee was. Gamzee woke up about the same time Sollux did, taking a moment to wash off the slime, steadfastly refusing to put any in his mouth no matter how bad the temptation was getting just then. It was gonna be a bad day... All he could really do was brace for it. That was all any of them could do.

As soon as he'd found Bro, Sollux leaned into his side, taking hold of his hand. The feeling was building like a vicegrip was slowly being tightened down around his chest and all he wanted to do was to just crawl back into bed and try to will it not to happen. He pressed his face against his matesprit's shoulder, eyes closed behind his glasses. Bro turned and wrapped his arms around Sollux and murmured quietly into his matesprit's ear, so that only he could hear, "he'll be with Dave today, he'll be fine. The girls above have said they'll run into Vriska, and they'll be together 'til they get here. We've got to be prepared after that. 'Til then, you need to calm your ass down." He pressed a kiss to the corner of Sollux's jaw. "Gonna need to find a way to get on the offensive soon."

Dave nudged Gamzee once he saw him, smiling faintly. "C'mon, let's get out of here, go find some shit to do in the city. You said you were here for a while before Vriska got you locked up, right? I'll be needing a tour guide." He didn't care how rambling the tour would be, he just wanted to get out of the house and get that itching, nagging feeling of being on edge out of his system.

"Sounds like fun, bro." Gamzee gave him his easy grin and followed him around until they left, staying close to his side and keeping an eye on the sky just in case shit went down earlier than expected. He draped an arm around Dave's shoulders and started talking about places he remembered from his couple of years homeless before being committed, unable to give any real names for a lot of the places that didn't have obvious signs, but he could tell him where a lot of general locations were and what he knew about them. The churches in the area were especially helpful, particularly the ancient-looking Irish Catholic ones.

Dave grinned as he walked along with Gamzee, listening to his friend's lazy, mellow way of talking, stopping to take a picture here and there. He stopped across the street and tilted his head at a flower shop next to a mechanic's garage and then shook his head with a tilted smile.

Once they got to a park, Dave bought them hot dogs and took a seat against the root of a tree as he looked up at the darkening clouds starting to build up. He _knew_ that meant trouble, but didn't want to get himself too worried. He'd know when it would be time to get the hell out of dodge. He'd cheat and drag Gamzee back to the Lalonde manor with time paused if he had to. But for now, he was just going to eat with a mellow countenance. Gamzee immediately climbed the tree against which Dave had settled in spite of the sign that very clearly said that the trees were not to be climbed, settling onto one of the thicker branches and pointing here and there to landmarks that they could see from there. He was still talking, the meandering conversation mostly one-sided by this point.

Dave listened with a quiet smile, looking where Gamzee pointed when he did, feeling completely at home with his friend's easygoing ways. His eye was caught sight of a figure in blue and green and he looked up at Gamzee. "Hey. Shh for a sec."

At a bench a few hundred yards away, a solitary young troll was sitting down to a quiet lunch before she had to open up the flower shop down the road, chewing at the tines of a plastic fork and staring off into space. Dave stood and walked away, casually strolling towards her and giving her time to notice him before taking a seat near her on the bench.

"You're looking lonely," he pointed out, his tone casual and concerned. He watched as she went from prickly over the fact that some stranger was talking to her, then a little blank, to sudden realization.

"You're... You're Dave Strider!" She said, pointing and grinning. "I know you from a long way back! In dreams and in... But you're older, and... no, you _can't be_." She went through a variety of emotions before settling on concerned and pouty.

"Hi, Nepeta." Dave scratched his head, trying to figure out how to approach the subject, not wanting Nepeta to flip her lid when Gamzee came over.

"But what about the others?" She continued to pout at him, her hands on the table around her lunch, turning in place then finally spotting Gamzee as he climbed back out of the tree, her eyes growing huge momentarily then narrowing as her hand closed on the fork, a sad replacement for the claws that she'd lost years ago. The tail that Equius had made for her lashed against the ground in agitation as he walked toward them with his hands up, hoping to placate her before his eyes were gouged out by plastic silverware.

Dave jumped up and between them, hands up to both of them, "Whoa! Whoa whoa. Hey, Nepeta, please!" He stepped closer to her and shook his head, "He's sorry, I mean, really _really_ fucking sorry. Gamzee, back me up here," he said over his shoulder before looking back at her. "The others are fine, a lot of us are hangin' out at Rose's right now, can you _please_ stop brandishing the fork at me? It's kind of scary and pathetic and this is kind of somewhere between adorable and terrifying."

Gamzee nodded, giving her an uncomfortable smile until she'd lowered the fork, still bristling at them both. She stuck the utensil into her mouth and crossed her arms, refusing to look straight at Gamzee. "What are you guys even doing here?" she asked quietly, looking down at the grass between her feet. "Equius told me to ignore the dreams... He said if I did we'd be able to keep being happy here."

"Yeah, and Equius wasn't wrong," Dave explained, staying between Nepeta and Gamzee while he nodded back to the table. "Come on, I'll explain to you. Just. Don't attack Gamzee, please. I'm asking you to trust me. You have a choice not to, but this is... well, it's kind of the worst time ever to start wasting time with strifes." He took a seat finally and kept an eye on her. "We were just chillin', because there's some shit about to go down, and we couldn't stand the fucking feeling of everyone flipping out simultaneously."

She sat down stiffly and kept her guard up as she listened to Dave explain the situation. Who was there with them, what had happened. It didn't take long for him to sum it all up, before he got to the hard part. "I don't know where Equius is. After he rampaged the hospital, Vriska hid him away so he wouldn't be caught by the authorities, and then she brought Gamzee to California. I was actually kind of hoping you knew."

"He didn't exactly warn me," she whined, stiffening up some when Gamzee sat down on Dave's other side, his hands together in his lap. "He said he had to do something and then he left and I haven't seen him since. He was on the news but after that..." She shrugged sadly.

"Woulda put you in harm's way if he had said somethin'," Gamzee pointed out, then recoiled some as she curled her lip at him.

"It was your fault he wanted to do anything to begin with! He probably just...just remembered what you did and..." She curled a little on herself, her lips trembling some as she tried to keep herself from getting any louder. "It's your fault he's gone."

Dave held back the desire to scowl at her for that. "Look, Nepeta..." He sighed quietly. "We'll find him. And...please. Please don't hold this against Gamzee. You have every right to be furious, but adding to it is fruitless. Anyway, it's not his fault. Ever since we came here, to this place, it's been a second chance for all of us," he explained, looking over to Gamzee, patting him on the shoulder. "Some of us have been taking that second chance and running with it." He looked up as they were approached, squinting at Vriska. "You have incomparable and freaky timing, Serket."

"And you have the freakiest fucking ability to run into people you shouldn't," She sassed right back. "As far as you finding him, you never would if you went looking anyway. Come on, I'll take you to him," she said, eying Gamzee momentarily. Well, he was a lot LESS fucked up, which was more than she could say for him a few months prior.

"I mean it. All of you. Into the car, right now. If we stay here, shit'll go down." She pointed to her car, the top already down.

"Man, why all of us? We were just out for a motherfuckin' walk," Gamzee groused then flinched some as Nepeta rounded on him, clutching her lunch as she started toward Vriska's car. It was obvious that Equius took priority now that she had the information that he was alive. Gamzee lingered behind, looking back at Dave with a small grimace.

Dave winced as well, and looked over at Vriska. "We're goin' back to Rose's. We've got hells of work to do," he pointed out, only to get stomped up to and poked in the chest with enough force that he had to step back.

"You're the reason this shit is going to happen one way or another today, so either you get in the fucking car, or you're going to wind up dealing with this bullshit in _her_ back yard." 

"At least it won't be in the middle of the city," Dave pointed out, scowling and stepping beside Gamzee as he rubbed his chest. "We're going back. You get your little buddy, and come join us when it's time for the sky to split open."

She glared at both of them, and then walked over to the car, putting her hand protectively at Nepeta's back to guide her to the car. "C'mon, these two assholes _clearly_ want their shit wrecked. We've only got a couple hours." She dumped herself unceremoniously into the driver's seat and started the engine.

Dave sighed and rubbed his face. "Fucking Jesus hell in a measuring cup." He turned to Gamzee and shook his head. "I just wanted a fucking _walk_."

Gamzee was still watching the girls as Vriska pulled out, tires squealing on the pavement as she took a hard turn, lifting a hand to wave halfheartedly at the retreating car. He gripped Dave's shoulder briefly and nodded back in the direction of the Lalonde house, this time keeping quiet during the walk. Nepeta was completely justified in feeling and reacting the way she did, and it only made him feel that much worse about the entire shitfest.

It had started to rain by the time they'd made it back to Rose and Kanaya's. Sollux was pacing in the entryway, and he jumped badly when he noticed them just after they'd walked in. In spite of the repeated insistence by Bro that he try and relax, he'd been fretting since the pair had left.

Dave was tense and scowling the entire walk back, angry at Vriska, and even angrier that Gamzee had been made to feel so awful. He didn't say much outside of, "They have no fucking clue who you are, man." He had his hands shoved into his jacket pockets as they walked in, glowering at the floor as he toed off his shoes by the front door. "Sorry," he muttered to Sollux as he walked past. He hadn't meant to startle him. He shuffled off to the library, where he knew Karkat was.

Eridan had come in about half an hour prior to their arrival, after spending most of the morning with Mom, talking over various problems with the artificial reproductive process, and once Dave came in, he looked up, expecting his matesprit to be following behind. The look on Dave's face, even with his aviators obfuscating the majority of the expression, was disheartening to say the least.

Gamzee walked in a few moments after Dave had settled beside Karkat, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans. He still hadn't quite recovered from the run-in with Nepeta and while he hadn't been assaulted with a plastic fork, it was still a miserable feeling, seeing just how badly he still affected her. He sank into a seat near Eridan with his hands clasped together on top of his knees, which had come level with his nose as he sank down into the overstuffed chair. Karkat looked between the two of them and took Dave's hand, nodding back toward the door. Dave grit his teeth even harder as he looked over at Gamzee, wanting badly to go over there and soothe his friend, but he walked back out, shaking his head. He stayed quiet even after they had left the room, clearly tense enough that the slightest provocation could make him snap. Karkat knew to tread carefully, simply laying his hand against Dave's back, walking in the direction of the room they were staying in so that on the off chance Dave did go off, he could at least do it in private.

Eridan set the book aside and slipped over to Gamzee, sighing quietly. "Why the morose face, Gam?" He murmured, moving behind the chair to put his hands on his matesprit's shoulders, rubbing them firmly but carefully. Gamzee looked up briefly then laid the side of his head against Eridan's arm, his hands gripping down tight around one-another.

"Saw Nep," he replied quietly.

Eridan's heart fell at that and he moved again to slip into a seat on the arm of the chair, to wrap his arms around Gamzee, putting his forehead up against his matesprit's. "I'm sorry."

"She remembered me," Gamzee continued, his breathing a little shallow as he put his forehead down against Eridan's shoulder, his hands coming up to lie against Eridan's sides, fingers hooked into the fabric of his shirt.

Eridan wrapped his arms tighter around Gamzee and ran his hand over his matesprit's hair, shushing him softly and quietly. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, "What can I do to help?"

Gamzee shook his head as he pressed his face into the side of his matesprit's neck, his eyes squeezed shut as he held onto Eridan, curling up in the chair as much as he could manage with the length of his limbs. He pulled Eridan down some with him, taking a quiet breath then letting it out in a slightly shuddering sigh. "I'm ok. It'll be ok." It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.

Eridan nodded against Gamzee's forehead, tightening the grip of his embrace, "Yeah, it will, Gam, ok? You're gonna be fine, all a this will get done an' we'll be happy. All a us." He patted and rubbed Gamzee's back. "It's all goin' to be fine, Gam. You--" That's when he heard the unbearably loud crack of lightning and his pupils narrowed into slits, his head spinning to stare out the window. "Shit, shit, it's startin', Gam."

\--

Dave sat down heavily on the corner of the bed and leaned forward, hands folded and pressed against his pursed lips. He tried to work through the haze of seeing red to find something to say, but he didn't have anything quite yet. 

Karkat laid his hand against the back of Dave's head, standing in front of him silently offering comfort in spite of knowing he would most likely be shoved aside, given how both Dave and Gamzee were acting.

Dave finally snapped his head up to look at Karkat, his expression still intense. "Do you know how fucking much I hate this bullshit? Do you? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of running into people who barely know me. I'm sick of Vriska pulling her fucking bullshit. I'm _sick to fucking death_ of people treating Gamzee like a fucking outcast, and I'm _fucking goddamn sick_ of _that_." He said, motioning wide to the window, out at the sky, knowing what was lurking beyond the clouds. "I am _this_ fucking close, Vantas, to throwing down and sayin' fuck it, I quit."

"You think I'm _not_ completely and utterly fucking done with this?" Karkat sighed, letting his hands fall away to tuck up under his arms. "Dave, you have no fucking idea how much I want to be able to just go the fuck on with my life. I want that-" he gestured out of the window, "to not be an issue. I want to be able to just go about my fucking life, get my useless-ass degree, and make sure that my friends are ok. This bulgeshitting, fucktarded assholery is going to end soon even if I have to go out there and scream at every fucking last god there is, Outer or otherwise. I want Gamzee to be able to hold onto his peace. You know I've _never_ seen him this coherent, or content, or legitimately _happy?_ Like before he was just comfortably fucking numb. This? This is good. He needs this more than any of us. And what's more, he's got someone that loves him. That's not fucking terrified of him like-" He stopped himself, his chest tightening some. He didn't want to finish that sentence, to put those feelings out in the open.

"Like _you_ ," Dave finished for him. "Yeah, Karkat, I know. You're scared of him, everyone but Eridan and me seem to be scared of him, and that kind of fucks my head up, because I see this guy who is _really_ fucking awesome, really nice, just trying really damn hard to be a good guy, and succeeding, but then there's these assholes in his way not letting him let go of his fucking past." He grit his teeth and shook his head, "He's done nothing here to deserve that bullshit. If we can ignore everything everyone else has done, we should be able to let go of his past, too."

"Ok yeah, I'll admit that he scares the absolute fuck out of me," Karkat yelled back and stood up, waving a hand back at the door. "But you know what? I'm still here, and believe it or not I still want to try to be his fucking friend. I faced that honking asshole down and brought him back to himself when he was a hair's fucking breadth from cutting my throat because I still honestly fucking felt like he could still be my best friend under all of the blood and all of the shit that _I_ did to him. But sure, fine, I'm not allowed to be a little fucking nervous about having him around again after I saw him kill every-" He stopped and jumped violently at the peal of thunder, his eyes widening as he turned back to the window to see the sky darkening, the rain coming down in torrents. He turned back to Dave, his throat working hard as he walked around his matesprit and back into the hall, where he nearly ran into Eridan, who was being followed closely by Gamzee himself.

"I'm not stayin' back here and bein' a motherfuckin' sittin' quackbeast," he was complaining, refusing to listen to the insistence that he stay out of harm's way.

Dave jumped as well at the lightning and immediately grabbed his sword out of his sylladex, walking down the stairs. They could get back to shouting about Gamzee later. For now, this was more important. "Zero hour, people," he called, then looked over at Gamzee. "Gamzee, you sure you got this?" He didn't even know if his friend had a weapon at hand. 

Bro was already at the back door with his katana resting on his shoulder, looking out at the sky. This wasn't just one, there were THREE of these fuckers. He heard the wheels spinning of an older performance vehicle as it revved and then the engine cut off. He turned to see Vriska come out of the driver's side, followed by the guy from Disneyland with his moirail. "Gang's pretty much all here," he muttered, and he pointed at Eridan, "You, go back to the second floor, stand on the balcony, your rifle will do better with you outta the line of fire. Gamzee, here," He said, tossing over a pair of juggling clubs from his sylladex. "Don't get too close yet." He whistled Vriska, Equius, and Nepeta over, telling the large troll and his moirail to take the far end of the garden. "Vriska, come here," he said, making her stand in one spot. "You stay right here. Don't move. When shit goes down, you're gonna need to be right here to do somethin'." He looked at the rest of them. "Spread out, don't stay too close to each other, don't fuckin' look into its eyes."

Mom popped out, applying lipstick as she looked into a compact. "What are we doing?"

"Killin' a thing."

"Always killing things, Strider, you never bother asking them how they feel about it," she sighed, and then turned around to follow Eridan up to the balcony. "I suppose I'll help."

Gamzee snagged the clubs out of the air and spun them deftly in hand, nodding to Bro and taking up a place near the car, locking eyes with Equius for a few brief moments. He knew Equius wanted nothing more than to finish what he'd started months ago, but there were much bigger, much more important things to worry about poking out of the atmosphere. The blueblood cracked his knuckles then fished into his own sylladex, procuring a compound bow and nocking a hunting arrow. He pulled it back to show that he had finally found one that he wouldn't snap on the first use, aiming it carefully at Gamzee and holding it there for a few seconds before directing it back toward the silhouette of the monstrosity starting to climb out of the sky. He was waiting for orders, as Bro was clearly the one in charge, given the way that everyone had moved on his word without question. Nepeta, on the other hand, stayed far on the other side of her moirail, especially when she caught sight of the clubs.

Karkat had shifted in transit into his god tier uniform with very little fanfare, a pair of sickles in hand that had been handed over by Mom. She'd actually had the forethought to make a dual set of his old Homes Smell Ya Later. He'd barely trained in dual-wielding, but it would be beneficial, he was certain, to have them both ready. Dave shifted into his own godtier outfit, smirking a little as he looked over at Karkat. "Okay, one of us is gonna have to alter our pajamas or we're gonna wind up looking all twinsies, and couples that do that are fucking idiots," he teased. He looked up at the sky, idly swinging the sword to get back into the weight and balance of an unbroken blade.

"Then you do that, Strider, I don't really have the concentration to fucking think up my own damn god jammies right now!" Karkat barked, looking at him incredulously then glancing overhead at another crack of lightning.

Rose and Kanaya took to either side of the garden as instructed, and Rose winced a little once the first beastie of the void started crawling and writhing out of the clouds. "Guys!" she shouted, "She's not playing games! She's coming to- " And with that, Rose was picked up off the ground with some unseen force. Dave watched in horror as his sister was plucked up so easily, and watched her head spin violently before her body was tossed aside. He sheathed his sword and immediately brought out his tables, slowing down time for himself so he could see events progress far slower and have time to react appropriately.

Bro winced at Rose's sudden death and then looked up at the balcony, where Mom was, and noticed that she'd taken out her sniper rifle, cold and calculating and out for blood. "Long range fire on my word," he shouted as he jumped up onto his rocketboard to fly up and give the fucker a personal greeting.

Sollux launched himself from the balcony outside of the bedroom he shared with Bro, his own shift into god tier modifying as he moved into something more formfitting, less flowing to allow him to move with ease, his body suspended by his psionics in addition to the wings beating furiously. He uprooted a couple of trees as he passed overhead, dragging them along behind him until he was within visual range of the first terror. He was going to make an effort to blind the thing before anyone could look it in the eye and eliminate the danger before it could truly manifest.

What he hadn't expected was for Gamzee to abandon his post and sprint forward, directly toward the forest of tentacles reaching down toward the street. He was a lot faster than anyone gave him credit for; he was leaping and running over obstacles that would have given parkour masters difficulty, all the while with his clubs in hand, focused straight ahead.

Dave was about to snip back at Karkat when he saw Gamzee run off, and shouted, "Gamzee! The fuck are you doin'?!" He wasn't even going to try and follow after him, fast as he was. There was only one person he knew who was faster and more agile and he was up on his rocketboard. "Shit!" He hissed and waited for Bro's signal, which came moments after, and Mom and Eridan started firing. Mom was shouting over the sound of the Ahab's Crosshairs, trying to give Eridan pointers. Suddenly, the blue electricity took a bright white hue and intensified. The explosion of one of the eyes of the horrorterror rained slick, greasy blood.

"Blood," Dave hissed, and spun to Karkat, "It has blood." He jumped up and away from a tentacle that started after him, and sliced it on the descent.

Karkat followed Dave's movement with his hands then put down a stranglehold on the monster's appendage, jerking it into an angle that would have been excruciating for anything with a logical skeletal structure. Instead it merely lashed and pulled back against Karkat's hold until he pinned it down, screaming for Dave to flay it open along as much of it as he possibly could. If they could do enough damage to it where they were, it would make delivering the killing blow that much easier. The wound that had been made in the terror's eye was made wider by the trees that Sollux had jammed into it roots-first, the gurgling coming from its multitude of mouths deafening. If it took it into its head to scream, they would all die again, painfully. "DON'T LET IT GLUB."

Vriska stayed still, watching petulantly while Gamzee ran out into the fray. "What the fuck are you doing, Gamzee," she muttered into his mind. "This isn't going to redeem you." She stepped half a foot to the left from where she was planted by Bro and tossed a die into the space, hoping it landed on four or eight, where it could cause an explosion or launch a spear upwards. It landed on a four, and she grinned as the spear flew up and contacted with the underside of the horrorterror, breaking into the thick, terrible skin. Gamzee repaid her with a blast of static, screeching white noise into her mind laced with dog whistle supersonics, forcing her to stay out of his mind. He had started to run right up one of the injured tentacles as soon as it had stopped thrashing long enough for him to plant a foot behind one of the bristling quills jutting up from its rubbery, grotesque flesh. The clubs were used to break off more of them as he climbed to give himself footholds, climbing the monstrosity like a set of writhing stairs.

Dave worked in tandem with Karkat to work apart every tentacle he could while Eridan found a perfect target. If it had no mouth, it couldn't glub. He put the biggest mouth he could find in his sights and pulled the trigger, forcing as much of the white energy into his blast as he could. It would take at least a minute of concentrated fire to destroy the fucker, but nobody was in line of his fire. He could sustain that.

Vriska shouted and dropped to her knee as she glared at Gamzee aw he passed in front of her, then her eyes went huge. "GAMZEE, WATCH IT!" She shouted, both mentally and physically as she watched the pulse of Eridan's rifle coming right for the clown. She knew it was going to happen, and she knew that _he_ knew that it was in his cards, too, but to see it happen was different. As the god started to collapse in its death, the tentacles were coming down around them, but the final blow was struck. Gamzee had landed back on the ground before he could even register the fact that the energy beam he'd seen had in fact pierced through his back and come out the center of his torso, staring up at the dying horror and coughing sticky purple blood for all of two seconds before a last collapsing tentacle came down on top of him and suddenly it didn't hurt anymore.

With all of them working to bring it down, Bro had finally gotten to its back and sliced down its body, coming down and landing just in time to watch a tentacle swing wide and take Eridan out off the balcony, while Mom was still hunkered down behind her sniper rifle. She stood up and stomped her foot. "GET OUT OF HERE!" She shouted at the other two gods, who retreated slowly. "GET. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU! MAKE AN APPROIMPTMENT! UNBIGIFY YORUSELVES AND COME SEE ME." She threw an empty wine bottle at one of them - a futile gesture, really, but it made her feel better as she watched them retreat.

Karkat was drenched in oily blood by the time the attack had ended, standing in the middle of the nest of tentacles that he and Dave had successfully separated from the host body and staring around owlishly as he tried to take account of who was still there. He could see Rose's body on the ground still and he grimaced, walking back to her side and using the power that had already started making his nose bleed to straighten her broken neck before she came back with a serious kink in it. "Dave? Dave, headcount!" he yelled over the cacophony of the storm and still collapsing god, looking around to see who else had been killed in the assault.

Dave and Bro both were counting, ignoring Vriska's screaming and clutching her armless shoulder for the moment. Bro shouted back, "Lost Eridan, he's over there somewhere," he pointed off in the direction he saw Eridan's body fly, "Kanaya's over there, too. Fuck, where's Sollux?" 

Vriska glared at Equius, and stomped up towards the tentacle that had Gamzee pinned. "Get over here, meathead, get him out from under this." She obviously couldn't move the tentacle by herself. "We need him for endgame, no matter how much fucked up bullshit you have against him." She took off her overshirt and started tying it around the stump of her arm, having done this enough times before where it was just a setback that pissed her off. Her wings came into view and she glared at Equius, who was still standing back and putting away his bow and arrows as he looked over his moirail. "WHAT'S THE FUCKING HOLDUP, HORSEBOY? GO."

Dave ran over to help get the tentacle off Gamzee, glaring up at Equius as he shoved the meaty nastiness off of the smeared purple mess. It was too much for his strength, and he knew time was everything in this. Equius mopped his brow with one hand and picked up Dave by the hood with the other, putting him aside as if he'd simply relocated a kitten. His bow was slung over his back as he crouched to deadlift the bulk of the tentacle off of the highblood's body. Gamzee wasn't getting back up from that. In fact, he wasn't moving at all. Being shot through by Ahab's Crosshairs had ended up being the catalyst that had allowed him to finally die at the noodly appendages of the outer gods.

Overhead, there was an exhausted, somewhat pained yelling for someone to "pleathe fucking get me off of thith tho I can bleed out properly". Sollux had ended up grabbed when he'd gotten too close to the terror, and in its dying throes he'd ended up getting speared on a cluster of the larger barbs jutting out of whatever disgusting protrusion he'd been closest to.

Bro looked up at Sollux's shouting and then shook his head. "Fucking accident prone," he chuckled wryly and jumped back onto his rocketboard to go grab Sollux down from the barbs. "That shit with the trees was fucking awesome," he said as he quickly pulled Sollux off the protrusions with as little pain as he could get manage. "When you come back, I'm gonna fuckin' yell at you for dyin' again." Sollux simply put his tongue out at Bro, wincing as he tried to hold as still as he could. At least dying would be fast this time, and he would be right there beside Bro, meaning his wakeup would be that much better. He let his head loll against his matesprit's shoulder until he finally stopped breathing.

Vriska pointed at Equius after she shouldered Gamzee's corpse, flying upward. "You stay here and help them. I've got to get clowntown downtown." She flew off as fast as her wings could carry her with the extra weight of an extra gangly highblood.

Dave was still blinking at the being relocated. "Um. So. Hi, I'm Dave. Nice to meet you in person." He was still too stunned by everything to be anything but formal and polite.

Mom walked out and sighed heavily as Rose came to her side, looking at the nastiness of the garden. "This is going to be hell to clean up," Mom muttered. "Oh well, let's get the dead folks inside. Everybody in!" She called to the rest of the group. Rose smiled and shook her head at her mother, before walking off to go help Kanaya collect Eridan's corpse.

Equius was wiping his hands on the seat of his shorts as he looked back around at Dave, arching an eyebrow at him. "Yes...The younger Strider. My apologies that we have not had the chance to meet before now," he replied absently, unsure what to think anymore about the scene that had only lasted a few minutes and ended with the death of one of the most impervious non-deities to ever exist. He'd foregone offering his hand to shake, unwilling to crush Dave's and have Bro round on him. He gave Dave a formal nod before climbing the dead terror's body, retrieving a couple of the Void-charged arrows that he'd fired into the thing to open up vulnerable spots for the others to strike. He returned to Nepeta's side as she perched on top of Vriska's car surveying the damage, reaching up and helping her down off of it after explaining that the highblood had been killed.

When the group had been shepherded inside by the Lalondes, Bro had opted to stay beside Sollux, resting his matesprit's head on his lap as he spoke with Equius in hushed tones. He found the blueblood interesting, and before long they got into a discussion about robotics, something that Bro had no practical work in, but was still interested by in a way that bordered on unsettling. Equius hadn't dropped his habit of emphasizing STRONG words, but he kept his voice down out of respect for the seadweller. He was talking rather easily to Bro about his robotics work, glancing back at Nepeta every now and then as she stuck close to Kanaya, assisting her in her fussing over the others. She'd changed out of her drenched clothes into a loose, dry dressing gown and was spending a lot of her time trying very pointedly not to get on anyone's nerves by asking all of her questions at once. She could tell that Dave was upset at her and kept her distance for the time being. Rose was nursing her neck ache by way of wrapping a heating pad over her shoulders. She'd made tea and hot cocoa for the entire group, and had settled down beside Kanaya with some knitting after everyone had their mugs passed around. It was, at least, a little less tense than when Karkat had died.

Karkat was sitting on the ground in front of Dave's chair with his chin on his knees, fidgeting miserably with the hems of his pants. As soon as he'd realized that Gamzee had died he immediately expected the worst; someone like Gamzee didn't die and then just come back. Someone like Gamzee didn't die _at all_. He sipped at his hot chocolate when he realized it had been sitting untouched until it had stopped steaming, sighing quietly into it.

Eridan suddenly sat up with a hissing, sharp inward breath, gaining the attention of several people, before he looked sharply around, doing a mental headcount. "Where's Vris an' Gam?" He demanded, standing up with a soreness in his joints and spine. "Where is he?" He demanded of Dave, who blinked owlishly at him.

"At his questbed, I'm guessing, dude. Chill out, he'll be back," Dave said, his tone unsure.

Eridan stomped up to Equius and shoved him, hissing, " _You_. You fuckin' contemptuous _prick_." He knew that Equius had nothing to do with Gamzee's death - that was all on him, and he knew it - but to know that Nepeta had nearly broken Gamzee's spirit, and that Equius would have likely finished him off himself if he had the chance infuriated him more than anything. Equius' immediate reaction was to put his hands up, both in supplication and hoping to fend off the seadweller before it could come to blows; he wouldn't fight back against royalty, that much was certain, but he still didn't feel like picking his teeth up off the Lalondes' very nice carpet. He looked back around as Sollux gave a couple of hacking coughs and sat up, his hand over his mouth until he forced himself to swallow back down whatever had come up, panting quietly as he looked around at all of them, then back at Bro, huffing and laying back against him.

"Gamzee already at hith bed?" He asked hoarsely once he'd discerned that Gamzee wasn't in the room and that Eridan looked ready to kill them all.

Dave and Bro replied with "Yes," at the same time, Bro putting his hand on Sollux's back. "You gotta stop dyin' so much." He looked up at the blueblood and royalty, and stood, stepping between them. "Stop. Eridan, stop. This is neither the time, nor the fuckin' place." He put his hands on the seadweller's shoulders and led him back to the sofa, sitting him down as Eridan glowered over Bro's shoulder at Equius.

"Fine. But once he gets back, I'm expectin' _that_ fucker an' his moirail to be givin' one fuckin' good apology for tryin' to kill him, an' makin' him feel like he did." 

Dave rubbed his face and then stood, absconding from the room slowly and silently. This was not something he wanted to weigh in on, because no matter how he tried to put it, it wouldn't be pretty. Bro watched his little brother leave and looked over at Karkat. "Go keep him company," he murmured. He went back to Sollux's side and wrapped an arm around him, keeping an eye on Eridan so he wouldn't do anything idiotic. Eridan simply pulled a leg up to wrap his arms around it, looking off into space as he chewed on his thumbnail, looking very, very upset.

Karkat looked between the door and Eridan, glancing back at Bro then stopping briefly in front of Eridan. He combed his fingers back through Eridan's hair wordlessly, giving him a small grimace then heading off after Dave. Eridan smiled weakly at Karkat, reaching up to pat his moirail's hand before letting him go. He was quietly trying to piece together what he could have done differently. It was that miscalculation. He knew that one would be made, but he didn't know he'd be the one to make it. Mom slipped over to him and put her arms around his shoulders, quietly keeping him company.

Sollux stood after a few minutes and stretched stiffly, rubbing his back where it had been pierced through and murmuring that he was going to go and occupy the massive claw-footed tub in the bathroom off of his and Bro's bedroom. He let his hand linger on his matesprit's shoulder briefly before heading off, already feeling better for being out of the room.

When Karkat came upon Dave he stood back from him some, arms crossed protectively over his chest. He cleared his throat quietly then asked, "So what now, are you just going to go back to yelling at us?" He looked just as tired as he felt, a couple of burst blood vessels around his eyes making them darker and more puffy than usual.

Dave turned to look at him, muttering, "I'm done trying to convince anybody of anything," before he simply turned around and started out to walk out onto the covered front porch, lighting a cigarette as he sat down against the wall, just waiting for Gamzee to return. He felt ready to crumble and disappear. He couldn't even give Gamzee the kind of care and understanding that he felt he needed. He didn't want to say it, but just then, he knew everyone in the house - save one - was only going through the motions of grief, with no actual care behind it. They didn't fucking care.

Karkat settled down on the floor inside, his fingers clasped together in front of his lips. He could hear the others in their quiet shuffling, very aware of how all of them felt about Gamzee. It made him sick to realize that Dave was right about every one of them and how nobody else legitimately cared about what Gamzee had been going through up to now. He bowed his head, lacing his fingers together behind his neck, a lot of miserable feelings welling up at the same time and finally spilling over. He knew he wasn't going to get any sympathy from Dave either.

If Gamzee came back, the first thing he would do would be to apologize on bended knee.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ALL THE THINGS are happening at the Lalonde estate. Except the bits that are happening at meowrails' place.

In a slummy, abandoned and condemned apartment building, in its basement, was a tagged up questbed, and on it, Vriska had laid Gamzee's body before dropping herself in a dusty, dry-rotted armchair. She was prepared to deal with this, this time around. She took a sandwich out of her sylladex and took a bite out of it, muttering around it, "You know, Makara, as often as I do this, it never gets any less boring. If you had just fuckin' died the first time this happened, we wouldn't have to have done any of this shit." She shook her sandwich at him, "And you know your matesprit's going to give me all of the hell for letting this happen. Ugh, I can hear it now, his smug fucking face snipping at me. Bluh bluh."

It was starting to get miserably humid again now that the rain had passed and one of the many roving bands of bored teenagers wandering the city were trying to find a comfortable place in which to crash and drink until late in the evening, wandering into the rotted out apartments, a few of then shaking fresh cans of spraypaint. Nobody ever came here but the occasional vagrant, leaving it untouched ninety percent of the time. It had long since been declared _their_ stomping grounds and when one peeked around the doorway to where Vriska was sitting and watching over the corpse on its slab, the immediate reaction was to try and take her on. And then if that failed, to proposition her.

Neither reaction boded well for the little shits; Vriska stood from her slump in the rotted chair and confronted them, her stump of an arm scaring some, while the rest were locked into mentally and strolled straight back out. She stomped up the stairs and locked the door behind them, before slumping down again. "I swear to all that is fucking good and pure, I'm going to set this fucking place on fire when you resurrect," she hissed as she ran a hand through her hair. She rolled her eyes. "And if you take longer than Karkat did, I'm right the fuck out of here, I don't care how much Eridan whines."

"He ain't gonna be all that motherfuckin' happy anyway," Gamzee groaned as he sat back up, swinging his legs back over the edge of the bed, rubbing his hands over his face. His makeup was ruined, but at least the rest of him was about as clean as could be expected after waking up in a place like this. His god tier costume was just the same as the fake one that he'd made for himself during the game, but his wings were larger and infinitely more intimidating than the ones that Caliborn had destroyed. He stood up with a slight grimace and rubbed a hand over his stomach then approached Vriska, looking back down at her for a few seconds then wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Vriska blinked and looked up at Gamzee, then smiled almost sweetly as he embraced her. He got one arm around him in turn, and she shoved her face into his chest, chuckling a little and holding him close.

"He's kicking his own ass right now, turning himself inside out with grief. I can hear him all the way over here." She stepped back and then papped him roughly on his cheek. "You got some fucking amazing wings, clown. You ready to use them? Strider's about to tear them all new chutes for acting like they give a shit if we don't get there soon."

Laying his hand on the top of her head, Gamzee looked around toward one of the broken out windows, the evening growing darker by the minute, the cloud cover still thick overhead. "You sure you can motherfuckin' fly? Lost a lot'a blood there, can't imagine it's gonna feel all that motherfuckin' great once you get movin' again."

"I've been in a hell of a lot worse condition than this when dragging peoples' asses around, Makara," she said, though she was feeling woozy and took another step back to take a deep breath, starting up the stairs after a moment. "Unless that was you offering to carry me," she said with a weak grin over her shoulder. "I'd allow it. It'll make up for all the times I've had to drag your ass all over the place."

"Sure, why not?" Gamzee shrugged and followed close behind her, pulling her arm over his shoulder then crouching briefly to scoop her up off her feet, bouncing her a little in his arms then glancing around for a sizable hole in the floor over their heads, and another in one of the walls. "Hold on, I guess."

By the time Karkat finally picked himself up off the floor, Gamzee had come in for a landing in the hole in the wall that had been left by the tentacle crashing down on part of the house and killing Eridan. He put Vriska down in one of the armchairs without really giving any thought to her bleeding on anything, checking to make sure she was still conscious before poking his head out into the hall and lifting a hand when Karkat noticed him. Vriska was barely conscious, but fighting to hold onto that, and thanked Gamzee quietly before smiling weakly and watching him go. She looked over at her arm and sighed, tightening the makeshift tourniquet she'd made out of her shirt. She'd go look for Zahhak once she had enough strength to walk.

Gamzee frowned when he realized how much of a mess Karkat was and stepped out into the hall, pushing his hood off then holding out his arms until Karkat had barreled into him, clinging to him and babbling into his chest in a slurred mix of Alternian and English. He simply held on and let Karkat exhaust himself then picked him up off the ground and carried him back to the room he shared with Dave, letting him curl up and doze off then just sitting there beside him, scratching his nails through his friend's hair idly for a few more minutes before heading back down to try and find the rest of them. Dave walked into the bedroom after a while, exhausted to a point where waiting was just not something he could do anymore. He blinked, unbelieving at the scene before he ran over to wrap his arms tight around Gamzee just as Karkat had, grinning into his friend's shoulder.

"Oh my fucking god, I'm so glad you're back," he muttered, tightening his grip even more. "You have the stupidest outfit I've ever seen, but holy shit I'm glad." He pulled away and then looked at Karkat with a weak, sheepish smile. "I... I sorta laid into him kinda thick. I can't handle shit like this, y'know? When he died, I couldn't even bring myself to talk." He'd shouted at Bro and that was about it for him. It would've wound up the same despondent behavior if Gamzee had taken that long. "It's really good to see you back, dude. I dunno what Eridan would've done if you'd stayed gone. He's down there right now, freaking out."

"Couldn't all up and leave you guys to your own fuckin' devices, wouldn't last a day," Gamzee replied quietly, shrugging a shoulder with a soft, lopsided smile. He looked focused and sober but for once, the sobriety didn't come with the wide-eyed, manic expression; the chucklevoodoos and the whispers were quiet. For how long was anyone's guess, but it would be safer to get back to Eridan for his meds sooner rather than later. He returned Dave's embrace though, chuckling quietly at the comment about his goofy-looking outfit. "Think you could let 'im know I'm back before he gives himself an ulcer? Pretty sure he'll wanna get a good laugh at the codpiece."

"I should stick here with Karkat, apologize to him properly" Dave said with a sigh. "I'm not going into that room with all of them." He bowed his head with a small, upset expression. "They're all a bunch of hypocrites and assholes. I'd probably wind up punching someone," he whispered, shaking his head. "How's Vriska?" He turned to look up at Gamzee with a worried expression, tears falling unchallenged but ignored from behind his shades.

"Vriska, she's takin' a minute to sit n' catch her breath." Gamzee laid his hands on either side of Dave's head, gingerly slipping his shades up away from his eyes then wiping the tears with the palms of his hands. "Man, they've got every motherfuckin' right to be scared'a me, don't be like that. All us done shit that'd be considered par for the course for just us but what I did's pretty motherfuckin' raw even by the standards we grew up with. Yeah, feelin' like this, it fuckin' sucks. But I don't blame any of 'em. I'm not mad. I'm just gonna keep doin' me, so now I'm just gonna ask you to keep doin' you. Let them up n' form their own opinions."

Dave shook his head and sighed, "I get what they're doin', and where they're comin' from, bro, I do, I just... You aren't that guy. You haven't been that guy since you were sixteen, a'right?" He looked up at Gamzee with a raw, near broken expression. "Shit, Gamzee, you got a heart bigger than they could ever fuckin' see." He nudged his friend a little. "I'll go down with you. Just gimme a sec, okay?"

"You're a good motherfuckin' friend, Dave. Doin' this shit for me when you really don't have to. Just take care'a him like that alright? He needs it more than anyone else or he'll start gettin' all motherfuckin' depressed again. Shit's chronic. Probably gonna get worse for a while before it gets better." Looking back at Karkat, Gamzee let his hand rest on Dave's shoulder, giving it a small squeeze then turning to make his way down to the lounge, easing the door open to peek inside and see who was still there.

Dave nodded to Gamzee and murmured, "I'm gonna stick here with him, then." He watched his friend leave before he pressed a kiss to Karkat's forehead, brushing his fingers over his matesprit's cheek. "I'm sorry dude, I didn't mean to explode all over you. You don't know how fuckin' sorry I am." He smiled wearily and slipped down around Karkat, wrapping his arms over him, pressed tight against his back. "I'm so sorry," he repeated in a whisper against his matesprit's neck.

Vriska finally got up enough mental and physical strength to push herself up, and leaned against the wall as she walked, leaving a blue smear across the pretty wallpaper as she rounded the corner to the library, where everyone was gathered. "Zahhak. C'mere." She was taking sharp, heavy breaths to keep the pain level. "Get this tourniquet on tight, and drive me to your shop." She held up the keys to her car. "I don't have all night."

It wasn't questioned, nor was Vriska's sudden reappearance. Equius stood and quietly ordered Nepeta to stay behind with the rest of them as he approached Vriska to pick her up with one arm, carrying her out toward her car and putting her down in the passenger seat to take her back to his workshop. It was fortunate, really, given that he'd just recently developed a better line of prosthetics based on the mechanics behind the implanted tail that he'd created for Nepeta. He spent the time during the drive detailing it for Vriska to keep her from falling unconscious and going into shock. Vriska whispered her thanks to Equius and grit her teeth, keeping herself as conscious as she could be for as long as she could, only passing out once they were at the shop, though her mind kept holding on; she gave Equius the okay to do what he needed to attach a new arm to her, and that if he so much as thought about doing anything nasty to her, he'd wind up punching himself in the face.

Eridan looked up from his spot again, and then he brightened slightly, jumping up almost immediately to storm across the floor and wrap his arms tight around Gamzee, muttering in Alternian how fucking relieved he was, and how pissed he'd been that Vriska showed up minutes ago to boss around Eq without even letting him know that his matesprit was okay. His eyes were puffy from the crying he'd been holding back doing. He finally leaned up to catch Gamzee's lips with his own with a tiny, frustrated whimper. That bitch should've said that Gamzee was okay. Gamzee just let him mutter until he'd fallen silent, smiling faintly and laying his cheek against Eridan's as he held onto him tightly, rocking a little as he'd one with Karkat then taking his matesprit's hands and kissing the corner of his mouth. "Gonna make yourself sick as a motherfucker like this," he murmured, leaning against Eridan with his arms still resting loosely around the other's waist. "You really think I wasn't gonna come back from that? Man you know nothin' can kill me."

Eridan scowled at that, as true as it was, and then wrinkled his nose at his matesprit. "Don't be a fuckin' smartass, Gam, it's not becomin' of you." He pressed a kiss to a part of Gamzee's face that usually didn't have makeup on it and turned to look at the rest of the group. Most of them had tucked themselves away to wait for Gamzee to return, but were dozing - Bro and Rose had fallen asleep on their respective matesprits while Kanaya and Nepeta had been quietly speaking with each other, though now both of them were currently staring up at the two of them. He shook his head and nudged Gamzee out of the room, walking him out towards the room they were staying in. 

\--

As Vriska laid there on the worktable, she kept her mind on Equius' consciousness - a sort of beacon for her to pull herself out if she lost the way - and spoke to him mentally. "You still need to reach godtier. So does Nepeta. You're the last two, out of our session. Then I'll be done," she was rambling, really, but it was better than going silent. "When I come out of this, I'll need to find your beds. It'd just be easier to kill you there than to let this shit happen again. I'm done crossing the states over and over again just to fix people. I'm so fucking done. So goddamn, fucking, done." She let out a little moan physically and took a large breath. "Should have thought to bring Karkat along," she continued to think. "He could keep my blood pusher going. I wonder if you breaking my neck would be easier. It'd be an unheroic death. It'd keep me from dying a heroic one."

Equius arched an eyebrow at her for that, then conceded that it would make sense. It would also make it easier to make the initial connections to attach the arm to her body; she only needed to be awake for the latter half of the procedure anyway. He confirmed that she would be alright with dying by his hand, then simply propped her up and crushed her spinal column at the base of her skull with one hand. he laid the body back down after checking for a pulse, going back to work about as contently as he ever did anything.

"I'm sure they are all very grateful for your presence, Serket."

\--

Karkat woke up some time very early the next morning, stiff and uncomfortable and feeling disgustingly congested. It took him a moment to remember why, then he simply curled up on himself in the grip that Dave still had on him. He could puzzle over the other's presence later. For now, he just tucked his head back down into the pillows and tried to go back to sleep.

Dave was awake, but refused to get up. His limbs ached, his mind was racing, and his entire body felt like it had been repeatedly tapdanced on by a million angry elephants. When Karkat stirred, he shushed him, pressing a kiss to Karkat's neck and held him closer. "M'sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "Go back to sleep," he added as he pulled the blanket over their heads to shield from the sun. Bro had woken up just long enough to pick Sollux up and bring them both to bed, sprawling as he did at home. It was only when the sunlight finally crept along the room and into his eyes that he woke up, only to gruffly grumble that the sun fucking sucked, and turn his head away.

"S'everyone back yet?"

One thing that Sollux had taken to learning to do was use his psionics for non-combative purposes, letting a pulse of energy from the hand dangling just above the floor and letting it spread out and encounter other bodies as it went. He counted until the wave stopped spreading then gave Bro a tentative headcount; it was harder to tell with some of the couples wrapped around one-another, but Gamzee was definitely back, as Eridan was sleeping soundly, while Nepeta was alone in front of the fire waiting for Equius to return. He tucked back in under the blankets in agreement with the proposition that the sun was evil and shoved his face into the bed, legs tangled up with Bro's as he took up the last of the space unoccupied by his matesprit's sprawl.

\--

It was just like a medical procedure, was what he tended to tell the recipients of his prosthetics, when they ordered the direct connections. As such, he'd taken to stocking the same variety of medications, sedatives and other supplies as the average emergency room. The insurance was hefty, but with the amount of money that he tended to make per prosthetic sold, he could at least keep his ass covered, and still afford what he needed for his other projects. But in most instances that his job had to be rushed, he kept to his workshop and the basic necessities.

Equius had returned a minute after Vriska had put herself down in a chair to the side, blinking at the lack of a body on his worktable then pushing his shades up to his forehead as he glanced around and finally spotted her with the arm hanging dead weight from her side. He noted the towels that she'd thrown in his sink and shook his head, knowing he'd never get the blue stains out. He reached into one of his overhead cabinets to retrieve a plastic bottle of wet wipes, rubbing one against a smudge of blood at the corner of her mouth.

"Where the hell have _you_ been?" Chided Vriska with a quiet tone. She opened her eyes as he cleaned her face and looked genuinely curious. "Thanks for killing me, Zahhak. I would've died otherwise." She realized how that would have sounded out of context, but it made sense to her, at least. She sat up and sighed heavily, shaking her head gingerly to clear it, then looked back to the workbench. "Need me to hop back up?" She asked.

"If you would," he replied quietly, keeping his voice down in case of latent headaches. He offered a hand to help her back up onto the worktable, letting her sit there as he manipulated the robotic arm to sit in her lap as he took a moment to inject a local anesthetic with the reasoning that she'd still feel it but at least it wouldn't be excruciating. He worked with surgical precision as always, connecting the torn muscle fibers to their synthetic counterparts and occasionally asking Vriska to attempt to move her fingers.

Vriska sat and turned to watch Equius' work, smiling slightly at the amusing fact that _every_ time she lost her arm, he dutifully replaced it. Every time. He never even asked a question, and had never once demanded repayment, because she always made sure he _would_ be paid back. He trusted her, and she him. Once she was able to move her fingers, she looked up at him with a victorious little smile. "Smoother than the last one," she complimented. "Faster on the uptake, too. You've gotten better at this, Zahhak."

"I've been developing prosthetics for a living," he replied with a small smile of his own; it was something of a point of pride for him, how well his mechanics were received by the general public, even the anti-troll humans. Being a mechanic was more or less a hobby that he happened to get paid for. He laid his hand in hers after establishing enough connections for her to be able to make at least a loose fist, asking her to try and squeeze down on it.

Vriska couldn't help the proud smile. "Well, they'd better praise you for your genius work. You've been better at this than anybody since you were a wriggler," she clenched down on his hand, pouting faintly at how loose the grip was. "Mm, needs a little more strength, or I'm never going to be able to choke a bitch," she joked.

"Language," he said, mostly out of habit, turning back to the shoulder and pressing his lips together in a thin smile as he took a solder to the joint, holding his breath as he did. When he'd finished with the connections closest to her body he focused instead on the cords running down the length of the limb, spending more time fiddling than actually attaching the arm. He took her hand again and gave it a squeeze, hoping to trigger a reflex.

"Sorry," she said with a quick bow of her head. She never _did_ understand why Equius was so hung up on profanity like he was, even after spending all his time around so many people who would put the average sailor to shame. She also didn't know why she felt bad about it whenever he scolded her - even lightly - about it. She squeezed back in response and then smirked. "Getting better. Almost done, I think." She sighed and closed her eyes, tapping her natural fingers on the corner of the workbench. "So it's up to you and Leijon to decide whether you want me to assist in your ascents before even worse shit hits the fan. It's pretty much useless trying to ignore the reality of the situation now. All we can do is fight for it."

Equius gave her a deadpan look, then heaved a soft sigh as he went back to work. "She doesn't deserve this, you know. Nepeta," he said quietly. "She deserves to be happy and have the peaceful life that she wished for us all. This is taking that away from her and I'll be...I'll be damned if I let it happen just like that." He finished the final adjustments then started to snap the plating into place over the exposed tech, opting for something similar to what she'd gotten used to rather than reaching for the shells that he'd taken to constructing for the more vain of his clients. "Does it hurt anywhere?"

She shook her head as she rolled her shoulder and flexed her elbow, testing the connections to see if it hurt anywhere. "No, no pain. A little numbness in the last two fingers, though." She sighed then with a shake of her head. "Nobody deserves this," she murmured. "But once we're through the Void, once we're settled somewhere, we'll have it. Or at least you guys will. You're safe, now. Strider and Lalonde pulled some cosmic strings to get you off the hook for smashing the treatment center." She hung her head with a fairly mirthless smile. "You'll be just fine once all of this is over, but sometimes you have to fight for your happiness. This is the last of the fighting we'll _ever_ have to do for it. It's just around the corner, Zahhak. So stop being such a grouch about it and just suck it up a little longer."

"I will grouch as much as I please," Equius replied, cracking a small smile and laying a hand gingerly on her shoulder, reaching two fingers in between the flesh and metallic connectors, taking her hand again and pinching down on her fingers until the connections were properly established. "The highblood tried to apologize before I killed him," he said thoughtfully as he wiped the blood off his hands, giving Vriska a curious look. She winced a little with the rough prodding, but she didn't complain. Once she flexed her fingers again, she nodded.

"He's changed. He's...not who he was when we were younger." She moved her hand up to move Equius' glasses up to look into his eyes, serious as anything. "He's torn up by how much fear he's inspired, and resigned to it. All things considered, Zahhak, I think he's just as deserving of peace as anyone else." She smiled a little more sincerely. "And I think we've made him suffer enough for his sins. You're alive, so is she. You don't have to share a prototyped existence with a pair of cocky glasses, and she's not stuck with the fishy princess or as a ghost. And _he_ doesn't have to suffer at the hands of a shitty - sorry - cherub anymore." She hopped off the workbench and tested the movement of her arm and hand, rolling it at the wrist and elbow, waggling her fingers.

Wrinkling his nose, Equius conceded, albeit grudgingly. "I would still prefer that he kept a healthy distance away from both of us. He is still terribly uncouth even without his...habits. Though from the look of him, he's picked up some others." He also considered privately that it would have been nice still sharing his mind with the auto-responder, if only because of the intense clarity and speed of his thought processes. She accidentally snooped on that and she sighed.

"Fine, it's better for _us_ that you're not sharing a body with AR. And I can't promise that he'll stay away from you, but he lives with Eridan in California, which is as close to 'far away' as you can get it. And even _if_ Gamzee says he doesn't want an apology, I'm pretty sure Eridan's willing to wait for one from you until we're old and long in the teeth. He's fiercely protective of his matesprit." She went to the closest mirror she could find and started fixing her hair back up into a braid.

Equius' frown deepened at that and he crossed his arms, mopping his face with a spare rag then washing his hands of the grease, sweat and blood before brushing her hands away from her hair and starting to do it himself; he'd done it for Nepeta hundreds of times, perpetually exasperated with her refusal to take care of it. "If it is asked of me, I will. But I cannot in good conscience guarantee that it will be sincere."

"It's better to be sincere than to do it out of fealty, Equius," she said as she sat still. She was better about taking care of her hair than Nepeta ever was, being just the littlest bit vain. "And I'd tell Eridan the same da-... the same thing." She pouted faintly and then looked into the reflection of them to look at Equius. "You're still so hung up on hemospectrum when it doesn't matter here. We're all equal now. Equally doomed, equally blessed. Don't be so hung up on the past, Equius. It's not good for you."

Equius clearly appreciated the effort Vriska was taking to censor herself, twisting her hair into a neat braid behind her head and tying it back in place with an elastic that he'd taken to keeping around his wrist for keeping his own hair back out of his face while he worked. "If it's proven to me that he's trustworthy, it would go a long way toward convincing me. I've spent a very long time thinking about all of this, Serket. After my death I had no real choice but to do so."

"Then when you go back there with me later, you're going to do your level f-," She huffed a petulant sigh, "your level best to keep an open mind about it. If you can't take my word that he's changed, then don't close yourself off to the idea of it entirely." She turned and gave him a cocky smile. "And don't you dare think you've seen the last of _me_ either, Zahhak. Just because I've come to pull you back out of hiding doesn't mean I'm done being a pain in your rear."

"You have never been a pain in my hindquarters," Equius replied with a small smile and gestured out of the shop, up toward a staircase that led up to an apartment situated above the shop. It was obviously shared between himself and Nepeta, with drawings all over a couple of the walls, sometimes directly on the wallpaper, and boxes of spare parts and tools. "If you'd like, there is a shower stall available, and the prosthetic is waterproof." He indicated an open door leading to a tiny bathroom. She smiled as she followed along, and before she turned to step into the bathroom, she took his hand and squeezed it with her robotic one.

"Thanks again, Equius." She slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, tying up the braid so it wouldn't get wet before stripping out of her bloodstained clothes and putting them in her sylladex. Then she took a moment to bring out a clean set of clothes, and her soap, towel and washcloth.

She returned in about twenty minutes, looking no less tired, but at least leaps and bounds less miserable and disgusting. "Let me get you some lunch," she said with a sharp grin, keeping her hair up in the braid, though she let it fall back down past the small of her back. "And then we can go back to get Nepeta. She's worried that I've completely absconded with you again."

"She's always worried," Equius pointed out, then followed her out, having changed his own clothes into a newer tank and a loose pair of carpenter's jeans, kneeling to tie his boots. "She might not have remembered much until recently, but she has been on edge almost perpetually for the last year. She is good at hiding it most times to keep her customers from worrying, but...well." He gestured to the pictures on the wall. A lot of them were sketchy, indefinite portraits, some more recognizable than others. Her art had certainly improved since the days of the Shipping Wall. "She vents it like this when talking to me doesn't help as much."

Vriska looked around with a tilt of her head and then sighed. "Sometimes I forget how isolated you two have been and it makes me wonder if I did the right thing in keeping you both far away from it," she murmured. "But at the time, I just felt that keeping you isolated from everything was the better option. I didn't know if Gamzee's freakouts were on account of him being Gamzee or on account of him knowing the truth. I've since found out it's probably a combination of both. He's on pills for them now, anyway, and he doesn't attract the blaring attention of the big and tentacled, and everyone else seems to be doing all right."

She turned to him and gave him a nearly tender look. "And if it weren't for you finding out somehow, I would've kept you in the dark. I'm sorry you and she have to go through this, but I'm afraid there's really no going back now that you remember. Just got to put on your big-boy pants and truck through it."

"I would rather get this over with sooner than later and if that means being dragged into the middle of this debacle, then so be it."

Taking her back out to the car, Equius glanced up at the slightly watery sunlight starting to peek through the clouds finally, nodding to himself a bit then opening the passenger door for Vriska without thinking. "Have you got any particular plans for lunch or shall we just pull into the first reasonable establishment we find then?"

Vriska tapped her fingers impatiently against her other arm at Equius' behavior before huffing and just getting into her own car's passenger seat. "Damn gentleman," she grumbled, before leaning back into the seat, not buckling in. "Wherever you want to go, big guy, I'm not picky."

Equius handled the car with care as he settled down into it, immediately cataloging the tuning up that he would have to do later, if Vriska let him. He pulled it around smoothly to head back in the direction of the Lalonde estate, knowing that they would be able to at least find a good walk-in restaurant on the way back. He refused to let her pay, nor did he even ask her if she actually had any kind of income with which to do so in the first place, opting for a pub that they had passed on the way to the shop that served in large portions that would suffice for Equius and that Vriska would be able to take part of with her in a carryout container.

When they finally returned to the estate, Equius was able to get a good look at the damage to the outside of the building, clucking his tongue and looking back at Vriska before they headed inside. "Do you know if they've got a contractor?"

"Heck if I know, big guy," sighed Vriska as she got out of the car, feeling a hundred times more herself with a full meal in her. "Could ask 'em, Kanaya probably wouldn't turn down your being around," she noticed that someone had pulled several tarps over the damage that led inside, to at least keep the rain out of the interior of the house. She could only assume it was Bro. She walked up and in through the doors as if she owned the place. They had interesting timing, as Bro had just left to go pick Terezi up from the airport. Eridan was walking past with a cup of tea and then looked over at them with a browarch. "Good to see you didn't pass on last night," he said in lieu of a hello, and kept walking.

Rose popped her head out of the library, and gave them both a wide grin. "Oh, I'm glad you returned. We were worried! Well. Most of us. Nepeta, Equius is back!" She called over her shoulder to the blueblood's moirail, who had busied herself playing with the cats to keep herself occupied.

"Well then he can come in whenever he wants!" came the sassy response. Equius' brow arched up some at that and he let a quiet chuckle, stepping away from Vriska's side to peek into the room, watching Nepeta fussing with Minerva for a moment then settling down on the floor beside her. He apologized quietly, then mirrored her pout until she crawled into his lap, introducing him to the cats.

With Equius indisposed, Vriska was left to do as she pleased. Gamzee was off in the studio room, his music playing quietly behind the closed door. He'd been in there for the last few hours, sketching idly as he waited for Dave. With Nepeta and Equius there, it meant that they could potentially do another Heart shoot, as well as Void. Both Vriska and Rose could be used for Light, if they consented to it. But first and foremost he still had to try and paint himself to match the designs that Dave had started for him. Karkat was lingering in the library far out of the way, a cup of coffee nearby at all times after he'd simply given up on going back to sleep.

Vriska smiled faintly as she watched Equius walk off and then she went to go watch Gamzee work. She was quiet as she came in, and didn't say a word as she simply watched the nightmare pour onto the paper with a practiced ease. 

Dave didn't want to feel like a diva, but that was how he felt when he refused to leave the bedroom when Rose asked him if he'd even come down to eat lunch with everybody. It took him until he finally heard Vriska's voice to come out of the bedroom and slink down to the library, silently smiling to Equius and Nepeta before walking over to Karkat.

"Look, whatever I can do to make up for yesterday, I'm going to," he whispered. "You didn't deserve me blowing up on you like that. I'm on my way in there to set back up for today, if you're up for watching." He gave Karkat a hopeful look from behind his glasses.

Karkat kept his eyes down on the book in his lap, still not feeling quite up to talking about what had happened. He did, however, look forward to seeing more of the project, finally standing and waving Dave off to follow after him back to the studio. Gamzee was a good deal calmer than he had been, cleaned up and re-painted, looking younger now that his scars had been erased. He had scooted over some to let Vriska watch him in his scribbles, a faint smile on his face. Karkat stopped in the doorway to take in the sight, disconcerted then caught somewhere between relieved and miserable; once it would have been him sitting there in Vriska's spot watching Gamzee sketch, but now the damage had been done and he couldn't bring himself to come any closer than this in his reluctance to cause any more.

Dave noticed the step back and wrapped his arm around Karkat's shoulders, murmuring, "It'll be okay if you let it be okay, man." He came aside and walked over to Gamzee with a grin, taking a seat on the other side of him. "Hey burnout, you ready for today's shit? I think today is Rose, Eridan, and Terezi." He paused and then leaned over to look at Vriska. "I've got two Light designs drawn up, kind of the two sides of the coin, if you want to join in."

"Pardon me for not being fucking privy to the situation like everyone else, but what's going on?" She asked.

"Art project," Gamzee replied with a shrug, looking up from his sketchpad then flipping back toward the part of the pad that had one of his own designs for the project, coincidentally the darker side of the Light design. "I paint shit on people. Play up on their aspects. Dave takes some hella good photos of 'em. We're gonna be puttin' 'em up in a gallery, get some more people all motherfuckin' woke up so we got more people on our side in the final push, y'know? We got Time, Blood, Heart and Doom outta the way already, just need to do Light, Mind, Rage and if Equius is up to it, we got a couple'a Void designs layin' around."

"Space, too," Dave reminded. "We could've gotten Breath, but John's got shit to do at _Didneylan_ ," Dave said with a roll of his eyes, smirking as he slipped away. "I'll go see if Rose is ready. You want to do this, just go ahead and let him know. He's the boss here," Dave said with a grin to Vriska before he went off to fetch his sister.

Vriska scoffed a little at the whole thing, and then it turned into a sincere giggle. "Oh my god, are you serious? How'd you get Nubs to get nude? This is so funny." She held her hand to her mouth as she continued to chuckle. "Oh wow. Yeah, sure, shit, why not? I've got nothin' better to do today 'til Terezi gets here."

Karkat took a seat on the other side of the room with his book still in hand, just letting them chat back and forth about the project. He couldn't help but color slightly at the question of his nudity, refusing to dignify Vriska's amusement with a response. Vriska looked up at Karkat with a sharp grin, and then back down to the design that Gamzee was working on.

Gamzee grinned at her. "You serious? Shit yeah, sis. Just get all motherfuckin' showered down when it comes time and we can do a dual shoot with you and Rose. Have the dark side and light side Dave wanted to go for. Gonna be so legit, man." He looked a good deal more excited about the prospect and opened up to a clean sheet in his sketchpad, starting to rework the designs they already had to incorporate two bodies instead of one. "Project's real motherfuckin' important to Karkat too so he didn't really have a problem with it. Ask Dave, he might be able to show you some motherfuckin' previews of the photos. Not sure if he got 'em both digital and film but if he did, you can see 'em before they get developed and hung up. We already got a couple'a motherfuckin' galleries lookin' forward to displayin' the project just because Dave's all up and motherfuckin' popular in the indie arts scene and I already got shit showin' in a couple places back in Cali."

"Yeah, I know. I went to see your exhibit a few months ago. It was amazing, Gamzee, seriously. Nobody else in paradox space could paint what you do, and it's fucking _awesome._ " She pulled out something that looked less like a hairstick and more like a stiletto dagger to wrap her braid around into a bun. "I just got a shower at Equius' place, but I'll rinse down just for this, too. How much of me are you going to need?"

"You really get around, don't you." Gamzee bumped his shoulder against Vriska's then went back to the drawing for a moment before holding it up to show her. "I figure we play up skin tones with the motif it'll make it a little easier on my paints so I still have some left over afterward," he pointed out on the drawings of each body where the paint would have slight voids in it that would be taken up by their natural skin colors instead. "You guys get a break first though. I'm gonna have to paint my own shit, gonna take longer than workin' with y'all. But when the time comes it'll be better if you just strip down everything. Paint takes a while to dry and you don't want that shit all up and motherfuckin' smudgin' all over your clothes. Rose has a robe if you want it."

"You're going to paint yourself. Well that's got to be a spectacle," she said with a laugh, and then stood. "All right, I'll see what I can do to help them unfuck the back yard. There's still chunks of dead Old One out there, and that shit's gonna smell fierce after getting some sun." She smiled at Karkat and leaned down to rumple his hair as she walked past, off to go help clean up.

It was about an hour later that Terezi and Bro returned, Terezi already smelling the funk of dead god-bits in the back yard, the pessimism, and the faintest smell of flirtation as she walked in. "Yep, smells like us," she said, before she went in search of Karkat. "Karkles!" She called out, "Your cat-sitter told you to mellow out!"

"CASS CAN BITE MY GLOBES," he yelled back, grumbling then sticking his tongue out at Gamzee as the other started to laugh at him from his place standing in the middle of the room. He was stripped down to his boxer shorts with the paints he would need arranged around him, testing out a couple on the inside of his arm as he had with everyone else's just to see that the colors would remain pristine against his skin tone. He jogged outside when that was done to try and help with the cleanup himself, ducking under the slab of dead flesh that Equius had heaved up over one shoulder to help collect the smaller, already smelly bits sticking to the grass.

"'s too motherfuckin' bad that Karbro still gets all motherfuckin' nauseous about this kinda shit," he chuckled, knowing that that was why Karkat wasn't out here helping. The guy STILL had a bad habit of growing faint at the sight of blood no matter how much he tried to deny the fact.

Vriska had been making friendly-ish smalltalk, just catching up with Nepeta and Equius as they worked, and Terezi made her way up to him to stand there at his side. "He said all the damage was done yesterday and that'd I'd be walking into a clusterfuck, but holy WOW," she said, wrinkling her nose. "This is _definitely_ not what I expected. I'm guessing there's usually a wall over there," she said, pointing vaguely in the direction she'd just come out from. Dave came up and grinned, pressing a kiss to the top of Terezi's head.

"Usually," he replied, before shooing Gamzee back in to continue working on the painting. "You've got work to do, bro, we've got this covered. Call me in if you need any help."

Gamzee draped an arm around Terezi's shoulders, taking her back inside with him with the assurance that it would smell a LOT better in the studio than it did out there. He let her sit, glancing up at Karkat when he moved to take a seat beside her, knowing they would end up talking instead of paying him any attention, though ultimately that would end up being better for Karkat, he knew. He went to shower off again then sat down with the sketches for his paint arranged around him, working carefully as he painted the design onto himself upside-down from his vantage point. It would be easier working from the hardest to reach spots then pull himself around slowly. For the moment he was planted in a rather twisted camel pose to paint up the back of his thigh. Each side of his body would be two takes on the same design, one more vicious and jagged than the other, showing the duality of his own aspect. He would be one of the only ones that would be displaying his wings during the shoot, a spur of the moment decision that he and Dave had discussed earlier on in the day.

After most of the beastie was disposed of in three rented dumpsters that Mom had called out to take care of the rubble and interstellar flotsam, Vriska went to wash the ichor off herself before she settled in to watch Gamzee with a grin. "I don't think people can really bend that way, Makara. Now you're just being the literal definition of impossible." She looked through the window at Equius and Nepeta, the latter of whom had started to clean up the rubble, chattering noisily with her moirail. Equius, meanwhile, had started to salvage what he could to build back into the house when he could get on that project as well, talking right back as he went through what he had and started hosing off the occasional bit of monster still stuck to it.

"You say that like he hasn't always been," Karkat snorted from his seat, glancing back and forth between his book and Gamzee, who had straightened up and started on a less stressful angle to give himself a rest. He was still simply working on the broad shapes and gestures in several spots, others much closer to finished so that he wouldn't have to bother much more with them. "Where is Sollux with the camera when we need him?"

"Oh, don't really need Sollux," Gamzee replied with a shrug, then looked up at the tripod that had been set up before he'd started. "They thought to set up the thing before they all ran out to start pickin' up squishy shit."

Terezi made an unpleasant noise at that. "Thank you, Gamzee, that was terrible," she teased, and then her brow furrowed. "Okay, now I'm confused. Be right back." She narrowed her eyes at Vriska and said, "You stay put, I don't want to have to hunt you down," she pressed a quick kiss to Karkat's cheek as Vriska looked confused in the sudden disappearance of the blind girl.

"Oh no, I'm in trouble," she deadpanned, looking over at Eridan, who slipped in quietly. "Oh, you've already started," he said with a slight pout, before taking a seat beside Karkat.

"You guys were all motherfuckin' busy, didn't wanna come fetch anyone just to look at me gettin' my shit in place." Gamzee shrugged then reached over to the iPod dock with his bare foot, tapping the volume button to turn the music down a little. "When I'm all done with gettin' the photos all taken it's your turn though," he added then settled back down on his knees to finish the last touches around his legs and hips, letting a few drips run down one of his calves to finish that part of the piece.

Eridan cleared his throat, "A course. We discussed this before," he murmured, keeping his composure for the time being.

Vriska raised an eyebrow. "Look, fishboy, if you're modest- oh. Oh you're not modest. Nevermind." She pulled her lower lip in to bite back a snicker, though poorly.

"Will you kindly shut your fuckin' mouth, Vris?" He crossed his arms and looked straight ahead. Karkat was very soundly ignoring both of them in favor of looking over Gamzee's work, completely uncaring that he was naked in favor of examining the slightly disturbing details that went into the artwork. Even unfinished the designs seemed to writhe and shift as Gamzee moved, coming together over his pelvis then splitting again as the jags of it crawled along his back and sides to his shoulders and down his arms. The way it crept up the sides of his neck and incorporated into his normal makeup made it all the more visceral, as if the mask of his facepaint had started to crawl down and take over the rest of him.

"Hey, you think you could go get that standin' mirror Kanaya's got over there," Gamzee spoke up after planting himself between Vriska and Eridan, arching an eyebrow at Karkat until he'd moved to do so. He would need to see his reflection to finish up parts around his face, he'd already known, and when it was put down in front of him he grinned at Karkat then went back to work, asking Eridan to move the camera to be able to catch the rest of the process.

Eridan moved the camera, fiddling with the adjustments to get it focused properly before he nodded and stepped aside from the equipment he barely knew how to operate. When Dave came in moments later, he shooed the seadweller away and fine-tuned it with a, "Dude, Gamzee, that is sick as hell." He amused himself with the thought that his friend had just made himself into living chucklevoodoos. Vriska snickered again, this time to Dave's thought. "You're lucky, Dave, you know he actually _could_."

"Oh, I know," Dave said offhand, looking up at Gamzee to share his thought. "I was just thinkin' how you wound up painting yourself all flavors of chucklevoodoo and how boss it looks."

Terezi came back in and let out a delighted murmur, "Oh my god, Gamzee, you smell so _good_! Like a grape-raspberry tart."

Gamzee looked back at him then down at himself, shrugging and cracking a small smile. "Guess it just goes with the aspect." He still had work to do around his grubscars and stomach but other than that, there was very little he still needed. He tilted his head back and forth thoughtfully then looked back at Dave. "How much those tunnels cost you, bro? Thinkin' if I start drawin' disability that'd be the first thing I go for. You know nobody's gonna wanna motherfuckin' hire me to begin with," he added before Eridan could butt in with some argument. "If not them, maybe somethin' smaller. Not really much one for piercings but the aesthetic's real motherfuckin' nice." He grinned as he glanced back at his matesprit, giving him a wink.

"My guy down in Houston did 'em, set me back seventy bucks, but I stretched them myself from 14s. Took me two years to get to this," he said as he went to go adjust the backdrop and the lighting, glad that the destruction didn't happen to this room, but rather to the one across the hall. "You shouldn't get your lobes done bigger than 14s to start, anyway. It'd do some major damage." He waved Gamzee over to get in front of the camera as he changed out the film and memory card. "Gotta be slow with it. Weeks between gauge changes, never use spirals or spikes, I'll run down the do and do-nots later. Kanaya and I will be going to the shop for her tattoo in a couple days, you can come along and ask a pro about it."

"Sounds good to me, bro."

While Dave set up, Gamzee finished the last of the details then stood up in front of a fan for a few seconds. They were going to leave his hands streaked with paint, incorporating the mess with the rest of the design. After the set had been spread out he finally extended his wings for all of them to see, splayed out and shimmering faintly as the color shifted minutely whenever he moved. He tipped his head back to let his dreads fall back from his face and neck, getting into position for the first set of shots.

When Equius and Nepeta strolled in to see what the rest of them had gotten up to, Equius' first reaction was to put his hand over Nepeta's eyes, his fluster at seeing the highblood naked and painted immediately apparent. Vriska looked up at their arrival and then snickered as she heard Nepeta's gasp of surprise and then of protest as she pulled herself up over the offending hand to see what was going on with the highblood and all the paint. She was still somewhat worried by him, but less so when he was completely painted up and obviously distracted by...whatever it was they were doing. Vriska stood and walked over, explaining to them what was going on in brief, managing for the entirety of explanation to keep herself censored. "After this, Eridan's next, then it's going to be me and Rose in a double shoot."

Dave looked up from the camera to turn and grin at Equius. "I was hoping you'd participate, actually. Jade and Aradia have requested we wake up Void players specifically, but since the only person even remotely associated with Void outside of you is Mom?" He shook his head and went back to asking Gamzee to pose with the more erratic pattern the focus. He'd be getting all the angles he could of the paint, as he had for everyone else thus far.

"That means we gotta make your pattern the most important one we do," Gamzee added as he turned in place to bring the chaotic half of the piece into greater prominence, facing Equius with his head at atilt. "You feel like bein' the lynchpin of our existence, bro?"

Karkat finally spoke up at that, sitting up and waving his hands. "Gamzee what the hell, you don't just put pressure on a guy like that, especially this drippy fucker!"

"Language," Equius snapped immediately in spite of knowing that it was Karkat that he was talking to, and that making Karkat stop swearing would take a ballgag and even then he'd still manage to rage his way through it. He looked Gamzee in the face rather than letting his eyes follow the ribbons of art down the length of his body, lifting a hand and narrowing his eyes. "You're the one that's doing the art, correct?" He was looking back and forth between the highblood and the rest of them, obviously suspicious. But if they were all backing him up, he wouldn't have to worry quite so much. At least, that was the assumption here.

"All I'd want you to do's shower down, chill out, hold still for me, get you all painted up, take some photos gonna make all kindsa shit happen, make the world a lil' fuckin' safer. Lots'a good shit for a little bit'a work on your part, feel me?"

Dave sighed as he turned around again. "Look man, it's not as hugely important as all that. No pressure, okay? I mean, I want this world done and made yesterday, but we've all got to work for that. If we can find another way to get it done, we will. Just... I'm asking nicely here. Dude is quick as hell with the paints, you can decide whether or not you want your face shown, it's up to you." He scratched through his hair with a faint smile. 

Vriska piped up. "For once in your life, Equius, do something with that body of yours." She smiled sharply at him and settled down in a seat once more. "Maybe Nepeta can do something, too."

"We've got Heart," Dave said, thumbing his shoulder over to Bro, who had just walked in through the side door, blinking. "But I wasn't really... I dunno, it didn't flow right. Did it flow right to you, Gamzee?" He said, looking over to his friend, who he belatedly remembered was still naked and it made him chuckle.

"Flowed ok to me, but I'm willin' to bet it'd look a lot motherfuckin' sweeter on her," Gamzee replied with a thoughtful little smile. "Make some hella good companion pieces. Fuck, man if we got them both painted up we could even do it as a joint thing like Vriska n' Rose. How's that sound to you?" He asked Bro with an arched brow, keeping his body held so that the paint wouldn't rub against itself and smear.

Bro shrugged. "Up to her. I can sit around naked and painted all day, it's up to Miss Leijon if she wants to jump into the party." He smirked as he walked in and took a seat, draping himself into a wicker armchair as he looked at the group. It seemed to flow a shitload better with everyone that was there. Still missing a couple components, he thought, but he mentally shrugged it off. Dave looked over to Nepeta, who was clearly toying with the idea in her head, chewing on her thumb as her tail twitched from one side to the other.

"Oh my _god_ , would you two _please_ just do this? The faster they get this done, the faster people will wake up and the faster life can move on in a reality that's real," Vriska sighed in frustration.

"I've not said no," Equius pointed out, giving her a somewhat amused look then laying his hand on Nepeta's shoulder, murmuring in her ear that it was alright if she wanted to do it as well. It was slightly disconcerting when he looked back up at the wide, toothy smile slowly spreading across Gamzee's face, but in spite of the joint desires to abscond and to punch those teeth out of the back of the highblood's head, Equius nodded in agreement. "It serves a noble purpose, befitting of our status."

"Come on man, ain't about status," Gamzee sighed, giving him an exasperated sigh. "Don't think about it like that, think about the fact you're basically savin' billions of motherfuckers from certain tentacle-flavored doom."

Eridan scoffed at the status thing and rolled his eyes, waving his hand to Equius as if proving a point he'd made the other day to Karkat. Bro just chuckled. "Thank you both for the help. Can we get this shit back on the road now? Is that a thing we're gonna do?" 

Dave blinked at Bro's apparent impatience and then shook his head, "Right. Gamzee, back to the thing so you and Eridan can do whatever it is you're going to do in addition to painting him." He was a little more astute than he usually let on. It made Eridan's smugness drop and his cheeks go violet, before clearing his throat again and excusing himself to go get some water. Gamzee barely reacted to it but returned to the shoot, chuckling quietly. It was obvious that at least he didn't care about what people knew about his sex life with his matesprit. He let his lip curl as he faced the camera again, letting his demeanor drop into something a good deal more threatening. Without his scars the effect was somewhat diminished, but it wasn't his whole face that would be the focus of the shot so much as the design dripping down the taut cords of his neck. Dave managed to get Gamzee's flared nose down to his boney hips into the shot, ignoring the momentary chill that went down his spine. It was a perfect shot, all things considered, and he stepped back after a few more poses, nodding to Gamzee.

"You're free, bro. Have fun," he said as he grabbed the memory card and full film roll, immediately captchaloging them for safekeeping. He stepped away and walked over to Karkat, draping himself down around his matesprit, feeling a hundred times better now that they were back into the swing of things. Karkat propped his chin on Dave's shoulder, arms wrapped around his waist. It would take at least another two hours before Eridan's shoot was ready, giving them time to do whatever they felt like with their time until that was. Dave murmured against Karkat's hair, "Want to go to a museum or something?" He was feeling like getting out of the house after all that, especially when he watched Terezi continually mock looking at first Equius, then Vriska, and back again. The gears were clearly spinning in her mind.

Gamzee stretched languidly then put away his paints, sorting through and getting out the brighter tones that he'd be using for Eridan, laying them aside. He stood and stepped up to his matesprit's side, hooking his fingers around Eridan's to drag him off to the shower. "Come on, first thing's first, bro."

Eridan followed with a subdued smile and tried not to let his mind wander. "I'll try my best not to get riled up, but I can't make any promises," he repeated for about the tenth time in the month.

Equius was watching them with a soft frown as they passed, looking rather bewildered for a variety of reasons. He looked back at Vriska for an explanation then went to find a seat to settle down in to wait, having little else to do in the unfamiliar setting.

Vriska ignored Terezi's trying to piece things together and then looked up at Equius. "They're going to pail. Let's go work on cleanup some more, make ourselves useful." She looked over at Nepeta, who was hiding her amusement behind a gloved hand at how brash she was. "Oh man, you are _so_ rusty at this talking with me thing, Nepeta, wow."

Equius' expression tightened, cheeks and ears flaring blue as he inflated a bit then shook himself mentally. "Yes, that much was plainly obvious, but must they be so _blatant_ about it? This is incredibly lewd..."

"Oh my fucking god Equius why do you have to just... Everything you did was fucking lewd as hell whether you realized it or not. Lay the fuck off, alright?" Karkat yelled at him, then at the ceiling, letting his head fall against the back of the chair he and Dave were occupying.

Dave laughed at that and shook his head. "I'm staying right the hell out of this one, guys." He wrapped his arms around Karkat more firmly and kissed his matesprit's neck. Terezi finally caught that little loose thread she'd been trying to patch things together with and then grinned deviously. Vriska nearly winced at how loud her kismesis thought and then put her hand around Equius' wrist, pulling him away from the room before Terezi had a chance to pounce on that train of thought.

"We're out of here, let's clean some more, let's go big guy, c'mon, Leijon, we've got work to do."

Gamzee was waiting in a shower stall with the paint already running off his skin under the warm water, his hair pulled up away from his face to keep it from getting wet. He was taking the time to wash off every ounce of paint he could without using soap, simply waiting for Eridan to join him so that he could give his matesprit a thorough scrub. Once Eridan's clothes were removed, he joined Gamzee in the shower, smiling faintly as he rinsed the paint off of his neck with a brush of his bare knuckles; he'd left his rings out on the counter. He smiled faintly.

"Gave Equius somethin' to be mortified about. Forgot how amusin' that is. He gets so puffy." Then again, coming from the prince of puffing up from the indignity of it all, it probably sounded a little weak.

"Not quite as funny as when you do it though," Gamzee replied and grinned at him, leaning right up against him and chuckling quietly in his throat. He pecked the corner of Eridan's lips playfully. "Lookin' forward to bein' all motherfuckin' exhibitionist?"

"Don't tempt me to puff up at that," murmured Eridan, leaning up to catch Gamzee's lips as well, scrubbing away another smear of paint that Gamzee had missed with his hand. "When do I ever turn down that opportunity, Gam? You know I'm ready. Just gotta worry about makin' sure the paint will cover up the ink." He ran one hand down between them to scrub over his matesprit's inner thigh.

Gamzee's leg lifted up and gave Eridan's hand a little more room to move, one hand running up his matesprit's arm and tracing along the patterns of the octopus crawling over his shoulder. "Made up the design with the mods in mind, man. Gonna incorporate the biomech, cover up the handles and make sure the shots obscure the rest. Gonna be all motherfuckin' artsy with a pretty yellow drape." He grinned and pressed his lips to Eridan's shoulder, the paint on his face transferring to the other's skin before being washed away.

"A course you did," Eridan murmured as his fingers slipped upward across his matesprit's sensitive inner thigh, before moving over to tease into his nook momentarily, "Shoulda known that you would have a plan," he moved his free arm around Gamzee's waist, pulling him close enough to be touching chest to chest. "A drape? Classic diversion tactic, I like it," he muttered against his matesprit's chest, while he slipped his hand away from Gamzee's nook up to brush his fingertip up against the tip of his bulge, simply teasing for the moment.

Gamzee let a quiet, content hum as his hips moved forward into the touch. "Figured you might like that," he murmured and draped his arms over Eridan's shoulders. The tease started to draw his bulge out to wind around Eridan's fingers then glide through them to find his sheath and curl around the tip of his bulge. "We gotta get you all scrubbed down, y'know. Can't keep everyone all motherfuckin' waitin' for us..."

With a quiet gasp, Eridan rocked his hips forward, slipping his hands up Gamzee's back. "We can multitask," he murmured, his bulge slipping out to twist around Gamzee's with a tight squeeze. He picked up the bottle of body wash he'd brought with him, uncapping it with his thumb while his bulge kept a pulsating pressure on Gamzee's, and he kissed his matesprit's neck. Leaning his cheek against the side of Eridan's head, he grinned and combed his fingers through his hair, grabbing the body wash and upending it to drip over his shoulder and chest to slip in between them. He rolled his body against his matesprit's as his bulge squeezed down in return, the soft ridging along the underside dragging over Eridan's nook in the slow grapple. With another soft sound of pleasure, Eridan wound his fingers through Gamzee's dreads, pressing another kiss to his matesprit's jaw, then down the front of his neck, rocking his hips more firmly once Gamzee's bulge found its way back, his own dipping in with a tease at first before he pulled Gamzee closer with a faint growl, plunging his bulge in deep. He'd been doing his very best not to get worked up the entire time he watched Gamzee paint himself, but it had reached its breaking point.

Gamzee sucked in a deep breath then let it out again in a quiet laugh, lifting his leg to curl around his matesprit's hip then lifting himself to cling to him. He locked himself in place with a strong grip and leaned most of his weight on his arms, holding himself there as his bulge crept down to wrap around the base of Eridan's. He licked his lips then dragged the tip of his tongue along the top of his matesprit's earfin to flick off the end of it. With another sharp gasp, Eridan rocked his hips while his bulge worked in tandem with his rhythm, pushing progressively deeper with each movement forward. He brought one arm around his matesprit's back while he used the other hand to brush against Gamzee's jaw, before pulling him down for another, deeper kiss. He clearly wasn't that concerned about scrubbing down just then.

Gamzee's tongue curled around Eridan's in the kiss as he flexed the walls of his nook down around the other's bulge, his own curling between their bodies and starting to drip saccharine purple fluid between them. He growled quietly in his throat and forced himself to claw into his own palms rather than scratching Eridan's shoulders and back. They could finish washing up when they were done but for now, he was content with the way things were going. Any other time, Eridan would have scolded Gamzee for holding back, but considering the plan for him becoming the next canvas in the project, he understood, and simply brushed his own nails down his matesprit's back. Fluid started dripping from him as well as he arched his hips upward and parted his legs just enough to give Gamzee's bulge room to push into him.

As Eridan's stance changed Gamzee shifted himself downward just enough to let his bulge curl around the base of Eridan's then push up into his nook, eliciting another groan from him as his back arched into the gentle scratch. He grinned against Eridan's lips as he started to move again. "Come on, runnin' out of time," he chuckled then nuzzled up under his jaw to mouth at the front of his throat. Eridan huffed at his impatience and he thrust his hand between them to wrap around both their bulges, pumping what wasn't buried inside their nooks, letting out a sharp little sound, swearing vibrantly in Alternian as his head dropped back. It didn't take long for him to start dripping more, the fluid growing thicker with genetic material as he gasped his matesprit's name. Gamzee gritted his teeth, his eyes closing as he let out another growl, his nook flexing and tightening down at the sensation of the fluid pulsing into him then dripping out again, his own bulge reaching in deeper and pumping in tandem. He lowered his feet back to the floor of the shower and lifted Eridan's leg up to give himself better access, thrusting up into him hard until he'd finally come, panting quietly against Eridan's throat. He drew back out with a quiet, somewhat sleepy-sounding laugh and bent to retrieve the bottle of soap he'd long since dropped, then scooped a scrubber out of the caddy and started to lather his matesprit's chest in slow sweeps.

Eridan gasped and reached back up to put his hand on Gamzee's shoulder, faltering slightly and chuckling to himself at being too heady in afterglow. He didn't take long to scrub down with Gamzee's help, and once he was finished, he rinsed off and stepped out of the shower to grab a towel, smiling warmly to himself as he slipped his rings and glasses back on. Gamzee decided for the moment to forego his makeup, drying off then leaning up against Eridan's back and pressing his lips to his matesprit's shoulder. "Still want that private room for painting or you feel like bravin' the camera?" He murmured with a small smirk into the mirror, looking back at Eridan through his reflection. Eridan took a little while to think about it before turning around to run his fingers over Gamzee's chest.

"I'll request breaks if I need them. Let's get this done with." He pulled his robe on and started out and down to the makeshift studio.

Coming back into the studio naked, Gamzee took a moment to pull his pants back on then glance around at Dave, turning the camera back on so that he could record the process as he had with the others. Dave grinned and gave the prince and his highblood a nod as he dropped himself into a chair to start reading an e-book that he'd saved, knowing it'd take Gamzee a while. As per his usual painting method, within minutes Gamzee's hands were coated with paint, smearing together and blending smoothly where he needed it to. It was obvious that he was taking extra care with Eridan, covering parts of his tattoos then switching to his brushes and starting on the smaller details. He worked carefully, attempting to remain detached as he had with the others, but he couldn't deny that there really was something extremely erotic about rubbing body paint onto his lover's skin. Eridan sat as stoically as he could, eyes slipping closed after a while. He wasn't letting himself get worked up over the sensation of Gamzee's familiar hands over his body, slicking him over with the paint. He chewed at the inside of his lip as Gamzee worked.

\--

Vriska had worked up enough of an appetite to take a seat on the hood of her car and daintily snack on the leftovers that they'd gotten at the pub, watching as Equius worked to pile the still-useable bricks and stones, quietly considering her options. She hadn't ever pursued a quadrant with him because they worked well enough together without. But she couldn't deny, he'd grown into his looks. She'd actually noticed it the last time she'd been waist deep in _all_ the shit with him and Gamzee, but she hadn't had a chance to say anything, between having to stash him somewhere carefully selected to keep him safe until it blew over, and getting Gamzee the hell away from them. He was still chatting idly with Nepeta as she followed him back and forth carrying smaller things, handing him tools or holding things in place while he started to make repairs where he could, just generally making himself useful under Mom Lalonde's watchful but slightly unfocused eye. He mopped his face every now and then with the rag that he kept hanging half out of one of his pockets, glancing up at a bottle of water as it was dropped down to him and snagging it out of midair. He called up his thanks then returned to work at singlehandedly repairing the hole in the wall.

Vriska sighed and rolled her eyes, hopping off the hood of her, walking up to Nepeta to ask her very kindly to get the fuck out of there for the time being by way of telling her that she would probably be really interested to know that Karkat had been learning how to cook, and that she should ask _every little thing_ she could about it. When Nepeta gave her an incredulous, sly look, Vriska slumped a little, sighing, "can I just borrow your moirail for a few, _please?_ " That got Nepeta to smile and tell her she should have just said that in the first place, before she went off to find Terezi to catch up with her a little now that she had the chance.

Vriska started helping Equius with a smile, glad that she had some extra strength on top of her already lean muscles. She didn't have the STRENGTH that Equius did, clearly, but she was able to make herself useful. She really hadn't been great at the whole broaching of the subject of quadrants thing. She never really put much care into the ones she had in the past; they were mere smoke and mirror tricks, basically speaking. With her and Terezi, it was just as easy as slipping into a comfortable cocoon at night, their rivalry fitting them so easily after so long. But this was a whoooole other ballpark. She and Equius had practically known each other since they were grubs. And what they had was good. She didn't know what to say. And she knew he wouldn't know what to say, he was so fucking dense sometimes...

Not dense, she corrected herself. Simply ignorant of the reality of things.

While he might not have been the quickest on the uptake, he had noticed Nepeta being sent off, glancing between her and Vriska then simply returning to the task at hand. At Vriska's voluntary help he looked back up again and thanked her, though he had to insist that she leave it to him so that she wouldn't potentially stress the prosthetic before the wounds around her shoulder could really heal. Just like any sort of implant, it would run the risk of rejection and potentially make her very sick. All the same though, it was a comfort that she had volunteered to help him at all; it meant that she hadn't been broken by anything that had happened, that she was just the same as she had ever been. It was good to have that piece of home again.

She sighed petulantly and dropped herself onto the pile of rocks, crossing her legs. "Right, I forgot about that," she muttered over the filter of a cigarette, digging in her pockets to find her lighter. "I've got to ask, Zahhak. If I came back out here to live once shi- everything gets settled, would you still want to keep contact?" She hated that she could never quite read his mind. She'd gotten close back when they were much younger, but when she prodded, he'd made her arm slap her. Salty sonofabitch. His reasoning remained to this day that it was uncouth to start prodding in one's friend's minds.

"Even if you failed to return when reality had settled I would see no problem in keeping in touch," he replied easily, tapping a nearly whole board back into place a few feet away from a fractured wall stud. "I would have been in favor of being able to speak with you before now, as a matter of fact."

"Yeah, it's been kind of a drag not having you in this circle, I've got to admit," She muttered as she finally found her lighter, lighting the end of her cigarette and blowing the smoke away from him. "I actually wonder how much you remembered before John tripped over you like the clumsy idiot he is," She was veering off course, so she shook her head. "But I mean, not just in a get-together-once-a-year-hang-out sort of thing, Equius. I mean." Shit. "I mean even Terezi can see we're beating around the bush."

Equius turned the hammer in his hand over a couple of times, then hooked it through the loop on the leg of his jeans and sat down beside Vriska on the rocks. He laced his fingers together as he thought carefully about the position in which he'd found himself, glancing back at Vriska then clearing his throat. "What you're proposing is... I don't... I would be lying if I said that the idea hasn't crossed my mind," he admitted quietly, looking down at the grass between his feet, his cheeks and ears starting to flush blue again.

"Yeah, I'm sure it has, and I'm sure you would have spent sweeps waffling over what to do with that thought." She smirked as she shook her head. "Look, I'll make it a little easier for you. I've thought about it, too. Lots. And if you don't want to pursue that, I'm fine with it. But I'd be _much_ happier if you didn't waffle about your flushed leanings for once." She turned to look at him, her chin in her hand, the cigarette poised delicately between her fingers.

"I do not _waffle_ ," Equius pouted some, reaching up and plucking the cigarette from her fingers. "And this is terrible for you. Where are you staying?" He asked suddenly, as if the thought had only just occurred to him, though in truth he had wondered that rather often since Vriska had come back into his life.

"I know it is, and yes, you _do_ ," sassed Vriska right back as she leaned back over to snag her cigarette right back, before her eyes locked to his and she blinked in surprise. "Hotels, mostly." She didn't have any need to lie about that. She simply assumed that he had known. "My place got destroyed when my lusus was killed about three years ago and I was getting Makara out of danger, so I've been on the road more often than not, and I really don't see a point of trying to pay rent on a place that I'm never in." Vriska sat back down, a little closer to Equius, silently daring him to take the cigarette again as she took a drag of it.

"I was aware that you were more or less living out of your car, but I'd hoped that you had somewhere a little more permanent. You seem to keep coming back to Boston after all." He was trying to remain nonchalant, but the slightly confused fluster was still there under the facade. He covered it by taking the cigarette between his fingers again, looking her straight in the face with a barely quirked brow as he snapped it off at the filter then tossed the rest over his shoulder.

"I haven't decided that," she teased as she narrowed her eyes at Equius' destruction of her cigarette, though she pretty much had decided. She swung herself down to settle on Equius' knees and removed his sunglasses before he could object, delicately cleaning them with the hem of her shirt. She looked back into his eyes with the shades clasped between her hands. "Everybody else seems to be either here, Colorado for some godawful reason I still can't understand, or California. But I've got to say, I'm a fan of the notion that I'm welcome back someplace, where someone actually wants me. It's a pretty novel feeling."

"You have always been welcome back here," Equius pointed out, blinking some in the sunlight then focusing back on Vriska perched on his knees. His eyes were squinted some in the brightness but he adjusted, leaning back and looking back up at her. "This is rather unseemly," he mentioned offhand; clearly he didn't personally mind it, but they _were_ in public, even if they were just in the backyard

"Oh, can it, Zahhak, I'm behaving myself," she said, her tone more amused than cranky as she settled his sunglasses back onto his face carefully. "I haven't stuck my tongue in your mouth, I haven't groped you, I haven't said anything about wanting to do that until just now." She shook her head. "So proper."

At that he finally did lose his composure, quickly mopping his face with the rag at hand and looking back at her with a slight pout again. He kept himself from commenting on it and making her tease him more, knowing that she would given that she wasn't allowed to snoop in his mind. He'd gotten better at keeping himself under control in the last few years, the almost constant public exposure forcing him to acclimate, but some things never really changed, including the immediate puffing up when he was trying to maintain the cool that he was very rapidly losing.

"Proper only on the outside sometimes," she sassed in a whisper as she leaned over to leave a light, lingering kiss to his lips, before she settled back on his knees, only briefly enough to get to her feet. "I've said what I wanted to say, Zahhak. I'll let you compose yourself and then we can talk more once you've figured things out. I'm putting myself on _your_ time, now, so I expect to hear some pretty, eloquent words about your thoughts before Lalonde calls us all in for dinner." She slipped away and through the hole in the wall, to go find Nepeta and relinquish her alone time with Equius.

Nepeta looked up from playing with one of the cats when Vriska found her, frowning a little at how smug she looked then creeping around her and running out to where Equius was still sitting, looking as if he'd been clocked over the head by a cartoon cupid. She squinted back in the direction of the house, then crawled up to his side and settled down there until he noticed her.

Eridan's shoot was nearly done, having taken a little longer than usual just to get the angles that would properly show the paint while obscuring the other tattoos. Gamzee was sitting off to one side with Kanaya beside him, talking idly about what they were going to do for her piece. Karkat lingered in his chair with Terezi taking up Dave's spot in his lap, the two of them watching Dave as he worked. They would need Equius to come inside sooner or later for his set, but with the effort that he had been putting in to help repair the house, they felt that they could wait a little longer.

Sollux was dozing in his and Bro's room, soaking up the chance to have some peace before the premonitions started to make him restless again. Bro had come in to check on him earlier, making sure that he was all right before he went back down to check on the others. He'd not slept more than a few hours the night before, but he felt like he needed to be on high alert. Most of the group was here, and he needed to keep _everybody_ safe. He was glad that Roxanne was here, and it showed by how he squeezed her shoulders and whispered to her, clearly grateful.

Dave finished off the shoot with Eridan and then smiled a little. "Vriska and Rose next," he said, shooing off his sister to go find the spiderbitch so both of them could get washed off and ready. He dropped down beside Terezi and Karkat, smiling to his matesprit. "I was thinking maybe we all could go to the museum tomorrow before Kanaya and Gamzee and I head to the parlor for her appointment. Can we?"

Karkat leaned his chin against Dave's shoulder, arms wrapping his arms around his matesprit's middle. "Nobody's been saying anything else about impending doomy shit so I'd say a day out would be good for everyone. You can finish up most of the shoots today, a couple tomorrow morning if necessary."

Dave grinned to that and kissed him. "We've got plenty of time to do a whole lot of nothing between shoots and tattoos. Whatever you want to do though, I'm all about it." He only really had pretty minimal work to do to on his end of the project. There would be some editing done to make the best of the shots he took, and that'd take all of a day's worth of work to get that done. The rest of their time would be boring if they just sat around Rose's place staring at each other when they were in one of the most culturally and historically significant cities in the country.

Gamzee was leaning against Eridan's shoulder, casually flirting while the others were occupied with one-another. Rose and Vriska would have to be ready soon but for now, the rest of them could relax a moment. It didn't seem to matter to him that he was doing the most work out of any of them, as much as he enjoyed doing it. He was barely paying attention to the pile of his friends occupying the same chair, muttering in Eridan's ear about going outside and smoking then finding something to eat in the city. There were a few restaurants that he knew of that would be up Eridan's alley that he'd never had the chance to try.

Eridan smiled at the idea and ran his fingertips over Gamzee's back. "It'd be nice to give you a break, you've been on the go this whole time," he agreed, pressing a kiss to his matesprit's jaw. "I'll get rinsed off an' we can go get some dinner together, you'n me." He knew that a lot of the restaurants that Gamzee probably had noticed were reservation-only, but with his financial and media clout, Eridan hadn't had a problem getting into a place before. He slipped away and adjusted a ring, before leaning in for a firm kiss. Gamzee smiled widely against his lips then returned the kiss, letting him go to rinse off then glancing around to see if Rose and Vriska had returned yet. They could finish one more shoot before he and Eridan went for dinner, he'd decided. Rose's design had been altered just enough that she could wear her underthings if she pleased, but Vriska's anatomy was more or less exactly the same as any other troll's and presented no problem as far as modesty was concerned. The same colors he'd been using for Eridan could easily be reused for their Light players, augmented with darker ones for details. Side by side the girls would look like inversions of one-another, visually striking and likely to be one of the most popular pieces simply because of the girls themselves.

Vriska and Rose returned around the same time. Without her high heels, Vriska stood roughly the same height as Rose, and while she took a seat, she was clearly unabashed by her nudity. Rose, on the other hand, had a degree of modesty, though whether it was put on just for the audience was anyone's guess. Vriska smiled down to Gamzee while he worked on her legs and tugged his horn when it brushed against her chest. "Careful with those horns, clowntown," She teased. "They're longer than you're used to. Grew when you went Godtier."

Gamzee tilted his head back some at the hand on his horn, glancing at Vriska then shrugging a shoulder. "Just keep a hand on it so it don't end up pokin' the fuck out of ya," he suggested then went back to work, smoothing the side of his hand along the outside of her thigh up toward her hip then bringing the color into sharp contrast with one of the brushes in the other hand. While she didn't have much actual curve to work with, what was there was easily adapted into the design, which would end up being more jagged, less flowing than what would be going on Rose. She smiled as she kept her hand capped over the tip of the highblood's horn, and started to make smalltalk with Rose. While they weren't particularly the best of friends, the topic of being diametric opposites when it came to the Light aspect was interesting enough to hold both their attention.

Bro slipped back upstairs once the girls were sitting to be painted, and draped himself across Sollux's back, wrapping one arm around him. "You doin' all right?" He murmured. He'd been a little worried that his matesprit had still felt like something was going to happen to them. But he had it on good authority that it'd be at least half a year before anything else this big and fucked up would happen again. Sollux stretched out and finally turned back over to lean against Bro, looking up at him with a soft smirk and patting his cheek.

"It feelth pretty good knowing we're not gonna be thquished again for a little while," he murmured then pushed a little on Bro's shoulder to be able to sit up. "Technically, we don't even have to thtill be here. They're thafe for now."

"Mm, we can go home after they redo me with Nepeta," he murmured. "Get some real world shit done. If anything goes down, Rox will get it taken care of." He snuck a kiss to Sollux's cheek, and then sat up. "He's workin' on Rose and Vriska now, then they're goin' to dinner, but after that, I'll ask if they can get us done next, and we can get goin'."

"Good idea." Stretching out until his back popped, Sollux finally climbed out of bed and pulled on a pair of shorts, intending to spend the rest of his stay being as lazy as possible after the shit that they'd all been through in the last few months. He scratched at his hair and shook it back out, blowing some at his bangs as they flopped over his forehead. "At leatht while we're here we can actually put together thome kind of contingenthy plan tho next time shit goeth thidewayth everyone'th actually prepared."

"We'll get to that. I think things happened just the way they were supposed to. Though there was a chance of losing a couple of them permanently." Bro stretched and popped his shoulder, wincing a little as it made a sick crunching sound, though the rush of blood made it feel immediately better. "Glad we didn't." He stood and walked to the door. "I'll go tell 'em what the plan is for us, and then I'll be back up."

"Thweet." Sollux crawled back onto the bed and flopped down on his stomach, nudging the curtains aside to let in a little sunlight, thinking over what he wanted to do with the rest of the day then just deciding they would figure something out later when they knew what everyone else was doing.

The shoot was almost ready, the paint starting to dry on the girls as Dave set back up, Equius finally wandering back inside to find a drink and watch the progression of the project. He had to about-face as soon as he came in the studio door or risk a sudden gout of blood from each nostril. Nepeta stayed behind however, goggling at the artwork on each body even before they were posed.

Vriska noticed Equius' arrival and sudden departure, which made her snicker to herself. She almost pitied him and his inability to cope with nudity, even artistic. She looked down at her design, astounded by just how beautiful and merciless it looked. "Gamzee, I can't tell you how damn great this is. I'm _honored_ to be a part of this," she said with a sharp, sincere smile as she stood in front of the fan to dry off. "Hair up or down?" she asked him then, figuring that with the sheer amount of hair she had, it'd make a good framing backdrop to her body and his art.

Dave looked over at her and Rose, grinning a little as he adjusted the light minutely. Either way would look good, he figured, but it was Gamzee's call. He looked up as Bro stepped in, leaning in to quietly relay his and Sollux's decision to Gamzee. Gamzee was just starting to fuss Vriska's hair up into a clip that had been used to keep it out of the way while he'd been painting, pulling half of it up away from her face to show the entirety of one ear while the rest of her hair was allowed to lie over her shoulder and obscure the rest of her face, still providing that backdrop and making it look that much more dramatic. Vriska was completely helpful by letting Gamzee mess with her hair as much as he wanted, understanding that obfuscating the prosthetic arm was ideal, even if her seven-pupil eye was more striking, and she pouted that both were on her left. It was Gamzee's project, though, and she didn't fuss.

"Sure, I think I can manage that, motherfucker. Just shower down again and we can actually do that up while they're in here workin' on the photos. Get you on up outta here that much quicker." He looked back up at Bro after he'd fluffed part of Vriska's hair back out, then stepped out of the way to let Dave get to work.

Bro grinned and patted Gamzee's shoulder. "Thanks, bro." He walked off to shower and was followed by Nepeta, asking where she could go get ready. He pointed off to another guest room, telling her that the robe she had the night before would work just as well for when she came down. 

Once Vriska was released from the clutches of the artists, she pulled on her robe and looked up to Equius as she walked past. "You sure you're up for the task, Zahhak? You nearly lost all your cool just seeing _us_ nude."

"I was not expecting to walk in and see you both in nothing but your skin and a thin layer of paint," he protested, crossing his arms as he watched her pass by then glanced back into the room to where Gamzee was working on painting Bro. Nepeta was sitting to one side watching the process so that she would know what to expect, holding the book with the drawing of what would be put on her in her lap. She looked equal parts nervous and excited and fascinated at Gamzee's process, asking questions occasionally but for the most part simply absorbed in watching the care with which her would-be murderer was creating his art.

Bro was a perfect canvas as he had been before, making small talk with Gamzee and answering questions for Nepeta. Dave, in the meanwhile, was looking through the photos he'd already taken on his laptop, bringing some up to tweak the color and contrasts. He felt pulled in by certain shots that were strongly effective, saving those in a separate folder to show to the group once they were all ready to look. The palpable feeling of power some of the shots gave off was what clued him into which of them he'd be using for the showings.

Vriska turned and then smiled to Equius from her place on the stairs. "Equius, it's art. And it's not like you saw anything that lascivious anyway. It's all on you if you're the one who took it that way." She couldn't help but give him hell about how proper he pretended to be, as improper as his mind obviously was. As always, Equius puffed up in his fluster at her, but he chose not to argue with her, just standing outside the door like a sentry with his lips pressed into a thin line. He didn't want to admit it and inflate her ego any more, but the paint crawling over the lean, prominent muscles of her abdomen had struck him as both beautiful as well as highly erotic if only because they were on her bare skin. He couldn't help but watch her climb the stairs until she'd disappeared, then leaned back against the wall with his hand over his mouth, mopping his brow with the other.

Karkat had taken up a space beside Dave, peeking at the work he was doing to some of the photos. Now that the project was nearly done, he was impatient to see what would be going up for display. Dave grinned as he wrapped his free arm around his matesprit, leaning his head down on Karkat's shoulder as he brought up the shots he'd chosen with Karkat in them. They were undoubtedly unsettling, but powerful in how they resonated with the theme. He smiled faintly again. "Still doesn't have anything on your performance in the movie, but I've got to admit, it works so well for you," he whispered, and then sat back up to show him the rest that he'd already chosen. It was easy for some to choose two shots, but then there were the Rage photos, which were terrifying and beautiful in a way that Dave couldn't quite quantify mentally, or choose from. Gamzee had poured his soul into that one, and it showed. "I might just toss most of these into a set, pick the best one and show it with the others, and make a little display of 'about the artist' for him," he said with a smile.

"You might as well do the same for yours," Karkat mused, unable to tear his eyes away from the shot that had been taken of the lower half of Gamzee's face and the artwork flowing down his body. It was breathtaking and horrifying all at once. He'd gotten a prickly sensation along his thighs at the sight of the shots of himself, tucking his face against the side of Dave's neck. "If this doesn't get them all thinking, I don't know what will, short of looking Gl'bgolyb herself in the beak."

"Mm." Dave went through his own set, brow furrowed as he tried to decide between them. "Outside opinion time," he murmured. In the same way that Gamzee's set was heart and soul painstakingly made, so was his. He'd been pretty rigid with his art direction on this one, and Gamzee had followed through to the letter. The photos spoke to that. "Not only is this for waking them up, it's to really... I dunno. Show that they're not the only ones out there with clockwork in their minds, rage in their veins, hope flowing through them. You know?" He looked up at Bro as he turned to give Gamzee room to work under his arms and across his back. "Those who know others of their aspect are lucky."

Karkat frowned some at that and got more comfortable wrapped halfway around Dave as he looked back at the photos, then glanced up at Gamzee as he brushed the details back into Bro's pattern. The initial designs had been spectacular enough, but the alterations to make them more friendly to a paired set were just as beautiful. He leaned his cheek against the back of his matesprit's shoulder, looking over at Nepeta then wrinkling his nose. "The only other Blood player I've ever known was Kankri, and you obviously know my big sparkly opinions about him."

"Let's not get into our choice opinions of that guy," Dave murmured as he ran his hand through the ends of Karkat's hair, smiling contentedly, starting to idly tweak a photo in his set. "I'm still in a little bit of shock that we're all here, y'know? Much less doing this."

"We were stupid enough to run into one-another, it was only logical that others would as well and remembering was an inevitability. When that happens, we're bound to seek each other out. We were all the most important people in one-another's lives for years, Dave. Better get used to it." Karkat smiled faintly and kissed the side of his head before standing back up, hoping to go and find something to eat. The painting would take a little while longer and then they would still need to do the photos, and he honestly had little to nothing to do with the production anymore past keeping Dave company. He went off to find the kitchen in the hopes of feeding himself something small to hold him over until they decided on what to do for dinner. In the kitchen, the Lalondes were already cooking, chatting with each other about nothing in particular, with Rose still in her robe and only washed off from her elbows down. She turned when Karkat arrived, smiling to him. "Would you like to come help? It'll give me a chance to wash off." Karkat jumped on the chance, letting Rose go then asking just what they were up to before stepping in to help.

Vriska came back down, washed off and dressed, dropping down behind Gamzee to watch him work on Nepeta. She had to admit that it was kind of fun watching him work. "You look so tense, Leijon. Relax. You look amazing."

Nepeta gave Vriska a slight pout, attempting to do as she said but only barely succeeding at it. Her tail was waving back and forth behind her in agitation, but she stayed as still as possible as Gamzee ran his hand along her side below her grubscars. He plucked the paintbrush from behind one of his ears and started to work on the details, the color extending up over her shoulder and down the opposite side of her back going to be the last thing he finished before the shoot. He was able to work quickly with her at least, given how small she still was. Vriska smiled coolly at her, promising that nothing bad would happen before slipping back away to stand beside Equius, nudging him slightly as he still stood just outside.

"You know, I'm pretty sure Leijon would appreciate the moral support if you can handle it, big guy. She's really worried in there." She added as she looked up at him. "Even though there's _nothing_ to worry about. She's in the safest room in the history of safe rooms. Bro is dead set on being the world's auspistice." She grabbed her pack of her smokes out of her jacket pocket and started toward the door that led outside.

Equius watched her for a few seconds then ducked into the room, bristling immediately at seeing Gamzee putting his hands on Nepeta in any way, until he got a look at the expression on the highblood's face; the intense concentration coupled with the care with which he guided Nepeta to move a certain way or lift an arm or brushed her hair away from a part of her neck that he needed to paint, all of it was unfamiliar to him and now he simply didn't know what to think of Gamzee. He looked up at Bro waiting for the shoot to begin, giving him a stoic nod then simply leaning against the wall inside the doorway with one eye on the scene. They would be working on Terezi that evening, and then it would be his turn. He would be able to live with that a lot more easily than he could handle Gamzee touching his moirail, at least.

It wasn't long before Nepeta and Bro were both done, dried and in front of Dave's camera, getting a few very serious, beautiful shots, before Bro hauled Nepeta up in one arm and flexed at the camera, causing Dave to laugh hard and take a few pictures of that, as well. Bro chuckled as well as she yowled in surprised but then ran with it, climbing up onto his shoulders and flexing as well, laughing as she told him that flex-offs with Equius were totally a thing.

Dinner was finished by the time Nepeta and Bro were washed off, but Bro and Sollux only came back down to say goodbye, deciding they'd rather grab some food on the road. There was only so much partying and babysitting Bro could handle at once, and to be completely honest, he had exhausted himself when they killed the Horrorterror. Sollux was grateful to be leaving, looking forward to being able to sleep in the relative luxury of Bro's choice of bedsheets that didn't smell of even a trace of cats. He took a moment to say his goodbyes then followed Bro out.

Nepeta was still chattering a mile a minute as she came into the dining room with Equius at her heels, doing little more than nodding and giving her vague responses as the conversation went more or less one-sided. He was still distracted by the events of the past couple of days, his perceptions thrown off-kilter. He took a seat at the table beside Vriska with Nepeta settling on the other side of him, dragging her chair close to his. Every bit of the food was eyeballed as it was set out.

"I was unaware that the lowblood could cook," Equius commented offhand as he looked back at the dishes that Karkat had put out on the table.

Karkat's lip curled. "What, did you think I lived entirely on fucking roe cubes for the last four years?"

Dave gave Equius a Look at 'lowblood', but let it slide, and set into his dinner happily. "He's actually really good at it. He's been teaching me all sorts of ridiculous stuff. I'm still not allowed near the actual cooking part of it," he said with a lopsided smile. "Tend to set things on fire if I do it." He honestly didn't know why; things just decided to spontaneously combust, he decided.

Vriska snorted faintly at that and shook her head. "Hell, even _I_ know how to cook, Dave. How can you go without learning to cook for as long as you've been alive?"

Rose tried to keep back from laughing at that as well, to a moderate degree of success.

"He still has yet to successfully boil an egg," Karkat added as he took his seat beside Dave, pointedly ignoring Equius' fumbling and attempt at recovery. "He's only allowed to do the cutting shit while I man the stove. Otherwise the apartment would have burned by now."

Terezi cackled as she nodded, "He tried to cook a pizza while Karkat was at work one day and the whole place filled with pizza smoke because he spaced off and forgot! Augh, the beeping, the _terrible_ beeping," she said, laughing as she ribbed Dave, who was pouting dramatically by then.

"I just don't get how he managed to pull that off when there are instructions _right there on the fucking box_ ," Karkat shook his head then laid his hand on Dave's arm, leaning up to press a light kiss to his cheek. "But he stays fed, that's what matters I guess."

"Very true," Kanaya added as she started to load a little bit of food onto her plate. "I daresay he would be even thinner if it weren't for the rich food you serve."

"He's fattening me up for the slaughter is what's going on," Dave said with a conspiring tone, smirking as he tucked in. "Gonna wind up feeding me to the next big and toothy that comes dropping out of the sky like it's thanksgiving and I'm the turkey."

"Hey, if it helps keep them off our asses a little while longer," Karkat shrugged, digging into his own meal as soon as his plate was suitably heaping. Nepeta giggled at him and speared a piece of chicken on the end of her fork, eating it off of that rather than reaching for a knife. Equius had apparently given up on trying to get her to use silverware properly, just glad that she wasn't using her fingers.

"I'm glad I've got such a loving matesprit, so willing to sacrifice his own lover to save everyone's asses at zero hour," Dave muttered, still smirking. 

It was good to go out for dinner, as Eridan and Gamzee had done, and they got back just as Mom was placing dessert dishes in front of everyone, full of chocolate mousse with whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top. She grinned sweetly at them and handed one to both of the re-arrivals, kissing them both on the forehead and welcoming them back. Eridan looked down at the dessert and then over to Gamzee, smiling faintly. "Pretty sure she isn't human, either," he confided.

"Pretty sure ain't none of 'em strictly human outside the genetic structure," Gamzee shrugged then patted Mom's shoulder, looking down at the chocolate and debating on joining in for dessert. They'd both gotten their own dessert after they'd eaten, but he wasn't exactly one to turn down sweets. "Where's 'rezi? We're gonna have to do her shoot pretty motherfuckin' quick or I'm gonna pass out halfway through paintin'."

Dave looked up at Gamzee and then over at both Terezi and Vriska's empty chairs. "They're out on the back porch, doing Scourge things, I think. But if it's all the same to you, I think we should call it a night, bro. We can get Kanaya and Terezi done tomorrow, and then fuck around for the rest of the week. You've been steaming through this like madcaps and frankly, I'm starting to get exhausted for you." He took a bite of his mousse and then practically melted at the taste. "Mom, what the hell are you trying to do to me here, nnghhhff."

"Great, he's creamed himself. Thanks, Mom." Karkat's expression was deadpan, but his voice was light, obviously teasing. He dipped his spoon into his own helping and smiled faintly as he moved the bite around his mouth, nodding thoughtfully. "I might have to get you to teach me how to make this though. My specialty's more in the realm of savory, not dessert."

"Don't do it, Mom, I'll die of insulin shock," Dave said around his next spoonful. He looked over at Karkat with a grin, settling down to silently enjoy the dessert. Mom laughed and ushered Karkat with her to the kitchen to pull up the recipe for him.

Equius was keeping an eye on just how much Nepeta was eating of the chocolate, knowing that too much would make her sick. She hadn't slowed down the entire meal and it was likely that she would be sick to her stomach anyway before long. She was able to get through half a bowl of the mousse before he finally cut her off, much to her displeasure, though she agreed to go rest after acknowledging that her stomach had begun to hurt. He escorted her to the library until they decided it was time to go home, hoping to be able to catch Vriska again before they left.

It was pretty easy to tell when Vriska and Terezi returned from the porch, as both of them weren't any definition of the word 'subtle'. Vriska laughed brashly as she spoke to Terezi about the latest escapade, able to laugh off her nearly certain death easily while Terezi made a pun about the cost of Equius' prosthetics. Vriska blinked as she passed the library at that and turned her head to look at Equius with a faint smile. "Yeah, he does good work, though. Builds customer loyalty for life," she reminded Terezi. "Go check on your boys. Make sure they aren't screaming themselves stupid or burning anything down with sick fires or whatever." She turned to look at Equius again and quirked a brow briefly.

Terezi rolled her eyes as she headed toward the dining room, hoping that there was enough of the dessert left for her, intending to inform them all of the massive amount of pheromones in the air. Equius waited until she was out of earshot and Nepeta had curled up on the couch with one of the cats to purposefully broadcast a brief thought then nod toward the hall and follow her out into it then outside onto the front path. It was dark out but the path was lit by a collection of widely-spaced, rather dim shin-high lamps. He refrained from saying anything, knowing by now that he would only trip over his own tongue, simply laying a hand against the small of her back tentatively.

Settling a little closer as they walked, Vriska stayed quiet as well, smiling faintly as they passed picturesque little stands of trees, following out towards a small artificial stream. "I said it's your turn to talk this time, so do that," she quietly insisted. She had been hoping he would have found _something_ to say over the course of the past few hours.

"Very little that I have to say feels appropriate," he murmured in response, walking beside her until they'd come close to the water then stopping and letting his hand fall away. He slipped his shades off and hung them from the collar of his shirt as he turned to face her. "You know that relationships of any sort are...not my forte."

"So say the inappropriate stuff, then," Vriska said with a slight eyeroll, before smiling and looking up to him with a slightly teasing smile. "I know they aren't, and they're not exactly high up on my list of things I'm really good at, either, so we can get past that little bump in the road if it continues to be a problem. And you're the only person in all of paradox space outside of Meenah who I could never boss around. And man, that's saying a whole hel... A whole lot." She rolled her eyes fully when she censored herself, huffing afterward.

"The only reason you don't already know every last thought is because you know better than to pry," he pointed out with a quiet chuckle and rested his hand against the prosthetic arm, still learning to keep his strength out of the way when it came to the need to keep from bruising whoever he was talking to. He tried (and failed) to will down the flush creeping up on him then simply covered himself by dipping forward to finally return the kiss she'd given him earlier that day. She would have pried regardless of the consequences, if it weren't for the fact that he had shown her how much he truly valued his mental privacy. Vriska leaned up into the kiss to respond in kind, smiling into it victoriously. She hadn't figured that he'd actually manage to bring himself to do it. Once she settled back down onto her heels, she brought her hand up to tuck some hair away from his face.

"I'd love to hear those thoughts some time. Out loud. From you."

Equius sighed quietly at that and leaned back enough to look her in the face again, his hand starting to fall away from its place on her arm. "You'll have to excuse my hesitance... I would rather not have you regard me in the same light that the others do."

"Equius, when have I _ever_ held you in the same light that the others do?" Vriska protested, putting her robotic hand in his. "Stop beating yourself up about shit," she said in a hissed, emphatic whisper. "You've never come off to me like they see you, and maybe it's because I'm biased, or maybe it's because they're _idiots_ , but you've always been very good. You try to live up to a higher standard, and while that's all well and good, lying about what you feel, even lying by omission, is stupid, and I think you know it."

He started to object, to argue that the situation had changed but again he held himself back, closing his eyes and taking his hand away briefly then laying it back down against her side instead. "I am aware that you're not like them. I simply wish to delay the eventuality that you may come to be of like mind. But this is not to say that I do not wish to pursue this...whatever this is. I've honestly considered it many times, but you've always had too many irons in their respective fires to add mine on top of them."

Vriska gave him a sassy little smirk but it flitted away shortly to be replaced by a more sincere smile. "So we'll pursue it. And exactly _how_ do you think I'd wind up thinking of you if I heard what you were thinking, Equius?" Oh, she had plenty of ideas as to what he might have been worried about, but frankly, she didn't mind the more crude and suggestive things he had once often aimlessly tossed towards the others.

"That is not something to discuss in the open," he replied immediately, groping for his rag and grunting quietly when he realized that he'd left it inside somewhere. He huffed and turned back to pout some at Vriska, knowing that this was extremely entertaining for her. He slid his hand back from her side to rest higher up on her back nonetheless and bowed his head to look back down at her. "Or would you perhaps like to know without the need to speak?"

Vriska would have offered something for him to wipe down with if she had anything, but she hadn't bothered to put a jacket back on after her painting session. She laughed quietly at his proposition and gave him another quick kiss. "What If I say yes?" She asked, "How would actions be _less_ improper?"

"Not quite what I had in mind." He nudged his nose against hers and finally opened up his mind to her, giving her access just for the moment to the gratuitous, graphic mental images streaming through his consciousness, comprised of a large amount of skin and a couple of different shades of blue. Vriska's eyes widened as she wrapped her arms around Equius' shoulders, burying her face into his chest with a slight whimper that was very obviously either delight or pain, or a combination of the two.

Once she pulled away, both mentally and physically, she was blue from ear to ear, and smirking faintly. "Well," she said, clearing her throat, "Equius, that was... _wow_ , dude," she stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek and then looked into his eyes. "We're going to have to make at _least_ four of those scenarios happen at some point."

Equius could only shudder and give the smallest nod, swallowing hard and pulling up the hem of his shirt to mop his brow. He pressed his lips together as his nostrils flared with a hard sigh. His composure had long since flown out the window but he seemed to hold up just a little better than Vriska at the outset. "If you intend to stay for some time before you abscond on whatever agenda has been put in place for you, I daresay we could find the time."

"When does Nepeta go to work?" She asked with a smile, brushing her fingertips up along Equius' arms, and then back down, putting her robotic hand in his, and then, after a moment's hesitation, her other hand followed suit. "If you're careful, I mean. I really don't need to die twice this week from how STRONG you are." She teased.

"She works a very early shift then takes a long lunch, most of the time spending that at the park, meaning that she'll be relatively further from home at mid day. That would be the optimal timeframe for any sort of...meetings," he explained, biting down on the inside of his lip briefly then giving her hands a slight squeeze in return. "It would not be a heroic death at least."

"Zahhak, we're adults, we can say sex out loud, and nobody will flip their lids over it, I _promise_ ," Vriska said, looking around. "Especially when it's just the two of us around." She clasped his hand with hers and started walking again. "I'll come see you soon, then. Just send me a message on trollian, my phone receives them, or just ping me," she said, motioning to her head. "Easier and faster, and more discreet, if you prefer."

"You take an obscene amount of joy in taking me out of my very tenuous comfort zone," Equius observed as he walked beside her, his hand held loosely around hers.

Vriska lightly squeezed Equius' hand and looked over at him. "It's my favorite sadistic pleasure, Zahhak." She glanced around when he jumped at a laugh as soon as they'd stepped back inside, wrinkling his nose at the honking that accompanied it. The sound would set him on edge for the rest of his life, he was absolutely certain. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "What is that clown doing _now_?" She turned to Equius and smiled reassuringly. "He'll behave if you do," she promised. She looked around before giving Equius one more kiss, and then slipped off to go scold Gamzee for startling both Equius and Nepeta, though she didn't once she reached the room the ones who were still awake were in. She simply smiled as she walked in, somewhat still amazed to see everyone there.

Nepeta was sitting off to one side, watching Gamzee as he juggled a few things easily, chewing on whatever was in his mouth with a wide smile then leaning back as Nepeta tossed a grape from the bunch she was holding and catching it in his mouth with another laugh, never losing his rhythm. He'd resorted to the rather childish antics in the hopes of getting Nepeta to warm back up to him, and it was clear that while she still seemed a little reserved, the effort was working. Equius frowned deeply at the display, crossing his arms and nearly ordering Nepeta away from the highblood, only just stopping himself as he remembered what Vriska had said about Gamzee having changed. He strode forward and snatched the apple that Gamzee had been keeping aloft in addition to a couple of billiard balls and an anomalously large eraser, disrupting the rhythm and causing Gamzee to have to catch everything before it fell.

"Aw man, you threw off my motherfuckin' groove," he pouted then blinked at another grape colliding with his temple. He turned and stuck his tongue at Nepeta, then smiled faintly as she giggled at him.

Vriska laughed at the entire scene, shaking her head. "I should probably get these guys out of here and back home," She said with a sharp, but sincere smile to Gamzee, and then nodded to Eridan who was sitting aside to watch in amusement. "We'll come back tomorrow and help with repairs some more. Tell Dave I want to see the shoot with Rose before he starts getting set to send them out, would you?" She didn't stray inside from the doorway. 

Eridan pouted faintly at Nepeta and Equius having to leave. He was just getting back into enjoying their company, no matter how nervous it had been over the past couple days, and he'd settled down in his desire to bash Equius over the skull repeatedly until he prostrated himself before Gamzee. He stood from his seat and put his hand on Equius' shoulder, his own smile sincere. "I do hope you come back, Eq. It's been too long."

Equius was visibly taken aback by Eridan's approach but he rested his hand on the seadweller's shoulder in kind. "Of course I intend to return," he replied, "I do need to be here for my own photo set, after all." He gave Gamzee a stiff nod before returning to Vriska's side, handing the apple he'd taken over to Nepeta when she finally joined them.

Gamzee settled down at Eridan's side when the trio finally departed, looking obviously relieved that he was at least somewhat less likely to get his skull pummeled into sand. With his arm around his matesprit, Eridan smiled sleepily and brushed his fingers over Gamzee's jaw. "It's been a really long fuckin' day. Are you just about ready to adjourn, or are you still full of ridiculous antics you gotta get out?" He settled back in the chair to look at Gamzee, content and happy. "'Cause I'm gonna probably fall asleep any damn minute. If you need to smoke, though, I'll join you."

"I think I'm pretty motherfuckin' good for the night," Gamzee hummed as he sat down on the arm of the chair, dragging his fingers back through Eridan's hair and scratching lightly at his scalp just around his horns. "I got my meds, I'm good until tomorrow mornin'. Let's go get some motherfuckin' shuteye." He took Eridan's hand and brought it to his lips, kissing his knuckles with a soft smile. Eridan smiled in return then slipped up out of his seat to kiss Gamzee's lips and his jaw, before hauling Gamzee to his feet. "Up, you brilliant artist." He started towards their guest room, more or less shuffling. He still hadn't quite gotten over the night prior's wait for Gamzee to come back, exhausting himself both physically and emotionally. But having Gamzee back made him realize just how much he treasured him, and how much he just wanted to go home with his matesprit and dote on him until they both got annoyed with it. Gamzee was attached to his back the entire shuffling walk back to their room, his arms wrapped loosely around his matesprit's waist, kissing and nuzzling into the back of his neck until the door had been shut behind them. He ran his hands up under Eridan's shirt then simply let them lie there over his stomach, chin hooked over his shoulder.

"You ok bro? Feelin' all kinds of tense..."

"I'm gettin' there, Gam, I just worked myself up too much last night, waitin' for you to get back," Eridan said sincerely, smiling as his cheeks went slightly purple at the touch. He shed his glasses and set them aside on the dresser, removing his rings as well, while leaning back against Gamzee. "I'd been worried that you wouldn't return, that I, like the outrageous fool I've always been, wound up killin' the only person who's ever put up with me, the only person I ever felt so deeply flushed for." He shook his head. "But havin' you back has helped draw some a the tension out. But all that on top a everythin' else has been gettin' under my gills, makin' me undoubtedly more tense than I've been in ages." He unbuttoned his shirt and looked up slightly - careful of the ends of his horns - at Gamzee.

He pressed his lips to the top of Eridan's head then rested his cheek against it, his arms tightening some around him. "Even if I didn't come back, still wouldn'a been your fault. Shit happens. And it didn't happen. So just try n' forget about it ok?" He nuzzled into the back of Eridan's earfin then kissed down the side of his neck to his shoulder.

"I'm tryin'," he murmured with a content little smile while dots of bioluminescence lit up. "I should be celebratin' the fact I got enough power between both strife specibi to blow a hole into an Outer God, not mournin' my matesprit who's right here." Eridan slipped out of his shirt and undid his belt as well. "I'd be crowin' about it if it weren't for the fact that it kinda blew a hole in you, too," he chuckled.

"Should be motherfuckin' proud of that," Gamzee argued with a soft smile. "You killed somethin' unkillable. Made me better. I'd say you did me a motherfuckin' favor, bro." He hooked his fingers around Eridan's and nosed up against the dots crawling up his neck then drew back to strip down for bed.

Eridan's smile went a little cocky as he slipped into the cocoon. "Yeah, okay, you got a damn good point. I did somethin' impossible an' that in itself is a fuckin' majestic feat. If it wasn't killin' you, I would have been braggin' about it all day." He leaned back into the slime and smirked. "An' since you obviously got no problems bein' a fuckin' adorable fairy, more power to you. Wasn't expectin' your wings to be as magnificent as they are, actually. Looks good on you."

Gamzee laughed quietly at that and followed after him, curling up around him with his legs tangled with his matesprit's. "Wings came in dead fuckin' useful, I'm not gonna knock 'em. Glad you like 'em too though."

Eridan's smile persisted as his eyes slipped closed and he put his arms around Gamzee. "An' you got to play shinin' knight to our resident ronin, bet she's grateful a that." He was clearly drifting off to sleep, from the dreamy quality that his voice had taken. "Should apologize to her for bein' such a shithead to her when she resurrected me. Maybe tomorrow." Apologies weren't exactly high on his list of easy things to do, and he tended to forget to do so more often than not.

"Definitely deserves it," Gamzee murmured in agreement then put his head down on his arm to finally get some rest. His arms ached after how much he'd been using them in the last few days, and it was good to have a brief reprieve. The next day would be a short one at least, depending on how cooperative Equius was, but he hoped that the blueblood would stay true to his word and cooperate at least for the sake of his own pride.

\--

Vriska had been graciously invited to stay with Nepeta and Equius when she dropped them back off, and she turned Nepeta down with a shake of her head. "That wouldn't be a good idea," she flatly said to the offer. Once she assured Nepeta that she'd have a roof over her head for the night, she waved them off and then sped off to a hotel, getting a room for the night. It was a fairly restless night, with her mind completely preoccupied with the vivid mental images that Zahhak had shared with her. It was a damn miracle that she'd only kept it to one shower that night. 

Once the morning broke, Vriska had gotten just enough restful sleep to keep from being entirely owly as she shuffled from the recuperacoon to the shower to rinse the slime from her hair and body. She grumbled to herself, "get a hold of yourself, Serket, it was just a few thoughts." She wasn't even sure if Equius would have the globes to contact her. Sure, they'd agreed that they'd give the flushed quadrant a shot, but with his lack of experience and her overabundance of tactlessness, she wasn't holding her breath for it to last long. Or that it'd even get out the gate. She caught herself making a reference to horse racing, and slapped her hand to her face. "Dammit, Zahhak."

There was a mental ping, obviously from Equius, letting her know briefly that he would be back at the Lalonde estate both to help with repairs again and for the photo shoot, and that he would be lingering there for most of the day if she would be joining him. He was already on his way there, and would be arriving within a few minutes. Nepeta was hunkered down behind him with her chin perched on his shoulder, her voice muffled by her helmet as she yelled over the roar of the motorcycle that she would keep Gamzee occupied and out of the way until he was done working on the house. When he pulled up in front of the place he let Nepeta off and took her helmet before captchaloging all of it and heading toward the door. When Mom answered it he was put right to work.

Karkat had taken to lingering in and around the library when he wasn't needed anywhere else, staying out of the way and chatting with Rose and Kanaya, keeping himself and them occupied for the most part while Gamzee and Dave took the time to set up for the last photo shoots of the project. Nepeta joined them as soon as Equius was likewise occupied, lingering off to the side with the cats, having grown quite attached to them in the few days she'd been there. Dave had cleaned up the room that they'd been working in during the morning when everyone else had been asleep, and had already set up his side of the room for the rest of the shoots. That day would be spent finishing them up, then going off to the museum with Karkat to get away from literally everybody else they knew so they could spend some time together that they hadn't been able to get for a long while. It was nice having Terezi living with them, but their time alone together was precious and hard to come by now. Dave didn't mind overmuch, really, except for when he really needed _just_ Karkat with him. He hadn't quite realized that it was something he'd come to enjoy quite so much until they moved Terezi in with them. He'd wanted to drag Karkat away from the chaos the day before, but his obligations to the project were the priority, and he had actually felt a little tied down - something Dave never liked to feel.

He at least had put together a decent collection out of the shoots they'd done so far, and put his laptop up where people could go and look through the slideshow of chosen shots if they came in to ask. He walked into the library and asked Kanaya to get ready for Gamzee, and then kissed Karkat on the cheek. "I promise I'll give her back soon."

"Lies," Karkat replied casually and turned up to peck Dave's cheek in kind then patted it and sent him back off again. "Have fun I guess." He sank back down into the armchair with a book in his lap, honestly content with how life was going right now even if there were people pouring in on all sides that he really didn't care to spend nearly this much time around even on the best of days.

When Kanaya appeared in her robe Gamzee went over what the pattern was going to be with her a final time, deciding that they would incorporate elements of her tattoo in with the design. If they took the photos in when they went to the parlor to discuss with an ink slinger, they would be able to discuss it in better detail and get a much better estimate for pricing as well as how much time it would take. Dave stood beside the two of them and listened in, giving his opinion about the tenderness nearer the bones and how when he got his back done, the worst part was when they worked over his shoulder bone, and how he could have sworn he felt that shit in his entire skeletal system. He grinned a little when Kanaya kissed his cheek and insisted that she'd be perfectly fine. He looked up when he heard the familiar rumble of an engine in front of the house rev and then cut out, and he raised an eyebrow. He wondered what Vriska was doing back.

Vriska slipped out of her car and immediately went around to start helping with the repairs. She couldn't lift anything too heavy, but she could handle plaster. She'd put her hair up in a high, doubled-over ponytail bun and had tied her overshirt around her waist, and looked more or less ready to kick the world's ass. "Hey," she said to Equius as she walked past, assessing what needed to be done before she assigned herself a task, starting to work on the brick and mortar that could be done now that the walls had been set back into place.

Equius had no problem letting Vriska take over the brickwork, which would make it a good deal faster and easier for him to make the bigger repairs higher up, going up and down the stairs inside to complete the indoor repairs. He'd somehow come up with caution tape and roped off that particular room to keep the others out of it, working as quickly and efficiently as he could. Any conversation held between himself and Vriska was kept mental, the majority of his consciousness once more walled off if only to keep them from getting distracted. But if there was only one thing more distracting than Equius' walled off part of his consciousness, it was the wall itself, and Vriska told him so, before letting it drop as she changed the topic to continue filling him in on everything she'd been doing over the past four years. She was happy to finally have someone to listen to it, if only because the things she did weren't all that unspectacular and she felt that they were interesting enough to recount.

Eridan finally arrived in the library and had a seat, looking for the life of him like all his worries had decided to take a personal day. He swept past Karkat and Rose with a somewhat clipped, but no less friendly hello, and went to retrieve the book he'd been working through since his arrival.

Gamzee was milling around the studio as he talked with Dave and Kanaya, finally starting the work on her paint. He'd gotten out his music once more and was singing along under his breath, one of Kanaya's hands around the tips of his horns to keep from scratching her chest as he worked on her stomach. He was predictably in a good mood, working fluidly without paying much mind to anyone else. He barely broke rhythm when Karkat finally wandered in to watch, sinking into a chair near Dave and propping his chin up in his hand.

While Gamzee painted, Dave didn't have much to do but watch and enjoy doing so. So he was sprawled out in a chair when Karkat came in, and immediately nodded to his matesprit. Mom had dropped in to give him some trail mix just to keep him from getting too hungry between shoots, and he was dutifully picking out all the m&ms and chocolate chips and eating those first. Kanaya had already scolded him about missing the point of the trail mix, and he shrugged and ate a handful of chocolate just to prove how much he cared about peanuts and raisins.

Meanwhile, Karkat was eating those peanuts and raisins while staring at Dave with a completely deadpan expression. If his matesprit wouldn't eat it, at least it wouldn't go to waste. He was content to lounge there and be a waste of space before they went out to the museum for the afternoon. He propped his foot up on the arm of Dave's chair as he went back to reading, listening with half an ear to Gamzee singing as he worked. Dave looked affronted at Karkat's deadpan, and spitefully popped a single raisin in his mouth without having to say 'there, I did the thing.'

The paint was done before much longer, the dark expanse seeming to drip down the lithe curves of her body with its flares of color and the creeping pattern that crawled up the opposite shoulder. It was one of the subtlest of his pieces, and it fit given both the theme and the model. He stood and wiped his hands when he was ready for Dave to do his work, reaching into Dave's trail mix and popping all of it into his mouth at the same time.

Dave was more or less content to watch Kanaya and Gamzee, however, and once she was done, he slipped out of his chair and handed over the bowl of trail mix to Gamzee with a grin. He guided Kanaya over and was about to pose her, when she simply got into position and his eyes went wide. "Stay there, just like that," he said, as he started taking his shots. He didn't need to tell her where to move or how; she simply flowed to accommodate. His lip twitched into a faint smile. "You need, NEED to get into modeling, Kanaya. I'm not even fucking around with you," he said, getting her to smile freely.

Karkat watched her with something akin to admiration and leaned forward to prop his hands up under his chin to continue staring. He glanced around when Rose peeked in on them to see how the shoot was going, her expression softening as she watched Kanaya settling into every pose asked of her with so little effort. When it was done, Karkat hopped up with her robe in hand and wasted no time in telling her how naturally beautiful she was. She simply kissed his cheek and went to Rose's side, accepting the compliments in stride. She knew she was beautiful. She didn't try to flaunt it. She didn't have to.

"Alright, all we got left now's Terezi and then Equius," Gamzee yawned as he stretched his arms up over his head, rolling his neck forward to crack it. "Kinda wish we had Cass, he'd be pretty neat to try and paint up all motherfuckin' green and Mind-y."

"Should go with Equius first, so you don't have to worry about washing all the black off your hands," Dave suggested as he waved to Kanaya with a smile while she and Rose slipped away. "Mm, Cass... He's actually pretty modest, believe it or not," Dave said with a furrow of his brow. He knew why, but it was something that wasn't prudent to share.

"Shame, woulda liked to have him in on a project like this. Be pretty fuckin' cool to have someone not in our immediate posse," Gamzee shrugged then nodded at the suggestion that Equius be done first, if only to save on time so that he wouldn't have to swap out all of the paint. He sent out a mental ping to Vriska, letting her know that it was Equius' turn and asking her to send him to the shower before he came to the studio. He turned back to Dave and poked the end of his nose with a small smirk, leaving a dark smudge there as he went back to his paints. Dave wrinkled his nose with a chuckle and left the smudge there as he took a seat once again, grabbing the bowl to continue snacking.

Vriska smiled and looked up at Equius through the ever-shrinking hole in the wall. "Hey, it's your turn under the paints," she said aloud, though when she did, she wondered into his mind if she should come watch, or if he'd get too worked up over that. She wanted to, obviously, but not at the expense of his modesty or Gamzee's work. Equius wiped his hands on his jeans as he thought about it for a moment, then nodded letting her know that as long as she refrained from making comments that he felt he would be fine. He glanced around the house as he made his way toward the bathroom to give himself a quick scrub, thankful that they kept the studio fairly cool so that there wasn't as much of a risk of him sweating the paint off, at least as long as nobody flustered him, inadvertently or otherwise. He arrived shortly thereafter in his own robe, having kept it in his sylladex specifically for this.

The art for the Void shoot was predictably minimalistic, keeping with the theme in question. It would span a large amount of his body but there wouldn't be as much effort to it as there had been with the other pieces. Gamzee spent some time going over with Equius what he was going to do, taking care to censor himself in the hopes that it would keep Equius from getting worked up.

Dave was surprised by Gamzee's show of restraint in keeping his comments about matronly fornication to a minimum while talking to Equius, looking up at the troll he'd only really known from minor discussions and secondhand accounts. He had to figure out how the guy would be posed to show off what Gamzee was planning to do, while managing to somehow make it not look like a Playgirl centerfold. He nodded a greeting to Vriska as she strolled in after having a cigarette, and she took a seat near Karkat, while Nepeta followed after her and took a seat beside her. Both were clearly waiting for the show to start, for moral support, and because it was entertainment.

Eridan finally strolled back in, book in hand, and had a seat as well, though it was obvious that he was here less to watch the painting, and more to be in the company of the rest of the group. He went straight back to reading as soon as he got himself comfortable in a chair. Gamzee had just finished talking over what he intended to do and was holding his paint tubes, just starting to spread the dark blues and purples in and blending them with the black , starting from Equius' chest and shoulders and working his way down in long sweeps. The design was simplistic, but still striking, especially when the focus was drawn to the center of the blueblood's body, where the colors lightened and then drew in toward the center of his torso and the blueish grey disc flecked with white that split him down the middle. Equius' hair was bound up in a tight ponytail to keep it up off his neck and shoulders, his shades switched out for an unbroken pair that fit much closer to his face than the square lenses. Altogether the process barely took more than half an hour, Equius keeping his cool much better than expected. Presumably he'd learned how to meditate and block out those thoughts he considered too improper when it really became important.

By the time Gamzee had finished, Dave had decided that it was time for his playlist instead. He liked Gamzee's taste in music just fine, but it was the third time he'd heard every song on it, and he had started to miss his own music. He made sure that it was his least ironic of playlists so nobody was assaulted with motown or Swedish dance pop, a well-tailored playlist of inoffensive indie rock with sexy beats and completely incomprehensible lyrics running instead. He grooved with pursed lips as he mellowly moved Equius into position, looking up over the rims of his glasses at the blueblood with an assuring glance before starting to take the photos. "Damn, okay," he murmured as he pulled his tripod back to get more of Equius in focus, as he had to do with Bro. "Everyone else is skinny as hell and then there's you'n Bro. Walls of meat."

"I take care of my body," Equius replied primly, standing up straight with his hands behind his back until he was moved again. "You, Strider, are almost malnourished. How is it that you eat as much as you did last night and still maintain your status as the resident planting stake? You don't even eat healthy foods," he said reproachfully then lifted his chin at the click of the camera.

"I have a mutant metabolism that doesn't let me put on any body fat, even if I loaf around and eat nothing but complete trash food," Dave said with a sigh. "It's not really my fault. No more than it is your fault for being so strong you could break things just by looking at them funny, bro." He shook his head with a grin. "Anyway, I eat healthfully these days. Mostly because Karkat refuses to let me eat anything but healthy food." He didn't sound half as put off by that as his words would have someone believe. He grinned as he stepped away from his camera and came to pose Equius again. "I'll tell you something, if I _could_ put on muscle like you, I would."

"Vantas seems to have his priorities in order these days," Equius mused, glancing up at Karkat where he was lounging then back to Dave with an arched brow. He was very pointedly ignored.

"I'd say so. After I graduate, we're moving out to California to plop his ass down in a philosophical society so he can graduate all top of his class in being a deep thinker," Dave said, with no small amount of pride in his tone, "I mean, you should hear about his dissertation he's working on already. It's mindblowing, man," he was talking as he took photos, and then sighed, "Back into position, Zahhak, c'mon bro, you got to do this with some passion for your aspect, or it won't blow 'em away like it should."

Equius frowned some and thought about it. How did one show a passion for nothingness? He certainly wasn't a nihilist, and he didn't want to end up obscuring and potentially smearing any of Gamzee's work. He looked up when Karkat sighed and rolled his eyes as he stood and walked into the shot, starting to talk about the various definitions of void and nothingness that he'd come across both in the literal and figurative. It was a short discussion, but Equius was undeniably intelligent and latched onto a couple of different concepts easily. He waited until Karkat had left his space and drew himself up to look as expansive as possible without dropping into cheesy bird-like displays.

Dave grinned at that. "Thanks, nubby," he murmured and brought himself back around to his camera. "See, the whole point of this," he explained as he shot, "Is to draw the viewer into the aspect, to give them a peek at a more expansive world within you, within themselves, potentially. To awaken them to their purposes, you know what I mean?" He looked over the viewer at Equius with a twitch of a smile. "Gamzee manages to really capture the aspects well with his painting, but our designs just wouldn't suit on people with different aspects. And we even considered the role which our subjects play within that element. Like Bro is active and intensely destructive in his aspect, where Nepeta is potential and growth. I manipulate and protect others with mine, so does Karkat. Kanaya heals. Now there's you. You're protected by the Void, you can wrap yourself within it like armor." Which was a part of the initial design, a sort of armor-like strength was worked into the concept, making it seem like the darkness was being pulled around Equius' center. Dave looked up at Equius and took off his glasses to look his subject in the eyes. His expression spoke volumes to how important what he had to say was.

"You can also be consumed by it.

"To be consumed by the essence of nothingness would reduce one to little more than a black hole, which holds an incredible amount of power in its own right. It is the center of the universe and will eventually be its end."

Equius drew himself up once more, taking a much more godlike stance, pulling the tie out of his hair and letting it down around his shoulders now that the paint was dry. In his spare time he had taken to educating himself about Earth's mythology after the fifth time that a human had said something to the effect of being their patron troll, and now he strove to depict the gods that ruled over the Void in their own pantheons.

Dave finally got what he wanted out of Equius and started with renewed confidence in this shoot. In his mind, he was doing a victorious dance of delight that Equius clicked into exactly what he needed to show, though outwardly, all that showed of it was the fact that he had yet to put his glasses back on, having them hang from their earpiece out of his front pocket as he worked. "Well done," he said finally as he stepped away from his camera, and to Equius, patting his arm. "Go get washed off, you're done. That was _perfect._ "

Equius smiled thinly and patted Dave's shoulder hard, which really equated to a light pap to him, glancing at Vriska before stepping out to go back to the bathroom to wash the paint off. The two of them still had work to do on the the house, that hadn't changed with the interruption of the photoshoot.

Karkat was looking rather smug as he arched an eyebrow at Dave. Getting Equius to actually get into the work and display what he needed to without having to actually order him to do anything was a great accomplishment, he knew, and between himself and Dave it had gone beautifully. "If we'd given him a sphere he'd have tried to pull off Atlas."

While Equius and Vriska departed, Terezi popped back up seemingly out of nowhere, clearly ready for her paint, having borrowed Rose's robe. "Oh man, I am so ready for this, I'm going to smell so fresh!" She grinned to Gamzee as she settled down on the stool, wiggling in excitement.

Dave chuckled at both Terezi's excitement and Karkat's comment. "This is it, this is the last of 'em. I mean, unless we can somehow con John or Tavros and some Life player into finishing up the set for us." He hadn't expected that to be a thing that would happen. He felt a little unfulfilled by the prospect that there were two aspects missing in the set, but he had remembered that there were more aspects than the ones they had encountered in their sessions, and it made him feel moderately less like he was going in half-done.

"We're working with what we have and representing as many as possible without harassing people on the street," Karkat shrugged then stood and draped himself around Dave's shoulders, watching Gamzee start his work with Terezi. He would be working with her head and down into her chest, focusing on the details around her eyes the most as the contrast between the red and green would be the most striking and draw the most focus. Her hair was pinned back and would remain so throughout the shoot, covered by a veil for some of the shots. She was extremely bouncy and already talking about how good she smelled and how awesome the photos would be when they were blown up and hung for display. Gamzee hushed her more than once while he worked on her face then simply gave up and went to working on her shoulders and chest when she got to talking again.

Dave sighed and tutted, "Terezi, come on, this is serious, can you just make with not talking for twenty minutes. Here." He handed her her own phone. "Text it." He smiled and kissed the top of her head before nodding back to Gamzee. "I love you doll, but you're a pain in the ass to work with when it comes to having you sit and relax." He sprawled out next to Karkat with a smile again, and leaned his head against his matesprit's shoulder. She started to argue, then simply pouted and slid the phone open to text him with her head tilted up to let Gamzee get back to work.

**YOU 4R3 SUCH 4 P41N, STR1D3R, C4N'T YOU JUST BE H4PPY TH4T 1'M 4W3SOM3LY M1NTY?**

Karkat just snorted as he read it over Dave's shoulder. "You only smell minty to you, doofus. To us you smell like paint."

Dave sighed and shook his head. "I'll get you a whole basket of strawberries if you stay perfectly still until he's done because yes, I've resorted to cheap bribe tactics so we can get this done." With that he leaned up closer to Karkat. "Once we get home, I'm going to sleep for a week," he muttered. "Can that be a thing I can do?"

"We're still on summer vacation and we have until the end of the month before we absolutely have to be back at work. I'm pretty sure that that is, in fact, a thing you can do." Karkat took his hand and started to fiddle idly with his fingers, his chin hooked over Dave's shoulder as he watched Gamzee concentrating on his work. It was just as beautiful as the rest of his pieces and indeed all of his art, framing and defining the curves of Terezi's face and neck and emphasizing her eyes.

Dave gave Karkat a warning little smile before leaning up to kiss the underside of his matesprit's jaw. "Sure, but I know you'll basically get fed up with me being a couch spore after day three and start shouting at me to do something. You'll be really pissy if I just commandeer the couch and refuse to let everybody else sit."

"True. And just sitting on you loses its entertainment value after the first hour," Karkat snorted then simply laced his fingers between Dave's, tucking his face against the side of his neck. He wanted to go home, or at least go somewhere that there would be nobody else but Dave and himself. They had had little to no time to themselves in months now and it was obviously starting to get on Karkat's nerves.

"I've resigned myself to being your part-time sofa cushion, could you tell?" Dave murmured, just as anxious to get this last set of photos done before they had lunch together and then went to the museum. Hopefully, he thought, nobody would try to tag along. They hadn't even had a decent damn _date_ in months, and it was driving him up the wall. As much as he adored Terezi, it was becoming a non-ideal situation. Shit was stressed.

Once Terezi's paint was done, Dave stood, reluctant to move from Karkat's side, but he picked himself up from his seat and shuffled over to the camera. "I don't want to give you the same pep talk I had to give Equius. You know what this is all about, babe. Let's just kick out some mad power and own this thing quick, so I can abscond with Vantas for a few hours."

"Do you guys really have to wander off somewhere to snog?" Terezi pouted then started to think about her aspect and what she could do with it, and what she knew she should be capable of with it, and moved into position with a subtle smirk. She wouldn't have to worry so much about posing given that the art didn't take up much of her body past her chest, but she still moved and followed direction just as well as the rest of them had, all while pouring some of her own personality into the scene. Karkat lingered back with his chin propped up on his hand once more, pleased with how well she was doing, but mostly excited about the fact that they would be done soon and would be able to take a rest. He was sure that Eridan and Gamzee felt the same.

"Actually, yeah," Dave replied with a smile, and worked very easily with her, finishing up the shoot quickly, delighting at how absolutely photogenic Terezi was, on top of being so easy to show off her aspect. Once she was released to wreak havoc on everybody, Dave captchalogued the roll of film and memory card, and looked over to Eridan, who had dozed off in his seat for who only knows how long. He chuckled and then wrapped his arm around Gamzee's waist. "Good job dude, just amazing. We _own_ , man."

"Now we just gotta see about gettin' shit developed and hung the fuck up. Gonna have a real big reception. People gonna bug right the fuck out," Gamzee replied as he slung his arm around Dave's shoulders, leaning against his side. "We're prob'ly gonna have to stick around here for a little while longer, or else find places back home to hang 'em."

"There's nothin' saying we have to let them just be shown in one gallery at a time. It's the magic of photography, dude. Copies." He grinned and looked up to Gamzee, tugging gently at his dreads. "Once I get the final drafts done up, I'll run by a print shop to get them on some canvas, about movie poster size, maybe larger," he rubbed his face and then shrugged. "We can figure that out tomorrow once I've decided on the shots we're using." He gave Gamzee a hug because hell, what they'd just finished was worth a hug, and then walked over to Karkat. "You ready to shove massive quantities of food into your face before staring at some significantly older art?"

"That sounds fucking awesome to me." Karkat stood and stretched then leaned into Dave's side, glancing over at Eridan as Gamzee very carefully inserted himself into his matesprit's lap and started to harass his neck and the bottom of his ear as if there was nobody in the room. He rolled his eyes and hooked his fingers around Dave's, tugging him along out of the room to leave the two of them alone. Once the door had closed behind them, Karkat wrapped his arms around Dave's neck and pecked his lips. "So how does it feel finishing another groundbreaking project?" He murmured with a soft smile.

"It feels like hunger," Dave said with a smile into the kiss, slipping himself a little closer, "And severe nicotine withdrawal. With just a hint of sexual frustration." He smirked and slipped away to start towards the door, only to be stopped midway through the foyer by Rose, who was tapping her nails against her elbow.

"May I help you, sister dear?" Dave said with a flutter of his eyes. She pursed her lips at him in indignation.

"I hope you left your laptop somewhere where I can get a good look at the finished products of at least _some_ of the photos," she said.

He laughed and thumbed back over his shoulder. "It's in there, but right now there's a horny highblood trying to get a prince all riled up, so it's kind of a terror zone until further notice."

"Eridan will drag him off somewhere in a couple of minutes, just give it time," Karkat snorted, rolling his eyes and leaning against Dave without giving the slightest shit that they'd basically been caught about to start making out in the hallway. "The laptop is sitting out with the slideshow still going on it so yeah, you'll get your chance to see the shots."

Dave was happy to slip by Rose without too much issue, walking out to the car. He slipped into the driver's seat and looked over at Karkat for a moment, shaking his head. "You know, I'm really damn glad we don't all live together, can you imagine how awkward it'd be?"

"The place would smell like a fucking bag of skittles," Karkat muttered as he slid down in the seat comfortably, pulling on his seatbelt then looking back at Dave. "It's safer this way with all of us spread out. Can't wreak as much havoc on each other this way."

"I can barely stand having them around for more than three days," murmured Dave as he buckled in and leaned back to start the car and drive down into the city. He still hadn't put his shades on from when he'd taken them off to give Equius a Look, and was well aware of it. "It feels good, though. Seeing them all, you know. Not killing each other for shit that happened when we were kids."

"They still don't really trust each other, but it's a start." Karkat waited until they were on their way before reaching over and taking Dave's hand, once more fidgeting with his fingers absently. "What do you think about maybe renting a hotel room for a night or two while we're still here? Actually have some time away from the others. The peace would be nice."

"Ohmyfuckinggod yes, thank you," Dave sighed in relief. He'd been wanting to do that since night one. "Once we get done with lunch, you want to pick out a hotel? There's got to be like, five thousand hotels in this town. I'm about the fuck out of my mind. I mean, damn, it's nice just getting up and being able to hug my sister and shit like that, but then there's the whole _holy shit I want to strangle everybody_ thing."

"You find us a restaurant, I'll find a hotel and then we can dick around at the museum for a couple of hours. Normal people shit for a night." Karkat yawned and rested his head back against the back of his seat, tapping some on his phone and running a search for hotels in the area that accommodated trolls, even though it was no longer strictly necessary that they have a recuperacoon in their room. The nightmares were hardly a thing anymore and for that, he was infinitely thankful.

"Sounds like a plan. You got any particular cravings or are we going to do this the way I do everything?" He smirked as he turned off the highway into mid-afternoon traffic in the middle of downtown.

"I just want food. The specifics are up to you." Karkat knew he wasn't being helpful, but for the moment, he didn't really care. He was just glad to be out of the house, away from the others, and doing something alone with Dave that didn't involve sleep for the first time in weeks. He held up his phone when they hit a traffic light so that Dave could see the hotel he'd settled on before making the reservation. Dave took a look and then made a note of the street they'd have to find after the museum. After about twenty minutes of aimless driving, Dave pulled into a parking lot near a row of fairly decent-looking restaurants and parked the car, grinning a little at the fact that for the first time in ages, they were off doing something seriously normal and fun together. He got out of the car and waited for Karkat to walk around so they could walk down to street level together, his hand in his matesprit's. When Karkat took his hand he immediately relaxed, as if a weight had finally fallen off his shoulders. He bumped his shoulder against Dave's and looked up at the signs they were passing under, still not really sure what he wanted.

"Ok so I'm not the only one picking up the kind of gross flushed vibe from Vriska and Equius right?" He asked after a couple of minutes, looking up at Dave with an arched brow.

"Yeah, I noticed that. Though I'm pretty sure they're trying to keep it on the DL, like nobody can notice those looks they give to each other. I'm _pretty_ sure they're the least subtle people ever." Dave looked at the menu posted on the outside of one of the restaurants and shrugged, deciding it was pretty decent, and walked in. It was a grill, so meat was a given.

Shaking his head, Karkat settled into a seat against the window to be able to watch the street outside, the attacks of horrorterrors starting to make him just a little bit paranoid. "Neither of them could possibly be called anything even remotely related to subtle. But as long as they don't decide that since everyone else can see it they might as well start being like Gamzee and Eridan, I'm not saying anything."

"Man c'mon, Gamzee and Eridan are fuckin' adorable with each other. But I get you," Dave said with a lopsided smile. "Those two getting all PDA in our faces would probably make me lose every lunch I've ever had." He picked up the menu to decide whether he wanted a steak or a burger. All he knew was that he wanted fries. He looked up to Karkat with a smirk, "And you know I'd be forced to drag you into being all sorts of snuggly and smoochy 'n' shit if they started in with that."

"Great, now you're trying to incite an orgy in the middle of your sister's house." Karkat shook his head and scanned over the menu, propping his hand up under his chin as he started weighing his options. Eventually he just settled on a plate of kebabs and put the menu off to the side to cross his arms on the tabletop. "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen sooner. They've basically been together since they were grubs, built their hives right next door to one-another, been working together on whatever fucked up projects they have."

"So they've been basically dancing around the flushed quadrant since they were tiny and haven't committed? That's...wow, that's something." Dave said with a chuckle, settling back to look up at the waiter who came to take their orders. He ordered a beer for himself as well as the steak dinner with fries in place of a baked potato, and more fries in place of the coleslaw. He looked over at Karkat, "And I'm not inciting anything, dude. I'm actually making sure we _don't_ incite anything by getting the hell out of there for a little bit."

After placing his order and asking for a glass of tea himself Karkat rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. "I'm actually willing to bet that a large percentage of the fucked up-ness that goes through Equius' head involves Vriska in some way. But if that's what she's into, more power to them."

"You know, I really don't see what's all that fucked up about him. He sweats when he's nervous, and he pisses me off by calling you lowblood. That's about it." He had more reasons to hate better people, all things considered. "He actually seems pretty cool. A little on the formal side, but I'm guessing that's to make up for something." Dave sipped at his water and smiled at Karkat. "You're more abrasive, is all I'm sayin'."

Karkat just let him think what he wanted to about Equius for the time being, sure that eventually the blueblood would slip and let them all know that he was still just as fucking disturbing as he had always been. When his drink was put in front of him he sipped at it with his eyes down. "Yeah, I guess."

Dave smiled and moved his hand to cover Karkat's, looking at him with a smile. "It's that abrasive shit that got my attention to begin with. Don't misconstrue that shit, alright?" He wasn't even sure if he was reading Karkat's body language right, but he just wanted to remind him of that. "And y'know, I never did get to really fully apologize for being a supreme prick the other day. You know, my nerves were shot, and I know you loved him, man, I know you feel shitty about losing that and getting all separated. I shouldn't have exploded over you about it. He was your best fuckin' friend. And I was a mega fuckin' douche."

Karkat's lips pulled into a small, tight smile at that and he just shrugged a shoulder. "Yeah, I know, I could have explained things a little better too instead of just holing up like that. I mean I know he's changed. That much is obvious no matter what angle you look at it from. But after that long of only having that mindset about someone you used to trust, it's kind of hard to get back into that 'nah, everything's fine now' headspace. He shouldn't scare me. He shouldn't scare anyone. But that shit sticks with a guy no matter how much it shouldn't even be a thing."

Dave nodded. "I know. It's going to take a lifetime to get over that. And I think forgetting that was really fucking douchey of me." He sipped his beer and looked down at the table, sliding the napkin around with a nervous fidget. "I just wasn't in any sort of good headspace either. And it's not like I can _explain_ just why I'm so damn protective of the guy. Especially to folks who've seen him at his worst."

"You're his friend. He needed a good friend." Karkat grimaced some as he turned his thoughts inward for a moment. He shook himself out of it and took another large swallow of his tea then continued, "Honestly, I'm pretty happy you two hit it off like you have. It's done him a lot of good."

Dave recognized that look and went back to squeezing his matesprit's hand, looking at him. "You were an amazing friend to him, too. Stop beating yourself up about something that happened in the past. I'm glad he's my friend, dude. He's done me a lot of good, too. Y'know, made me feel less freaky. Like, there's something about him, it puts me at ease in a part of my mind that's all...fucked."

Karkat wanted badly to argue that no, he wasn't an amazing friend. He wasn't even a good one. By all accounts, he was really shitty to Gamzee even before they'd entered the game. He just returned the squeeze though and let his hand rest in Dave's grip, tapping the end of his fork against the tabletop restlessly. "Then maybe what happened was for the best."

Dave smiled a little at that. "Vantas, look. You're a good friend. The best, actually. You should just accept it. It's because of you a lot of our friends are even around right now, okay? I don't think Terezi would have noticed me without you there, and obviously, Eridan values you like... Damn, dude." He smiled reassuringly. "You're _my_ best friend. Even now."

"You give me way too much credit sometimes." Karkat shook his head then leaned across the table to press his lips to the center of Dave's forehead, ignoring the total three other patrons in the restaurant. He sat back down and withdrew his hand just as the waitress returned with their orders, offering her a soft smile and taking his plate so that she could take the order of fries balanced in the crook of her elbow to hand to Dave. When she had gone again he picked up one of the skewers and bit one of the small onions in half.

"You don't give yourself enough, so it evens out," Dave said as he sat back for the waitress, setting into the fries like he was starving almost before the basket was on the table. He grinned a little at the look of the steak. It was thicker than he had expected, and the searing was almost artistic in how it criss-crossed the top of the meat, and of course, it smelled amazing. He started in on that as soon as he finished his fries. He looked over at Karkat with a grin. "Mm, gonna have to edit the video stuff some time, get a cool mini-movie thing going down with that. That was a really good idea."

"Be careful, someone might get the idea to make a documentary about you and end up asking to use bits of the footage." Karkat set into his meal with a small smile, relaxing once more. They could talk more about the important stuff later, if it came up again, but for now, he was just happy they could do this to begin with and have a good meal that was cooked by somebody they didn't know, eat with nobody but each other, and have the prospect of sleeping in a room where nobody would be invading their space.

"Oh god, no, that's the worst idea. It'd be the most boring documentary ever. I've made you watch that documentary about Shepard Fairey. It'd be like that, only way less awesome because I don't know Banksy." He grinned at that. "Or maybe I do, and I just don't know it." Dave grinned before nudging the basket of fries towards Karkat. He was happy to get out of the work mode that he'd put himself in for the past roughly three weeks; even though he hadn't been working strictly on the project, he'd ramped himself up and was working on other themes with his photography for about two weeks prior. This just was the big thing that he needed to focus on. It was surreal, actually feeling serious about something for a change.

"Give Gamzee a can of spraypaint and a wall and you'll have created Troll Banksy," Karkat replied around a mouthful of roasted tomato. That would actually be something interesting to see. He already knew about Gamzee's propensity for drawing on the walls; Eridan had sent him picture messages of the horrors crawling down the wallpaper of his bedroom before he'd moved into the master bedroom to share the seadweller's cocoon. He couldn't help but smile some as he shook his head and sat back, tapping the end of his skewer on his plate. Dave smiled a little as the mental image of Gamzee sneaking out into LA to leave some lavish, crazy street art came into mind, nodding to a beat of music either in his head or coming through earbuds.

"How the hell did we get to this point?" asked Karkat.

"How do you mean? What point?"

Karkat looked down at his plate and the other three skewers on it, picking up another one and turning it over in his fingers. "Where we are right now. Just...not even a full year ago, I was ready to completely give up. And now look at me. I'm already working on my dissertation. I have my friends back. I have a hell of a lot more than I ever could have hoped for myself, and that's not even counting the material shit. And I'm not even the one that's gained the most out of all of this. In an even shorter time, Gamzee's... I don't even know what to say for him. Or Eridan. Or any of them. By all rights, every single one of us should either be dead or in some kind of institution. But we're not. Exactly the opposite, actually."

"We got here because we're thickheaded assholes who don't give up, dude," Dave pointed out as he sipped his beer. "We're pulled to each other, and we're good for each other. And I think we all sorta just...knew that we couldn't give up. And when we thought we could, fate or luck or whatever the hell it was intervened." He looked up at Karkat with a smile, knowing that Karkat knew what he was talking about. "We're too tenacious to let this shit bury us. We're stronger than that."

Karkat returned it then reached over with the point of his skewer and stabbed a couple of Dave's fries, taking them for himself. He bit them off the end of it then went back to his tea until the glass was drained. "I just hope that it holds out for a little while longer."

Dave thought about it momentarily and then shook his head. "Even after everything is stable, we've got a lot to do. I mean, I'm pretty sure we're not just going to wind up living comfy, normal lives the day after this world is actually real," he pointed out. "I mean, I've been raised to be a fighter, and that's just not going to disappear no matter how much I just want to fuck around and be behind my cameras."

Karkat shook his head in return and lifted his hands up, still holding his food. "No, I'm aware of that. But the fact that we'll be able to actually do whatever the fuck it is we're going to do in the first place, without having to worry about nightmares raining from the sky, that's something that I've been looking forward to since we started this fucked up adventure."

"Maybe I'll get into making action movies, that'll stave off the craving for explosions and fighting," Dave considered, before smiling, grabbing the bill once it was set down on the table, tucking his credit card in the fold. "I'm happy just to have you here with me for all this. You don't even know, dude."

Karkat finished his meal and reached across the table to take the last couple of swallows of Dave's beer, smiling faintly at him and taking his hand again before it could get too far away. "You tell me pretty much every chance you get these days. So yeah, I'm pretty sure I know."

"Do I? Huh," Dave pretended to be surprised, his smile gone tilted. "Might be because it's true or something." He looked up at the waiter as he got the bill and card, and then looked back to Karkat, bringing his hand up to his lips, pressing them to his matesprit's knuckles. "You know what I realized earlier today? You're fuckin' right. I am. I'm the biggest sap."

"You are the biggest fucking sap in the multiverse," Karkat agreed then turned his hand to lay it against Dave's cheek. "And you know I like it."

Dave leaned into Karkat's hand with a contented smile, eyes slipping closed. "Once we get to the hotel, I'm looking forward to just watching some stupid movie or whatever, and becoming a damn vegetable with you. I'm so fucking done right now, I need a break." Once the waitress returned with his card, he stuck it back in his wallet and stood. "Let's do that now, actually. The faster we can get to doing it, the less I'll pout that we're not there yet."

"Then we'll spend the rest of the night vegetating and watching shitty reruns or whatever's good on pay-per-view." Karkat stretched some when he stood, content and full after a good meal that he hadn't personally had to cook. He took Dave's hand and bumped him gently toward the door, back out to the car then sinking down into the passenger seat in a slouch. He pulled up the hotel on his phone again in case Dave would need the street, then shot off a couple of texts to Rose and Kanaya to let them know that they would be spending the night away. He knew they wouldn't mind, but he didn't want to alert the others and risk invoking the wrath of Terezi just yet.

The hotel was small, but it was clean and the rooms were spacious, the staff extremely nice (a little too nice in Karkat's opinion) and when he finally got the chance to sprawl out on the bed, he sank into the king-size mattress with a quiet groan, enveloped in the thick comforter up to his ears. "Hell. _Fucking_. Yes."

Dave chuckled as he watched Karkat sink into the bed as he shucked his shoes at the door and pulled out his wallet and sylladex to put on the dresser before he joined him, groaning as well. "Ugh, just kill me here and let me be a ghost in this fuckin' dope ass bed. Holy damn, it's like it's made out of dreams and happiness." He couldn't begrudge Rose her prudence in getting a guest bed that wasn't top of the line, but this was gratuitously comfortable. Karkat just grunted quietly in agreement then inched his way over to Dave and laid his cheek against his matesprit's shoulder, his arm coming up to drape around his waist.

"Can we just. Y'know. Live here for a while? That would be good."

"Sure, we can totally rent this room for the rest of the week. It'll give everyone else a break from us. I know I've been kind of an uptight tool about shit this week." He'd been strictly tunnel vision for the project, and had been getting progressively more snippy, especially at the arrival of Vriska. Having to step between Nepeta and Gamzee hadn't done any favors to his mood, either. He rolled to face Karkat and grinned, tucking his own hair back so it didn't get into his eyes. "Pick something to watch, dude."

Karkat bumped his hand away then dragged his own fingers through the fluff of his bangs, holding them back out of his face and kissing the bridge of his nose. "Any suggestions or are you just going to let me put it on the first thing I see?"

"Whatever works for you, dude, I just need to turn my brain off." Which was far easier when Karkat put on one of his dumb romcoms, though that also usually wound up getting him so bored that he would wind up distracting his matesprit with his busy hands and mouth. He figured it wouldn't be grumbled about today, so he had no argument against Karkat picking the first thing that caught his eye. He climbed up closer to the headboard and sprawled on his back, crossing his legs at the ankles as he put his hands behind his head. Karkat rolled over with some difficulty to fish the TV remote out of the side table drawer, then returned to Dave's side and propped his head on his matesprit's chest as he flipped through the guide to see what was on. Unsurprisingly, there was very little that caught his eye and eventually he started going through them in reverse, eventually setting on a movie from the last decade and muttering about Cameron Diaz as he tossed the remote back toward the head of the bed.

With Karkat's head against his chest, Dave's hand went straight into his hair to idly play at the ends of it. He managed to almost care about it, but every time he was almost drawn into the movie his mind brought him out of it to point out how nice the weight of Karkat against him was, or how nice he smelled, or how terrible his matesprit's taste in movies was. Before too long Karkat was purring quietly as Dave's fingers moved through his hair, watching the movie with half-lidded eyes. He worked his shoes off with his toes and let them thud on the carpet then curled up against his matesprit's side. He worked his hand up under Dave's shirt halfway into the movie and just scratched lightly at his skin, simply enjoying being able to touch him in such a way at all. The purring made Dave smile contentedly. It had been far too long since he'd heard that quiet chirp, and it made his breath catch in joy, his smile gone completely sincere and subtle as his eyes slipped closed. The skin-on-skin contact was more than appreciated, though he gasped when Karkat's fingers reached his sensitive sides. Still, he didn't take it as proposition. It simply _was_ , and that was fine.

"Missed this," he murmured during a commercial, his fingers uncurling from Karkat's hair to brush against his back through his shirt. Karkat hummed quietly at that, smiling faintly himself with his cheek pressed against Dave's sternum. He rubbed his thumb over his matesprit's stomach idly, barely paying any attention to the TV by now. He turned over after a minute of the commercials to face Dave and laid his hand against the side of Dave's neck.

"Maybe we should try to actually schedule time to do this more than once every blue fucking moon..."

"We gotta schedule time alone together? That blows so many fuckin' goats, dude," Dave sighed, opening his eyes to look at Karkat, brushing his own knuckles along his matesprit's cheek and neck. "Can we just...I dunno. Run away from home? Maybe get jobs as bartenders or circus performers or street sweepers or some shit, take new identities and have enough of a flexible schedule where we don't _have_ to appoint time to enjoy each other's company?"

Karkat huffed quietly and laid his hand over Dave's wrist, his thumb rubbing across the back of his matesprit's hand. "When we go home we'll have more time, promise."

"When we get home, we'll still have a nosy roommate, and work, and scheduling for next semester. Right now, we've got all the time in the world to fuck around and do nothing." Dave turned to tangle their legs together and press a kiss to Karkat's forehead. "I don't want to get this Pavlovian response to seeing you and being like "godDAMN, is it time to sleep already?" He smiled weakly as he brushed Karkat's hair away from his forehead before pressing a kiss to it.

With a quiet sigh Karkat shoved his face against Dave's shoulder, arms wrapping around his matesprit tightly then pulling him close as he rolled to pull Dave over him. "We'll figure something out. Nothing short of reality unmaking itself is going to stop me from making time to invade the fuck out of your personal space."

" _What_ personal space? I completely forgot I had that," chuckled Dave, who ducked in for a proper kiss. "Someone I know thinks it's perfectly acceptable behavior to _lick_ me. I've gotten out of the habit thinking that any space I inhabit is personal." He dipped his lips lower on Karkat's jaw. "I love her, don't get me wrong, but holy shit, I can't do this living with her thing for too much longer."

"It was your idea to invite her to move in," Karkat reminded him with a soft smirk, returning the kiss then lifting his chin up to let Dave have more access to his jaw and throat. He reached his hands up to rest against Dave's sides and propped one leg up to lean his knee against the other's hip. "If you want to be the one to try and convince her to find an apartment elsewhere, be my guest."

"Like shit you're gonna put this all on me. We both wanted her with us," Dave said with a chuckle, nipping Karkat's neck as he slid his own thigh up between his matesprit's legs. "I'm not gonna kick her out, though. Just gotta remind her that you and I need our space sometimes." He ran his fingers up Karkat's chest, tucking his fingertips under his matesprit's shirt. Karkat let out a soft sigh and smiled faintly as his eyes closed. He ran his hands back up Dave's sides then down over his shoulders, dipping one into the back of his shirt through the collar and scratching gently at the skin.

"And then she'll pretend to be curious and ask what we needed that for and just make a stupid production out of it." She'd listen, of course, but not without making herself a huge pain first.

"You know I'd just tell her I need to shove my face in your nook for a while, that'd keep her out of our business," Dave murmured against the curve of Karkat's neck, before he rolled them both to have Karkat on top, rocking his leg upward as he moved. "But I got used to having you and only you around, and I miss the hell out of it."

"You are _not_ telling Terezi that, oh my fucking god." Nevermind the fact that she already knew quite a bit about their sex life anyway just based on her nose. Karkat picked himself up and sat straddled across Dave's hips with his shirt rucked up around his stomach. He peeled it off over his head and dropped it over the edge of the bed before returning his attention to his matesprit. "You're not the only one," he murmured and reached down for Dave's hands.

With a lopsided smile Dave laced their fingers together and replied, "Maybe we'll get a bigger place with bedrooms across the house from each other or something when we move," he murmured, leaning up to kiss his matesprit. "I don't dislike living with her, I just hate not having time alone with you." He rocked his hips up just enough to make his leg come back into contact with Karkat's groin. "I miss being as loud as I want."

Karkat took a quiet breath as he lifted up slightly with the leg pressing against him, gripping down on Dave's hands briefly then bringing one up to his lips. He smirked faintly, arching an eyebrow down at him. "Correction: you miss _me_ being loud as you want."

"Damn, you caught me," Dave murmured, looking up at Karkat's lips near his knuckles. "I totally miss the way you got so loud that the neighbors would knock on their ceiling at us. I miss how you just let yourself go like that, it was fuckin' incredible." He slipped his other hand away to brush over Karkat's thigh. "You get more reserved when you know she's around to hear."

Karkat flushed lightly at that. "Maybe we just need to get somewhere there aren't any neighbors demanding we shut up. And besides, any noise I make isn't for anyone else to hear. Just you." He smiled faintly and took the tips of two of Dave's fingers into his mouth, dragging his tongue over and between the digits. Dave brought his other hand up to brush the backs of his fingers over Karkat's cheek, letting out a little murmur while he caught the corner of his lower lip between his teeth.

"We'll move somewhere with soundproof everything, and then you won't ever have to worry about anybody hearing you." His eyes slipped closed once again and he murmured, "You can't keep teasing me like this, Vantas, I'm going to get frustrated."

"What if I enjoy watching you get frustrated," Karkat murmured around his fingers but let them go and leaned his weight back down on Dave's hips. He let Dave's hands go and ran his hands down his matesprit's chest to his stomach, dragging his nails along the pale skin just hard enough to leave faint red trails in their wake.

As he arched into Karkat's nails with a little groan, Dave smirked, "You're the worst kind of asshole," he murmured fondly. "You know I'm not going to stop you." Mostly because he knew when Karkat got him to a point where he was frustrated out of need, he'd find a way to relieve him in. "In fact, frustrate me all day, it's not like we have anywhere to be."

Karkat smiled a little wider and ran his hands back up Dave's chest to rest at his neck, leaning down over him and pecking at his lips playfully. "The fact that you let me get away with it makes it that much more entertaining."

"Get away with it? Man, I instigate it." He bucked his hips playfully and pressed a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "Especially seeing as how you know better than to take it too far."

Karkat put his hands up on the bed over Dave's head with a quiet laugh and kissed the space between his eyebrows, his knees tightening around Dave's hips. "I just enjoy watching you unravel. It is a nice spectacle," he purred, nudging his nose against Dave's.

"You like stripping every layer of mask and veil away, yeah, I know." Dave raised both brows as he brushed Karkat's lips with the tip of his tongue. He ran the flat of his hands up over Karkat's back and sides, careful not to disturb his grubscars. "Like seeing me vulnerable and raw, without worry of judgment."

"There's a kind of beauty in stripping a person bare and just watching them let themselves simply _be_." Karkat's hips pressed down in a slow roll as his legs tightened down against Dave's sides. He kissed his way along Dave's jaw and down his throat, mouthing at his adam's apple and letting his teeth graze the skin.

Dave tilted his head back to give Karkat more room to let him do whatever he wanted to his neck. "You just like me losing my cool, like some sort of emotional sadist," he teased through a contented sigh. He ran his hands down Karkat's arms and then back up again to run one up into his matesprit's hair, murmuring faintly, "know what?" He took a short breath before continuing, "if you ever feel like trying going at me without those teeth guard things, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to freak out." He had been considering that for quite a while, but Dave felt it was about the time he trusted Karkat's ability not to gouge the shit out of him when he gave head.

"I hear that invisible question mark," Karkat murmured pressing his lips to the hollow of Dave's throat and smiling faintly. He'd shied away from the idea on multiple occasions when the thought had occurred to him, knowing that the inevitable 'fuck no' would shut that down before it happened. He pushed himself halfway upright and mouthed his way down Dave's body until he was nuzzling at the spot just above the button of his pants. "You're sure you want that?"

"Would I ever say anything like that unless I was completely sure?" He asked, his hands having slipped away to trace light, idle lines across Karkat's shoulders. Dave shivered a breath at the slight thrill of it; there was the element of potential danger, sure, but that was second to being able to trust Karkat implicitly. He wanted to express the proverbial as well as physical breaking of that last barrier, but couldn't quite find the words for it through the warmth of his matesprit's lips and nose pressed so close to his pelvis. Karkat's eyes rolled up to look back at Dave for a couple of seconds, then closed as his hands ran up the insides of his matesprit's thighs, rubbing up over his crotch then unfastening his pants. He continued to listen for Dave's reactions as he mouthed over the shape of his cock through his boxers, simply getting used to using his mouth without the guards in the way. It would be like learning how to do it all over again.

With one hand wrapped around the base of Dave's growing erection, Karkat dragged his tongue over the head and pushed it down into the foreskin. He was simply using his lips and tongue for the time being, obviously nervous about wrapping his mouth around it and risking nicking the skin. Dave shuddered and gasped quietly, taking his matesprit's free hand and squeezing. He shuffled his pants and shorts down enough to give Karkat a little extra room to work, trying not to be worried overmuch by his matesprit harming him. When he felt his partner's tongue drag against the head of his cock he felt the last of his hesitation finally slipping away. He let out a sighed groan, punctuated with a twitch of a smile, before he murmured, "I'll tell you if it gets too rough, okay? It's fine, Karkat."

Karkat let out a quiet huff and laced his fingers between Dave's, squeezing down on his hand gently in return then opening his mouth wide to dip down over him as far as he knew he could go. He sucked down as he drew back up, letting his tongue drag over the warm skin. He repeated the action until he'd found a decent rhythm and started to relax his jaw, paying very careful attention to his teeth. Dave reacted to the careful ministrations with far less reservation than usual, his hand immediately squeezing Karkat's as he let out a loud, low groan, his head tipping back into the pillows. He knew he'd been feeling the guards before and they were seriously impeding the enjoyment of how Karkat moved, in their own way. Dave's own jaw went slack as he let out another, altogether wanton moan of his matesprit's name as he spread his legs just a bit more with every descent of Karkat's mouth.

Karkat's ears flared red and he pulled up, taking the time to pull Dave's pants off and drop them with his shirt, settling himself back between his matesprit's thighs. He lifted Dave's legs up and propped them on his shoulders as he went back down with a little more confidence. One hand wrapped back around him while the other dipped down and started rubbing the tip of his middle finger over the sensitive spot just behind Dave's balls. He still couldn't bring himself to put a finger inside him without a lot of talking into it first but even this was a great step forward. Dave huffed a breath and then had to grip the blankets underneath him once Karkat's mouth slipped back down around him. His brow knit and let out another, slightly louder moan at that and twisted his hand into the fabric. His legs hooked at the ankles behind Karkat's shoulders, his toes curling as he started murmuring pleas and encouragement to move his hand lower. He roughly caught the corner of his lips in his teeth and huffed each breath.

"Please, please Karkat," he whimpered in a breathy tone, "I'm gonna come soon, just..." he didn't want to get off that quickly, and certainly not before Karkat had his but no matter what Dave decided to mutter at him, Karkat refused to let up once he'd found his rhythm. He sucked down harder, another finger joining the first and easing a little lower to rub over the skin but once again hesitating. He would break himself of that eventually, but now wasn't going to be that time. He twisted his finger into the tender spot nonetheless and pulled up to avoid a mouthful of the persistently bitter fluid, his hand taking the place of his lips. He was deliberately trying to get him to come; Dave could easily recover and then carry on.

With a tight arch of his back, Dave grit his teeth and clenched his eyes shut as he thrust his hand down to grip Karkat's wrist tight, his orgasm only a second or two behind that. He wasn't about to let himself get worn out by that, though, whispering a run-on "holy fucking hell Karkat I love you so much," not pausing even to consider how coherent he wasn't. Once he recovered enough to _be_ coherent, however, he huffed a lazy chuckle and tugged at Karkat's wrist to guide him back up. "That was way too soon, dude, I'm feelin' kind of underwhelmed by myself here. You, on the other hand..."

Karkat, meanwhile, was looking rather pleased with himself as he crawled back up. He couldn't taste any blood and there hadn't been any indication that he'd nicked Dave at all, meaning he'd apparently accomplished exactly what he'd set out to do. He dragged a hand through the splattered mess on Dave's stomach then wiped it off with one of the tissues from the box on the table beside the bed. "I thought that went rather well."

"A little, yeah," Dave agreed with a lopsided smile before he got up to his elbows to lean in and kiss Karkat. "That was fucking ridiculous, actually, who am I even kidding." He'd never thought he'd feel that way about getting a blowjob, but there he was. "Are you just going to sit there and look smug or are you going to tell me what you want to do next?"

"What, you don't have any more brilliant ideas?" Karkat smiled faintly and leaned down over him to kiss the corner of his mouth. "I bet you never even thought to captchalog the toybox."

"What, and give one of us a concussion via projectile rubber dong? I don't think so, dude, that would be a terrible idea." Dave smirked as he grabbed for his sylladex. "However, we've got the bucket, aaaaand yeah I brought the toybox, that's kind of silly to hide." He brought both out of his sylladex with a couple category names and let them thump and rattle against the wall, instead of launching them out a window, or worse, into the room where they'd make a mess.

"You really need to think about an additional fetch modus," Karkat muttered, wincing at the thud. He pulled the office box over between them, lifting the lid off and moving the bar aside to peer in at what they had, chin in hand and fingers tapping at his cheek thoughtfully.

"What's wrong with hashmap? Shit owns," Dave argued with a mellow tone as he looked into the box. There hadn't been any addition to it, though as he took inventory of it, he took a look at the headboard, then leaned back to see if it had a center fastening point below the mattress. "Maybe..." he murmured as he sat back up, and set the handcuffs aside.

"How about something that _doesn't_ launch your shit across the room outside of a strife with your brother?" Karkat rolled his eyes some then started to dig through the box himself, tossing the bottle of lube out then sitting back to let Dave have free run of the toys again.

"I don't have time to learn a new modus. They need to get on making modi that aren't fucking dumb as hell is all. Or maybe an upgraded hashmap with launch toggle so I don't randomly bust shit out a window. Gamzee's modus is pretty cool, though," he pointed out. "Just reach up and grab shit? Lucky fucker." He looked down at the lube and raised an eyebrow, looking back up at Karkat. "What exactly are you planning on, here?"

"Used to be he'd have to hope the right thing was in grabbing distance. It actually was a fucking miracle he'd be able to get anything out of it. Apparently what he has now is a simplified Miracle modus that shit still shuffles through constantly but it's orderly and he actually has the reflexes to make those grabs." Karkat looked back up at him with an identical expression. "Depends on what you grab next."

"Does it really." Dave's smile went devious as he set the box down on the floor and wrapped his arm around Karkat's shoulders, pulling him closer. "Does this count?" His brow arched higher and he gave a teasing little nibble to Karkat's lower lip.

"You are fucking ridiculous," Karkat laughed against his lips and leaned into him, arms wrapping around his waist. "Just what would you do with me then?"

"Who says this is about _me_ doing with _you_ , dude?" He settled closer and nibbled Karkat's jaw. "You're the one who got out the lube." He smirked against Karkat's neck and nipped the lobe of his ear. "What if I want to be the one in the cuffs, hm?"

"You're also going to want to be the one complaining that I'm doing all the work when you want to get me off," Karkat pointed out, fishing behind Dave for a moment then grabbing the cuffs to hold up in front of him. "So what, I'm just going to wing it and see what I can put in your chute until you can't stand it?" He smirked faintly and pecked at Dave's lips, settling down in his lap for the moment.

Dave slid his hands over Karkat's back and down his thighs, murmuring, "that's the plan, unless you have any better ideas," he raised an eyebrow, "There's a whole lot of things I could complain about, but I'm pretty sure we can find a way to get me to shut up if I get too whiny."

Karkat just rolled his eyes again and laid his hands on Dave's shoulders, leaning his weight into them until he was tipping Dave back onto his back. He ran his hands up along his matesprit's arms until his hands were up at the headboard of the bed, allowing him to cuff them in place. When they were locked he sat up on Dave's stomach, his fingertips running back and forth along his chest. "Maybe I'll just fuck with you until you beg first."

Dave obediently laid back, and looked up at Karkat with a passive but amused expression. "That won't be too tough to accomplish," he pointed out. "You know it doesn't take much to get me there." The comfort level between them had shot up in recent months, though the overall comfort with which they'd been doing anything was dampened by the fact that neither of them wanted to get sassed afterward by Terezi. This was exciting, though. Dave hadn't really noticed until just then that he'd gotten so comfortable that he wasn't just dirty talking out of latent nervousness. This wasn't a frenzied race to get off, or a subdued fuck that involved both of them having to hold their hands over their mouths. This was the first truly _free_ moment they'd had with each other in a long time.

"I'm almost worried about how you plan to go about this," he teased.

"Be afraid. Be very afraid," Karkat grinned then leaned down and pecked at Dave's lips a few more times before turning around in place and grabbing for the lube, plus one of the vibrating toys, holding the latter out of Dave's line of sight. He grabbed another one of the toys, a smooth, slim bullet vibe and slicked the end of it with a generous amount of lube. It wasn't until it was halfway in and angled up to brush against Dave's prostate that it was finally turned to a low vibration and held in place with two fingers. With a momentary shiver of breath at the initial penetration, Dave smiled and laid back with a small smile, knowing the toy well enough from touch that he knew what it was capable of doing. He closed his eyes and then let out a low groan once it was turned on, his hips instinctively rocking at the sensation. He hadn't quite recovered just yet, but the vibration was a good start into getting him hard again.

"You're gonna wind up a mess by nightfall once I'm out of these."

"I'll take Acceptable Consequences for 400." Leaving the vibrator in place, Karkat leaned down and pressed his lips to Dave's thigh, then opened his mouth to suck a fresh mark into the pale skin. He hadn't left obvious marks on Dave in a long time and he felt it high time to reclaim familiar territory. Now that the didn't have to refrain from leaving marks on each other for the project, there was no reason not to. Dave had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed it, and once Karkat' pressed his mouth down against his thigh, he gasped, his hands gripping into fists as he tugged against the cuffs. Karkat bit in just hard enough to leave a ring of toothmarks on Dave's thigh then moved to make a matching one on the other side, reaching down between them to turn the bottom of the vibe a single notch to intensify the vibration. One hand squeezed down on Dave's balls and tugged gently at the skin, Karkat's weight supported against the other when he pulled back off of his matesprit's leg.

Dave looked down and then his smile went lopsided as he groaned, arching up then rolling his hips downward. "Love the view." He wanted to reach up and run his hands over Karkat's skin, to pull him closer to brush his tongue up against his matesprit's thigh and up into his nook, but he pouted when he knew he couldn't. He rocked his hips again. With a crooked smile Karkat lifted back up onto his knees, taking a moment to push the vibe in deeper to keep it from slipping out then moving just long enough to finally strip down. He took a seat atop Dave's stomach once more, keeping his back to his matesprit as he started to manipulate the toy in him. He worked quietly, knowing that later on Dave would be fervently attempting to get him as loud as possible until someone knocked on the walls to shut them up (which was unlikely given the suite they'd opted for). The other toy was finally slipped into place, the snug cock ring seated against the base of him and left there for the time being.

Dave didn't try to argue the use of the ring; he knew that soon enough he'd be whimpering to get off and it'd be a stark contrast from his earlier moment. He shuddered every breath as he rolled his hips down and followed the visual trail of Karkat's spine down from his neck to his ass, smiling faintly. His matesprit cut a very fine silhouette against the stark white wall in front of them, and it made him want his camera, and use of his hands. "Fuckin' gorgeous," he murmured.

Karkat couldn't help the blush creeping over his ears at that, his smile going unseen as he hunched down to drag his tongue down the underside of Dave's shaft, only to sit back up and wrap his bulge around Dave instead. His hands fell back to rest against Dave's chest behind him, leaving his bulge to flex and pulse gently as it tightened down around him. Dave chewed on his inner lip as he watched Karkat move. He arched his back once more once Karkat's bulge manipulated him in a way that made him rock his hips in a fluid, rhythmic motion. He took a moment to pull one leg up to press his heel against the end of the vibrator and keep it in place. He let out a low, nearly incoherent obscenity in lieu of a groan, and tightened his hands back into fists again.

"You're getting _way_ too good at knowing what I like," he teased, sounding a bit out of breath.

Riding easily with the rhythm of Dave's hips, Karkat glanced back over his shoulder at him with a soft smirk. "It helps that I like it quite a bit too," he added then let out a soft sound of his own as one hand wrapped around both of them and squeezed down.

"Added bonus," moaned Dave, while he watched Karkat move with a contented smile. He relaxed one hand and moved his thumb inward, straightening his fingers, before slowly moving the cuff up around the meat of his thumb and hand, getting it most of the way up and off without making noise. Once he slipped out of that cuff, he slowly let it down so it didn't clatter down against the post that held the headboard. He then slipped his hand up against his matesprit's back, a sly, smug smile on his face.

"That's cheating," Karkat murmured as his back arched some into the hand on it. He reached down and cranked the intensity of the vibe up another couple of notches in retaliation then simply went back to the easy stroking he'd been doing prior.

"Don't care," Dave murmured as he did nothing more but trace lines against Karkat's back as he continued the slow roll of his hips. "I promise not to do anything but this." He hadn't _wanted_ to do anything more. At the retaliation, however, his back arched high and he let out a loud growl, his nails brushing against Karkat's shoulder, not quite scratching. He bucked his hips and grit his teeth to keep himself from letting out any other undignified sounds. Karkat let out a subtle purr at the scratching, his head tipping back as he hummed quietly under his breath. He rolled his hips forward in kind as he squeezed his hand down. He didn't feel like turning back around to put Dave's hand back into the cuff anyway.

Dave finally slipped his other hand up and out of its place, the chain between cuffs clattering as he brought it up where he could release himself from it, letting it drop to the side for the moment as he shuddered a breath, bringing himself back up to his elbow, running his nails from Karkat's shoulder down to his hip. He sat up just a little more to murmur into Karkat's ear, "What if I put them on you right now." He groaned as the angle of his hips managed to tilt the vibe back into that sweet angle and brush against his prostate again. Karkat leaned back into him, giving him a half-lidded look and nudging his cheek against Dave's nose.

"What, so now you have ideas?" He teased, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the head of Dave's cock.

"Maybe," Dave murmured as he brought his arms around to slip the vibrator out of himself and turn it off before he brought his hands up to Karkat's wrists, brushing his fingertips gently over them. "Don't slip away just yet," he whispered against Karkat's neck as he pressed a kiss to it, and then opened his mouth to suck a light mark into his matesprit's skin.

Karkat pulled his lower lip into his mouth, chewing it as he leaned his head back against Dave's. "Wouldn't dream of it," he murmured and reached a hand up to scratch at Dave's scalp. He pulled gently on his matesprit's hair as he continued to stroke them both with the other hand. "I'd like to make this last, if you don't mind."

"Not planning on rushing," Dave assured him as he slipped his hands away from Karkat's, moving one arm around his matesprit while the other went down to slip his fingers down beside Karkat's, against both his cock and Karkat's bulge, letting out a huff of breath against his matesprit's shoulder. "Could go for a long time with this ring on."

"Good, that was the idea." With a content sigh Karkat leaned back into Dave, spreading his legs comfortably on either side of Dave's thighs. He scratched his way down the side of Dave's neck and pressed his lips into the underside of his matesprit's jaw. "Maybe we can make use of everything in the box before we go home."

Dave groaned with the scratches then traced his fingertips up toward Karkat's nook, slipping his slick fingers in and moving slowly in time with the subtle rock of his hips. "Don't see any reason why we couldn't," he murmured. "Find some new things to do with what we've got, maybe." His eyes fluttered closed while he went back to kissing and nibbling Karkat's shoulder.

"Get creative," Karkat agreed and let out a slightly shuddering breath at Dave's finders slipping into him. He started working his fingers in under his bulge to rub into the places between the foreskin and the head that otherwise really wouldn't be touched. His hips rocked up subtly with the rhythm as Dave's own breath shuddered with a quiet moan, and his arm wrapped tighter around Karkat's waist with the novel touch to more sensitive parts of his anatomy.

"I was thinking about adding to the collection, though I'm not entirely sure what," he murmured as he leaned back slowly, withdrawing from Karkat's back, only moving far enough back to get some air between them. "We'll have to shop around."

"We can do that as soon as we get settled back in at home." Karkat leaned forward in kind to claim a new angle on Dave's fingers, pressing down onto them as his hand slipped out of his matesprit's hair and rested against his thigh. He ran his hand down the length of his bulge after a few moments to press and rub his fingers into the sensitive ridging, moaning quietly with his lips pressed together tight. He wanted to grab the vibrating ring out of the box and replace the one they were using with it, but he knew if he did it would be over quickly once again. Dave looked over Karkat's shoulder to watch, and then murmured as he brushed his thumb against the underside of the lowest ridge, slipping another finger in.

"I want to hear you." He brought his other hand away from being wrapped around his matesprit to slip it over Karkat's fingers, only learning how Karkat pleasured himself by way of touch and muscle memory. "Don't hold back."

"You know it takes a while for me to get loud," Karkat murmured and lifted himself up onto his knees, lifting up off of Dave's fingers long enough to turn around and face him. "Since you decided not to stay in the cuffs, you get to get me warmed up."

Dave smiled as he brought his hand back up to slip his fingers back in and start back into his rhythm, while he leaned in to kiss Karkat properly. He smirked against Karkat's lips and pressed his lips to his matesprit's jaw, before murmuring, "seem fairly warm already," he teased, and slipped his tongue out to drag across Karkat's collarbone, before nibbling back up his neck. "And since you're the one demanding it, you can tell me how you want warmed up."

"What, you don't know what I like by now?" Karkat teased as he rolled his hips into Dave's hand, his bulge coiling loosely around it. His head tipped back to allow Dave more space in which to molest his neck. "You're doing fine now but I know you can do a hell of a lot better."

Dave smirked against Karkat's neck and then opened his mouth to suck a mark there, just below where most of Karkat's high collared shirts could hide, brushing his teeth against the tender skin as his other hand slipped down to occupy Karkat's bulge, squeezing it before slipping his fingers down across the ridging to play at the more sensitive undersides, then up against the tender spots nearing the sheath. "I could cuff you up and watch you squirm as I saw how many fingers I could fit in you," he considered, squirming the three he had in Karkat's nook already.

"You're not fisting me," Karkat said immediately, arching an eyebrow at Dave and leaning down to bite the end of his nose lightly. "I know you probably could, but you're not."

"You're such a prude," joked Dave as he leaned back up to peck Karkat's lips, chuckling a little. "Since fisting's out of the question, and I'm not going to go down there with my mouth just yet, we really have a few options left to us." He looked down in the box and then back up to Karkat, grinning devilishly.

"If you fist me, you're getting me a latex glove and I'm seeing how _you_ like it," Karkat snorted then glanced back at the box himself, leaning against Dave with his arm over his matesprit's shoulder, draped loosely around his neck. "What if aside from that I give you complete creative freedom?"

"Yeah, nooks aren't chutes, dude," Dave pointed out, though his brow arched, "Speaking of," he said with a finger slipping out and back, not even making its trek halfway back towards Karkat's chute, before moving back in with the rest. "And if getting into my ass is what you want, you could just say so, man, I'm not gonna say no." They even had condoms. Dave had seen to that.

Karkat sucked in a shallow breath at the finger moving then pushing back in, his hips rolling reflexively. He rolled his eyes again and butted his head gently against Dave's. "You're trying to get me in your ass without resorting to begging," he murmured and bit gently on the rim of his ear.

"Oh no, you found out my evil scheme," Dave murmured, pumping Karkat slowly with the other hand, his technique polished over their relationship to get exactly the right reaction. "I'm secretly trying to get you to fuck me because that is truly the greatest thing I can possibly think of doing at this juncture, and has superseded my plan to get you to get so loud that people across the street will think we're up here murdering each other." And although his tone was sheer sarcasm, it was mostly true.

"Snarky asshole," Karkat muttered and pressed his lips to Dave's cheek as he moved with Dave's hand for a moment then pulled back away from him long enough dig back into the box for the smaller package he knew was in there. He opened it and shook a packet out of it, slapping that against Dave's chest with a smirk.

"Nookbite," Dave shot back with a lopsided grin before he carefully tore the end to the pack and worked it carefully down Karkat's bulge, slow and easy, to keep from damaging the sheath and to tease Karkat as he worked it on. As he did, his expression went content and tender, though his ears had turned red and his breath had gone short. The fact that it was that big of a deal to Dave didn't go amiss and Karkat relaxed as well, cradling his face in his hands and giving him a soft, lingering kiss. He slid down off of Dave's lap and laid his hands on the other's knees, easing them apart and settling between his thighs.

"Pretty sure you're the nookbite here but whatever."

Dave huffed a chuckle with a mellow roll of his head in place of a shake of it, and he slipped down to recline against the covers of the bed again, brushing his ankles against Karkat's hips, looking up at his matesprit. He put one hand up on Karkat's against his thigh, before arching his hips slightly. He couldn't calm himself no matter how much he'd tried; his heart was racing and he tried to logic his way out of seeming entirely too into the idea before Karkat even started. It made Dave smile almost nervously. They'd so rarely done this that it had become an act that Dave almost always had on his mind, along with the almost philosophical questions it made him ask about himself, and how much he liked it. It wasn't so much that he'd enjoyed it a lot prior to Karkat - although he had, it wasn't the only reason there - but it only became a situation in which he freely offered, even begged for it, because it had become an immensely enjoyable thing with his matesprit.

Karkat took a moment to really take in the sight before him. It wasn't just the sex that made moments like this worth it for him, though that was definitely a bonus. Seeing Dave this open and vulnerable and knowing that he was the only one that ever truly saw this side of his lover, that charmed him in ways that he would never admit. It made him happy. He stroked a hand up the inside of Dave's thigh and let it rest against his hip, smiling faintly at him as he positioned himself. He locked eyes with his matesprit as he pressed just the tip into him, spreading a palmful of lube over the rest and pushing inside in slow increments. Watching Karkat smile so sincerely was a reward all of its own to Dave, and he didn't quite know what to do with that kind of thing other than smile back, so he did just that, before his expression was pushed away with one of pleasure, his eyes closing tight as his lips parted to let out a hot huff of breath.

Karkat held himself steady as he rocked inward slowly, keeping up the slow in and out until he was seated inside of Dave to the hilt, his hips resting against the curves of Dave's thighs hooked over his arms. He closed his eyes and let out a shaking breath, licking his lips then biting down on the lower one as he started to move. Dave let out a soft, low sound - one which only came out of him in these rare scenarios - and reached down to put his hand atop one of Karkat's hands. He shivered as his brows knit in slight discomfort before he dropped that hand down and slowly removed the ring around his cock, knowing that would only hinder everything for the moment. Karkat took it and set it aside; they could keep it nearby in case they wanted it later. He took Dave's hand and squeezed it gently as he picked up the rhythm again. There wasn't anything he could possibly say; there never was when they did this. When he found a steady rhythm he finally opened his eyes back up and looked back at Dave, smiling back at him once more as he watched the subtle shifts in his expression. Dave was similarly wordless, caught up in the sensation and need as he laced his fingers with Karkat's. He let out low, little sounds that grew progressively more passionate with each push of his matesprit's hips. He tried to rock back into the feeling as best as he could in his position. His eyes stayed closed; adding the sight of his lover to it all would be overstimulation at the moment.

Karkat leaned down slowly as he moved, pushing himself up onto his knees and leaning down over Dave to peck his lips. He pushed in as deep as he could manage as he dipped down for a fuller kiss with his weight supported on his free hand beside Dave's head. Dave slid one leg down off Karkat's shoulder when he moved forward, hooking it tight around his matesprit's waist and running his hand immediately through Karkat's hair. He let out a low little groan through his nose and balled his free hand into a fist against the bedding, surprised he could still breathe even remotely normally at that point. Karkat opened his mouth to let the sound reverberate, smiling against Dave's lips and drawing him into a deeper kiss. He was starting to pant quietly as he moved, letting Dave's legs down so that he could properly hold onto him. With no more space or legs between Karkat and himself, Dave wrapped his arms around his matesprit's shoulders, pushing back into each thrust. Karkat's pace picked up, his hips rolling into Dave's. Just doing this wasn't enough to get him off, but he knew how much Dave enjoyed it, how grateful he would be when it was done.

Dave's own movements intensified after a while, one hand scratching at the back of Karkat's neck while the other sunk down between them to pump himself with a low, long groan. It wasn't long before he was gasping for breath and letting out monosyllabic praise, close to his peak. He'd get off again before long, but he'd had more than enough impetus to thoroughly reward Karkat for all of this.

Karkat was still smiling to himself as he listened to it all, burying his face against the side of Dave's neck and sucking light marks into it as he braced his feet against the mattress to claim a new angle and thrust his hips forward, slow but forceful. He kept one arm around Dave as the other slipped between them, his hand wrapping around Dave's and giving his cock a firm squeeze. Dave finally hit his peak as his nails dug into Karkat's shoulder, his breath coming out in a reedy whine against his matesprit's neck while he tensed below and around Karkat, only to slump back down in a few seconds, looking up at him with a dazed grin, his pupils dilated and his breath still caught between hyperventilation and shuddering rasps. Karkat moved for a few more seconds to wheedle as much out of Dave as he could then sat back, pulling out of him slowly and running his hands up over Dave's thighs.

Dave chuckled faintly, still breathless as he settled up onto his elbows, raising a brow to Karkat. "Relax for a minute," he suggested as he helped remove the condom. "I'll be right with you, get you exactly what you need." He smirked as he tossed it into the bucket that he brought with, and then stretched languidly.

"Thank you, Mister Strider," Karkat teased him and stretched out languidly at the foot of the bed beside the toybox. He let his bulge, already tender, curl around his fingers as he ran them up along the slick flesh. Dave finally slipped down to the floor on his knees in front of Karkat, and pulled his matesprit closer by the legs, grinning in front of him.

"Anyone tell you that you're a smartass, today?" He asked with a lopsided smile, before he pressed a kiss to Karkat's thigh. "Just wondering, 'cause it seems you've forgotten."

Karkat laughed quietly at that and stretched one of his legs out over Dave's shoulder, the other one propped up against the side of the bed. "Are you seriously complaining, Strider? Maybe I should go take a shower instead."

"What, and miss all the fun? Pssh," Dave muttered as he nipped the upraised thigh more firmly, closer to Karkat's hip. "I know you, dude, you wouldn't want to miss out on all this amazingness." He teased his tongue inward and upward, murmuring, "don't make me make good on being called a nookbite, Vantas."

"I'll suffocate you with my bulge, I swear to fuck," Karkat snorted and let his heel rest against Dave's back, his arms up over his head. His eyes were closed, his head back as if he were ready to fall asleep. Settling into a steady pace immediately following a sly chuckle, Dave caressed Karkat's thighs, kneading them gently as he brought his mouth against his matesprit's nook. He had made it his mission somewhere along the course of their being in the hotel room that he'd be getting Karkat off in the most explosive way. He started slow, the pace and rhythm of his tongue almost languid as he seemed to praise each sensitive inch of Karkat's nook. One hand moved up to let Karkat's bulge wrap around his palm and fingers, gently manipulating him so his bulge was unable to writhe as it usually could. Karkat let out a soft, content sigh and scratched his nails through Dave's hair, his bulge winding between his matesprit's fingers. It was somewhat rare that Dave really took his time and it was obvious to him what he was doing, but far be it from him to stop Dave from doing exactly as he pleased.

Dave didn't let up on his slow ministrations, and indeed, kept them up until the wall on the far side of the room was eventually knocked on by their neighbors. Even then, he huffed and scowled over his shoulder at the wall and kept his pace for another few minutes. It was his full intention to show how grateful he was to Karkat for more than just the day, but for everything up to that point. He didn't let up even after Karkat's first orgasm, and had to be told to stop his mouth, and his hands, and every toy he had brought up out of the box to stimulate and tease his matesprit. It was only when they were both exhausted that Dave finally stopped altogether, sprawled out alongside Karkat as they fell asleep, watching a crummy movie neither of them had seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Here's the inspiration for my headcanon of Gamzee's wings](http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/161/6/f/gamzee_wings1_by_spriteocarina-d531dq3.png).
> 
> [Equius' motorcycle](http://databikes.com/imgs/a/d/l/q/c/other__american_ironhorse_slammer_softail_2003_1_lgw.jpg), a vibrant blue Iron Horse softail *so goddamn clever wut*
> 
> It was never quite explicitly stated in the story when the move had been made, but Terezi moved in to live with Dave and Karkat after her death and will remain there until further notice. Just to clear up any potential confusion on the subject.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trippin' balls.

Karkat and Eridan kept each other company while Rose used her local clout to set up a gallery showing of their art for a month later. They found two other galleries - one in Denver, and one in LA, that would hold showings simultaneously, so that their art would get maximum exposure at the same time. Dave had asked Gamzee and Eridan to come to the opening night of the Denver showing. Bro had offered to throw another party, but Dave insisted that it wasn't going to be that big of a thing, just family and a couple really close friends.

The opening was laid back enough where they didn't have to dress up, and the gallery was packed with the trappings of the art critic brigade, the curious passersby, and the type of person who wouldn't miss an opening night of an art exhibit like some people wouldn't miss a single opening night of Star Wars. Dave felt pretty good about the night, all things considered, settled back in a chair on the far side of the room, trying desperately to keep a low profile and let the large canvas prints of the photos speak for themselves. Gamzee was playing up his social butterfly bit, talking in his lazy way with anyone that had questions or comments to make about the photos. The reactions tended to range between awe and skepticism when he told them that every bit of the body art had been done by hand in single sittings. He didn't argue with them, just going on to other questions and talking about the people in the photos, never mentioning any by name except for those that had specifically said that they didn't mind.

Karkat was lingering near the Blood pieces, his hand over his mouth as he examined it. Blown up and cropped as they were, it would be impossible for anyone to see that that was his body except for those that were intimately familiar with it. He himself barely recognized it, making it that much more surreal. The paint really did look like tacky blood in that light and it made him mildly queasy. He looked away and focused back on Gamzee, who had fallen to actually demonstrating how he'd been able to get the paint where he had in his own photos, contorting himself easily where he stood. Dave wasn't typically so reserved, but as with the film, he didn't want to be the star here. He wanted the work to be the star, the work that both himself and Gamzee had worked so hard to build up, to bring out the aspects so strongly. He finally slipped out of the chair and walked up to Karkat, putting his arms tight around his matesprit's waist as he leaned against his back, murmuring, "Call me biased, but your shots are the ones I think I like the best." His heart was pounding and it was obvious how distinctly nervous he was under that polished, calm demeanor.

"You're biased," Karkat agreed and pressed his lips to Dave's temple, his hands resting over Dave's arms. "But this is amazing. You guys actually did this and now everyone can see it. This world will be a serious force to be reckoned with because of you."

"Don't put that kind of responsibility in my hands," chuckled Dave, his smile gone lopsided, while his hands caught Karkat's, putting one up to his lips. "It wouldn't have happened without everyone. C'mere, check out Light. It's insane, you can really feel that shit."

Meanwhile, Cass slid up to Gamzee with a grin, nudging him. "This is absolutely fucking incredible, mate, you got everyone who's anyone here. Probably the same can be said for the other exhibits. What do you plan to do tonight to celebrate this monumental occasion?"

Gamzee leaned against Cass' shoulder at that and shrugged. "Didn't really plan on doin' anything. Just goin' home, smokin' a while, takin' over Bro's kitchen and makin' enough egg foo yung to feed the motherfuckin' chinese military force that is all our motherfuckin' appetites."

Cass smiled a little slyly, and looked up at Gamzee. "I happen to have procured a small amount of acid, and thought after a mind altering exhibit like this, it'd be an appropriate gift to my dear artists to return the favor. I wouldn't join, but I've enough for three of you to enjoy your evenings. I'm sure there's a certain Guardian who wouldn't mind the task of babysitting you lot for the night."

"Never done acid," Gamzee replied thoughtfully, one brow arching up some as he glanced back at Dave and Karkat wandering between the photos, trying and failing to imagine what Karkat would do if he were tripping. "You even gonna stick around and chill with us before you go off doin' whatever the fuck it is you do with yourself?"

"I could be convinced to spend some time," Cass said, his smooth smile still just this side of sly. "Provided I'm asked. And I guarantee that this will be a very heady trip indeed. Tested it last night myself, which is why I can't be brought to take the third." He watched Sollux walk past and gave him a short nod. "Two eye-opening experiences in one week's more than enough." He retrieved from his pocket the small Visene bottle and handed it over to Gamzee, directing, "Two drops apiece only, give the bottle to Bro once you're done. Might be some left over, and we don't want any of you to wind up spending twelve hours staring at the ceiling fan." He grinned, before his eye was distracted away with the sight of a rather stunning fellow off to the other side of the room. "I'll tell you what. You'll see me later tonight if I'm not too busy with this one." He gave a mock salute before sliding up off to chat up the guy.

That almost surely meant that Cass would not be joining them that night. But as long as he was enjoying himself, it was still just fine with him. He looked down at the eyedrop bottle and pocketed it, going off to find Eridan and leaning his chin on his matesprit's shoulder. "You goin' home tonight or you think you wanna come with me and crash Strider's place? Decided I was gonna cook a bunch'a shit for 'em and spend time chillin' with all them before everyone scattered to go home again."

Eridan carefully turned to look at his matesprit, pressing a gentle kiss to Gamzee's nose, "Wasn't plannin' on goin' anywhere without you. Was probably gonna spend some time with Kar, though, provided you found yourself thoroughly distracted by your moirail." He ran his fingernails up over Gamzee's forearm and then back down. "This is an amazin' display, Gamzee. I can't say I've ever seen such a strikin' exhibit before."

"Couldn'a done even half this shit without all'a you there helpin' us out with it. Should be proud'a yourself, bein' all motherfuckin' photogenic, perfect motherfuckin' model." Grinning, Gamzee leaned up against Eridan's side and leaning down to kiss his cheek. "Everyone did fuckin' amazing, man. Makes me all motherfuckin' proud to be workin' with all of us here. Woulda been nice to have Fef here for Life aspect but we're doin' motherfuckin' amazing with what we already had."

Eridan sighed and shook his head to that, "Believe me, if she had any desire to get into contact with us, she woulda already." He turned fully to wrap his arms up around Gamzee's shoulders, looking into his eyes with a proud smile. "You did this though, you'n Dave. You should be exceedin'ly proud a yourself, too. Every hour you spent makin' your arms sore was worth it." He smiled and slipped away slightly as Dave came by to nudge his friend and grin.

"Hey, look at this shit, it's a regular party up here."

"Yeah man, shit's gone down real fuckin' nice. People are sayin' some'a the coolest shit about it. Some of 'em actually recognize the aspects too," he grinned. The mission behind the pieces had been accomplished. He felt like he'd really achieved something. He wrapped an arm around Dave's neck and rested his chin on his moirail's head, looking around at the audience milling between the artworks, their focuses shifting between the two main displays of the night, the other one hosted by a very bored-looking young woman in black that barely looked up from her gameboy to acknowledge when someone would make a comment about her work. He smiled vaguely at everything and everyone as he lifted the little bottle that Cass had left with him. "Your bro left us a little gift if you feel like watchin' the world wobble later."

Dave didn't feel nearly as accomplished, as really all he'd done was take the photos of his friends and his moirail's paintings, and they were the ones who were the shining stars of the exhibit. But nevertheless, seeing that easy grin come to Gamzee's face was something he appreciated wholeheartedly. He grinned once Gamzee draped himself over him and showed him the little bottle. "Well shit, you _know_ I'm all about afterparties. Way less trouble to concern myself with, that way." He looked at the bottle, then back up at Gamzee. "We're gonna need someone to keep sober while we do that though, and someone who won't ruin the mood with pessimism." Which ruled out their matesprits, as unfortunate as it was to say.

"Eridan said he was gonna go chill with Karkat for the evening so that keeps them occupied," Gamzee hummed, looking back at Eridan briefly then scanning the crowd. He doubted that he could get Sollux to play babysitter; more likely than not he would feel like partaking, which was just fine with him except that that left them alone while reality warped around them. He continued to look over the gathering then grinned once more when he spotted Bro. He'd never heard of the guy doing anything besides drinking and he was already watching them all anyway, so what could having him around hurt? He'd probably want to be present anyway, provided Sollux did in fact join them. "How about Bro? You wanna ask him or should I?"

Dave had been scanning the room as well, and had come to a pretty similar conclusion, although he was pretty sure that Sollux would either turn them down politely, or be all about it. He shrugged to the suggestion, letting out a small _pff_ before muttering, "I guess so, dude's like, babysitter supreme already. I'm sure he's looked after more rowdy fuckers than us at some point." He slipped away from Gamzee and nudged him in Bro's direction, grinning a little. "You two need to talk more. I've gotta let Vantas know what's going down, so he's not all blindsided by me being all sorts of fuckin' quiet once I get home." He walked towards Karkat and tucked his hand in his pockets, looking down at his feet momentarily while he waited for the conversation to dwindle and the others to shove off before he put his hand in Karkat's. "I'm gonna be goin' to Bro's tonight, me and Gam are gonna do some stuff."

"Some stuff," Karkat had echoed as he looked back at Dave with an arched brow.

"Acid," Dave elucidated, already looking a bit guilty. "Bro'll be there, he'll keep shit on the level, you know how he does," he said as he kissed Karkat's cheek. He held Dave's hand loosely, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"Alright just make sure you don't hurt yourselves or some shit," he sighed and kissed the corner of Dave's mouth.

"It's not gonna fry our brains or anything, I'm not gonna be coming home thinking I'm a penguin or any of that. Promise." He looked into Karkat's eyes and smiled. "You gonna be okay with just Eridan tonight? I can put this off, I don't think Gamzee will be upset if you say no."

Rolling his eyes some, Karkat just took his hand back and started to fuss Dave, still vaguely amused that he was one of the very few that could get anywhere near his hair without losing his fingers. "I'll be fine with Eridan. I've been meaning to catch up with him some anyway and this gives you the chance to spend more time with Gamzee. All I want is for you both to be really fucking careful."

Dave rolled his eyes at the fussing. "We'll be fine, promise. If we aren't, Bro's gonna be there, he'll dunk our heads or some shit." He chuckled and leaned in for another kiss. "You're the most fuckin' fussy asshole I've ever known, you know that?"

"I have every fucking right to fuss over my asshole matesprit about to go and melt his own brain for a night," Karkat snorted then pecked Dave's lips once more before pushing him back off toward Gamzee.

Bro, in the meanwhile, had been talking to some of the art critic bloggers and reporters who had descended upon the event, mostly because Dave had begged him to take over that side of things. He had told Dave that eventually, he'd have to start taking on the reporters himself, but this one last thing wouldn't be too tough. As he saw Gamzee approaching, he segued into a way to introduce him, and did so with a nod to the highblood. "And this guy here, man, what can you say about him. Genius level art, really inspired shit coming out of him. Gamzee, I was just tellin' these bozos to buzz, you got anything you wanna tell 'em before they go off and write stellar reviews?"

"Just that my motherfuckin' arm still feels like it wants to fall off and Dave's photography makes everything look a hundred fuckin' times better." That got him a couple of polite chuckles before he took a moment to shoo them away. He tucked his hands into his pockets and looked back at Bro, clearing his throat quietly. He explained the situation, mostly focusing on the fact that he'd never done acid before and that he and Dave had already agreed on the necessity for a sober party's presence.

Bro shrugged to that. "Don't see why not. Sure." He paused, then thought it over. "You sure _you_ want to do that, though?" He had to ask, because Gamzee's mind was pretty fucking intricate. "I'm only asking for your safety. There's that slim chance it could go a little hinky."

Gamzee nodded some, shrugging. "That's why you're gonna be there, bro. Just in case type'a shit."

Bro shrugged then, "All right," he said, "you'll be fine, just swing by after the show." He looked around and smiled faintly. "You did a great job here, Gamzee. You two make a good team. I'm really impressed here." He patted Gamzee's shoulder and went off to find Sollux, to tell him the night's plans. Gamzee looked up as Dave came back to him and draped himself over his moirail's shoulders, giving him the thumbs-up on Bro.

Getting everyone off to their destinations after the show wasn't much of a chore and soon Karkat and Eridan were curled up together in front of a bad movie, while Sollux, the Striders and one very chill highblood were preparing a room in which to lounge while they dropped. Gamzee was careful to let them know how much Cass had told them to take, then looked up to Bro for his ok before finally lifting the little eyedrop bottle and letting it fall onto his tongue. He passed off to Dave then sank back into one of the beanbags comfortably to wait.

Dave was excited to do this; the situation was perfect, with a good group of friends, the best damn babysitter on the planet, in a comfy house with an ample snack cupboard, and generally everything he could want to keep himself busy once he was on the shit. He took the tiny bottle and squeezed out a careful two drops onto his palm, which he then licked clean, and handed Sollux the bottle. He chuckled and shook his head a little as he looked up at Bro, who walked past them and handed down soda to each of them. "I'll be in the office for a few, you guys try not to get too antsy," Bro said.

Dave grinned and sprawled out through the center of two large beanbag chairs, and poked at Gamzee's knee with his toe, already having gotten a buzz with his moirail earlier, just to ease their way into it. "Yeah, Gamzee, don't get antsy," he mockingly teased.

"Come on man, you seein' me right now? I'm fidgetin' all over the motherfuckin' place," Gamzee laughed as he seated his soda between his knees and glanced over at Sollux, who'd been pretty quiet throughout the endeavor so far. He was reclined in his own pair of beanbag chairs, which really did seem to be specifically his judging by the colors, his arms sprawled on either side of him. It already seemed to be hitting him, which wasn't a surprise given his body mass. His eyes had begun to pulse gently, the light lending his face an ethereal glow that Gamzee began to focus on as his own reality started to shift just enough. Dave chuckled at Sollux's eyes, watching them momentarily, and then shook his head with a small smile, before turning to look over at Gamzee. Everything seemed pretty normal for him for the moment. It must hit trolls a lot faster than humans. He knew it would take a few minutes for himself, and as he waited, he picked up a koosh ball.

It was a few more minutes before that koosh ball started getting REALLY fucking intricate to his mind, and then he nodded. "Okay, now I'm there," he said aloud, looking over to Gamzee. "Check it." He tossed the koosh to his friend, and then looked over to Sollux. "You okay, laserface?"

Gamzee squished the thing between his hands and turned it over slowly, concentrating on it with a soft smile. He looked back up at Sollux sinking lower and lower in his beanbag until his nose was level with his knees. He looked back at Dave from between them with a lopsided little smile without saying anything then glanced over at Gamzee, catching the koosh ball in midair when it was tossed to him, rolling it some in the air using his psionics and just watching it move as it floated there.

A little while longer, and Gamzee muttered something about this being what Terezi must feel like all the time. He'd just taken a sip of his soda then simply held it in his mouth and analyzed everything about it from the carbonation to the mixture of flavors before finally swallowing it only to do it again. Dave had become extremely invested in watching his friends and their minute movements, resting his head in his hand. The way Gamzee held the soda in his mouth gave him an idea and he stood up, keeping in mind his mission. It was a simple mission: get to the kitchen, peel some oranges, and bring them back.

He got to the kitchen and got to the oranges, but once he started peeling them, he got caught up in the texture of the peels under his nails as he peeled them, and soon had five peeled oranges. He stared at them momentarily, scratching his head, and then shrugged, bringing the whole pile back. He handed one to Sollux and told him to eat, and then two to Gamzee, before he sat down with the other three, and stared at a single slice before popping it into his mouth. He was immediately taken aback by the taste of it. It was _perfect_ , both in the texture and flavor, with a faint chill from being in the fridge.

As soon as he was handed the oranges, Gamzee started to turn them over in his hands just to admire the soft texture under his fingers before peeling them apart and popping a slice into his mouth. He froze momentarily with a slightly bewildered expression before letting his head fall back, chewing slowly. There was a blissful look on his face until he snapped back up and flapped a hand at Sollux, demanding that he eat his orange as well. Sollux, on the other hand, had it up against his lips, breathing the mellow citrus scent. He bit directly into it after a moment, barely stopping to wipe the juice off his chin as he did.

Dave let out a cackling laugh at Sollux's clear inability to eat oranges correctly and fell back into his chair, shaking his head. "Holy shit, Captor, that's not how you orange, what are you doing?!" He was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his cheeks after a minute, and he pushed his shades up to his forehead to wipe them away. "Oh my fucking god." He slid closer to Gamzee and shook his head, putting his forehead on his friend's shoulder, still silently laughing.

"Fuck you dude I can totally orange correctly," Sollux slurred around his mouthful of pulp, then just because he could, took another huge bite out of the side of the orange and spat out a couple of seeds to send home with Gamzee later. Bro came into the room to see what Dave was laughing about and put his hand over his own grin.

"Well, that's one way to do it," he said with a shrug. "You guys doing okay?"

"Ace, boss," Dave confirmed. "Fuckin' stellar." Talking was fun.

Sollux looked up at the sound of Bro commenting on his orange-eating methods and immediately grinned, standing and leaning against Bro's side as he pecked at the corner of his lips. "Have an orange," he purred and tucked his forehead against Bro's neck. Damn he smelled good...

Bro grinned and put his arm around Sollux's waist, pressing a kiss to his jaw. "You're a mess," he said with a chuckle. "You enjoying yourself?" He asked in a murmur against Sollux's skin.

"I'm not a mess, I'm fantastic," Sollux insisted, his nose shoved against the hollow of Bro's throat as he held the slightly dripping fruit in one hand, the other creeping up the back of his shirt to rest in the small of his back.

"You can be both," Bro insisted, slowly moving the orange out of Sollux's hand to set it down on a plate nearby, his own fingers rubbing firm circles against Sollux's side. "You definitely look like you're having fun."

Gamzee had propped his chin on top of Dave's head, grinning toothily up at Bro and raising his neatly picked apart orange in a silent toast then wrapping back around Dave and simply reveling in the sensation of a warm body in his arms. "Best motherfuckin' idea ever, man."

Dave nodded, insinuating himself against Gamzee's side. "Hell yeah it was. Oranges own." He was suddenly glad that the beanbags were big enough to hold two relatively skinny bodies easily, because he sure as shit wasn't planning on moving. He took Gamzee's hand and looked at it with intense scrutiny. "You beat the shit outta your hands, bro, check that shit."

Gamzee started to move his hand slowly in Dave's grip, flexing his fingers with a soft frown. There were scars, callouses and stains littering the skin, making a pattern that didn't really make sense to anyone except for him, in ways that he couldn't exactly describe. "My hands are indicative of my motherfuckin' self, man. You can tell more outta someone's story by lookin' at their hands than readin' an autobiography."

"Well yeah," Dave said with a nod, "But you beat 'em up pretty heavily." Not that his own hands weren't scarred up and calloused. The callouses had faded slightly after he'd dropped off from his regular use of his sword, but he had ink stains and toner underneath his own nails, and the lightness of his skin made a stark contrast against Gamzee's. "Yeah, hands tell stories, though. That's true as hell. Like, they're almost as good at it as eyes are."

"You got some real motherfuckin' artist's hands," Gamzee smiled as he put his head down against Dave's, examining his fingers at length, stretching out his own to let their palms lie flat against one-another. He tilted his head some at the way the other's fingertips fell just short of his and how short his nails were, the shapes of his knuckles and the wrinkles around his wrist, everything in sharp focus. Had he had his art supplies on hand he might have decided to make a macro painting of it.

Dave grinned at that. It was a compliment to him, and the feeling of Gamzee's chilly skin against his own gave him goosebumps up his arm. He laced his fingers with Gamzee's and, in that action, cemented something that was there. It was a compulsion that he had to lock his hand with Gamzee's at that moment, bring him with, though he didn't know quite where, if anywhere, he was bringing him. "You know what? We should make food," he decided. The oranges were still there, but he was craving actual food.

Sollux sucked some of the sticky orange juice off his fingers then pressed his nose into the side of Bro's neck, just reveling in the sensation of being close to him when his senses were amplified. He closed his eyes as he wrapped his arms around the other's waist to hold him there just as much as to keep himself vertical. He rolled his tongue some in his mouth, having become hyper aware of it as he manipulated it just as he had when he was still doing speech therapy. "I'm a mess but it's not like you're complaining..."

Bro pressed another, gentle kiss to Sollux's cheek and led him back to the beanbags, sitting down with him. "There's nothing to complain about." He grinned a little, taking a glowstick out of his back pocket and cracking it in front of Sollux to let him watch the chemicals coalesce and start to glow, before he shook it and waved it from one side of his matesprit's line of vision to the other. "You seeing trails yet?" He asked, his voice low and gentle. Sollux's eyes tracked the glowstick with a slightly dull smile.

"Get a few more to do that with and you could make a legit rainbow," he mused and looked back at Bro, once more burrowing back against his side and laying his head against his matesprit's shoulder to watch him manipulating the stick. Bro grinned at the suggestion and pulled out five more glowsticks, which he repeated the process of cracking and shaking, before he waved them all in front of Sollux's eyes, using the slow movement to distract from his own lips pressing against Sollux's.

"You look so calm," he noted, "Like the world finally pulled off of your shoulders for a night."

In the kitchen, Gamzee had constructed a pair of sandwiches for himself and Dave, then started to dig out other ingredients, lining them up on the counter and staring to use his hands to assemble an easy dough that he started to scoop out and shape then drop onto a pair of large cookie sheets. Cookies were the best idea ever just then. Using his bare hands to make them was the best idea ever. All of it was amazing and worthy of his full, intense concentration.

Dave, meanwhile, had taken to thoroughly and very consciously enjoying his sandwich and the mere physical pleasure of eating it as he watched Gamzee work. He wondered idly if he had his mp3 player with him, which he did, and he pulled it out of his pocket to plug it into the mini system in the kitchen so they'd have something to listen to. It was on a mellow playlist of goa and trip hop, some of which he fashioned together himself, and he grinned as he let the entire onslaught of sensation just carry him. He realized he could watch Gamzee move for hours and never not be entertained. The way his friend moved was unlike anything else - the slow roll of his lithe muscles under his skin, and the way he managed to be so graceful for a guy who spent the majority of a couple years tucked into vents.

"Shit bro," he said, his words sounding focused, but they weren't really, "You probably could dance professionally if it were something you got in your mind to do. You got that fuckin' ocean grace, and the muscle to lift yourself into whatever position." He then caught himself, realizing that he was rambling, and had no idea if that was a short ramble or an insanely long one, so he shut up and continued to watch. Gamzee looked back at him with his head at a tilt and his hands still covered in cookie dough. He smiled faintly and rolled his hips and up the length of his torso in a slow wave. He pulled the easy maneuver a couple more times then turned back to his dough, finishing up two pans' worth and pushing them into the oven then starting on a search for more pans.

"Danny said somethin' like that before. When I told 'im someone dude wanted to talk me into doin' art for boards after he was teachin' me to do that poi shit. Said I'd be real motherfuckin' good at it. Might actually start doin' that on top'a my regular shit." He grinned as he dug up another cookie sheet and started to load it as well, working methodically. Soon the two pans in the oven were done and he could reload them, locked into that routine of measuring, mixing, portioning and circling the kitchen as he talked to Dave. He started to lose track of the meandering conversation, but that didn't stop him from going on. He was forced to stop when he finally ran out of flour and stood there pouting at the empty bag for a minute, then just sucked the dough off the fingers of one hand, offering the other hand to Dave.

Once there was about six sheets of cookies - and lord knows where Gamzee found that many baking sheets in Sollux and Bro's kitchen - Bro stepped in and blinked. "That's a shitload of cookies, guys," he pointed out, brow arched to Dave's casual nibbling of dough off of Gamzee's hand. Dave gave him an innocent, confused look of 'what, this is normal' before Bro simply shook his head and sighed, "Just don't burn anything down, guys. Gamzee, keep Dave away from the oven." He walked back in to keep an eye on Sollux once more.

Dave shrugged and finished off the dough on Gamzee's hand, he leaned back against the back of the tall chair and smirked. "Like he hasn't seen cookies before or anything."

"Maybe he shouldn't even get any," Gamzee laughed, though he had every intention of sharing with everyone if he actually thought about it later. He sucked the last of the cookie dough off his fingers and let the other hand remain in Dave's grip until it too had been cleaned. He washed the stickiness off his hands before he finally started in on his own sandwich, which had been sitting on the counter neglected over the time he'd been on his baking spree. He bopped gently to the music drifting through the house as he waited for the oven timer to go off, eventually pulling Dave over to him and starting to slow dance with him naturally. Dave grinned and leaned against Gamzee, not really even paying attention to what they were doing, or what he was doing specifically, more invested in the motion of it. He reached up and lightly tugged Gamzee's horn, chuckling as the timer went off.

"Once you get those out, I'm goin' out for a cigarette."

Gamzee butted his head against Dave's then let him go as he turned back to the oven to retrieve the two sheets of cookies and replace them with two more, waiting for the first ones to cool before transferring them to the plate that held the very first two pans full. In total they would have eight pans of twelve cookies apiece, meaning by the end they'd end up with a pile of ninety-six peanut butter cookies. He grabbed and nibbled the edge of one once it had cooled enough, listening to the music with an extremely contented expression.

Sollux was creating patterns in the air with the glowsticks using his psionics when Bro returned, sucking on an orange slice as he did so. He reached out and hooked his fingers around Bro's to pull him back down against his side. "I smell cookies."

"Yes, you smell cookies. Gamzee's been in there for god knows how long, just baking tons of 'em," Bro confirmed with a kiss to Sollux's neck. "Y'all are a bunch of toddlers right now, it's fuckin' adorable as hell."

"Maybe if we do this again we can get another babysitter and you can do it instead." Bro on acid sounded like it would be incredibly amusing to him. He bumped his forehead against Bro's cheek then laid back with his eyes half closed, popping another orange slice into his mouth.

"Heh, nah man," Bro said with a shake of his head as he gave Sollux one of the fidget toys he had laying around the house: a donut-shaped squeeze toy with gel and plastic beads inside. "I'm already seventy percent there with how whacked out I am. I don't need acid." He couldn't even imagine how fucked up that'd get.

Sollux spent a good few minutes simply squeezing the donut between his fingers and turning it over before focusing back on Bro again, smiling warmly and crawling over the top of him to sit in his lap as he started to run his fingers along the lines of his matesprit's anatomy. He set about very slowly worshiping every aspect of the other he could easily get to, simply enjoying the subtle ways he moved under the touches. He mouthed along Bro's neck just to feel him shift and adjust, breathing in the scent of him with a quiet hum. Bro didn't protest much, only letting out a little muffled grunt when Sollux settled into his lap. He placed his hands on Sollux's thighs once he was adjusted and looked up at his matesprit, keeping an ear out for the other two just in case something were to start making them shout. His eyes went half-lidded with the touch and the sensation of Sollux's mouth against his neck and he murmured, "Careful, man, you're bound to get me riled up this way." Sollux just ignored the warning and continued on, absorbing every little detail that he seemed to miss when he was sober. He ran his hands up under Bro's shirt and pushed it up to his armpits, tilting his head and tracing his fingertips along the lines of his abdomen then pressing his face into the firm slab of muscle that was his matesprit's chest.

Sollux's hands on his skin made Bro shudder a soft breath before he shook his head, chuckling lowly as he ran his hand through his matesprit's hair. "Now you're just doing it on purpose," he murmured, shifting in the beanbag to readjust himself. "You're gonna get me all fuckin' distracted." Not that he was complaining in the least. Sollux was contently rubbing and nuzzling his way around every square inch of Bro's torso, spending a fair amount of time at his nipple as he fiddled with the barbell. Never before had a piercing held that much of his attention. Bro's breath caught eventually from the stimulation and he closed his eyes, shaking his head with an easy smile. He leaned back and murmured, "all right, you win." The fact that Sollux was so taken with the physical made him extremely at ease. If his matesprit had decided to focus on the spiritual or emotional, things could have gone hairy, but it seemed as if they'd dodged that outcome by a long shot.

Sollux started to talk quietly at length about the freckles scattered across Bro's skin here and there, the pictures that he could imagine in them even though he wasn't exactly the most imaginative person in existence. He traced his fingers along the patterns he described, sitting sideways in Bro's lap with his legs slung over the other's thigh comfortably. Nothing he did was overtly sexual so much as it was sensual, driven entirely by the need to touch and reacquaint himself with every last curve and scar. It still produced similar results, albeit at a far slower pace than usual. Each touch and kiss and press of Sollux's tongue against his skin made Bro more and more aroused. Having this kind of attention given to him this deeply was new to him altogether. Sure, they knew each other's scars and marks, and Bro could easily picture every curve and cut and inch of Sollux's skin, but never before had either of them spent this long really paying the other the kind of attention Sollux was giving to him then. For only half a moment, he felt just the tiniest hint of self-consciousness, which in turn, made Bro react with a soft chuckle.

"Gonna make me blush," he teased.

Sollux grinned up at Bro and crawled back up to press a light, lingering kiss to his lips then straightening up and stripping his own shirt off over his head, laying right back down to feel the warmth of the other's skin pressed against his. His hands continued to move and wander along the sharp lines of Bro's anatomy then scratched down his chest gently with a sleepy little smile. "I bet you'd look good with a blush," he murmured and bumped the bridge of his nose against the underside of Bro's chin.

Bro took the time to shed his own shirt before laying back down, with his arms wrapped around Sollux. He ran his hand down Sollux's spine, to the small of his back, lightly teasing under the beltline of his matesprit's pants. "Yeah, you'd think that," he murmured, before leaning in to press a kiss to Sollux's forehead. "But what _doesn't_ look good on me?" Sollux was purring quietly by then, something that was rare enough in its own right even without the addition of being nearly audible. He bowed his head to press his nose into the hollow of Bro's throat, his hands finally coming to rest against the other's forearms.

"Ego," he murmured through the warm smile painted all over his face.

Bro nodded with a quiet, "it's all for show anyway," smiling fondly back at Sollux as he put another kiss on his forehead. "You know that." He looked briefly over to the clock to see how long it had been since they'd dosed, and figured it'd be a slow come-down for the next hour or so. Probably longer for Dave. He brushed the backs of his fingers against Sollux's cheek and smiled. "You should be this content all the time." He liked that Sollux was a mile a minute, but the contentedness could come alongside it easily.

Sollux laced his fingers between Bro's and brought his hand down to kiss the back of it. "We can't all be Gamzee," he pointed out mellowly then put his head down on Bro's shoulder. The world was starting to speed up again and shift back into focus and he was strangely tired in spite of only having walked maybe ten steps the entire trip. He started to fiddle with the ends of Bro's fingers, holding onto the hyper-awareness of every last detail.

Bro squeezed Sollux's hand slightly with a smile. "That's somethin' I think everybody should be grateful for. He might be calm, but that kid ain't half as content as he looks."

\--

Dave had slipped away to go perch himself on the patio, lighting a cigarette as he looked up at the sky. "I hope you're getting your work's worth of entertainment," he murmured. He wondered what Jade looked like. It had been so long since he'd seen her last, it was almost impossible to imagine her. All he could see in his imagination was a pair of bright, happy green eyes and a silly, but sweet smile. It was kind of depressing to him to realize that it had been so long that he barely recalled one of his best friends' faces. Gamzee wandered out of the kitchen after the last batch of cookies had been put aside on the counter, settling down on the porch behind Dave and draping his arms around the other's shoulders, chin resting on top of his head. He held up one of the cookies, stealing the cigarette for himself and taking a drag as he looked up at the stars. They felt so much closer just then, like he could reach up and wipe them out of the black of the sky with a couple of swipes.

The cookie for the cigarette was a fair trade, in Dave's eyes, and he carefully nibbled on it as he leaned back against Gamzee, resting his arms on his bro's knees. "I wonder why they don't come down even for a minute just to say hi. It must get really lonely up there, y'know?" He tilted his head up to look up at Gamzee's chin before looking back to the sky. "Shit, I'd come down and hang out with us if I was up there with 'em. It'd keep me from going absolutely stircrazy. Like, they must be looking at us right now, through the intangible depths of the bubble, and going 'shit, that looks like fun,' and then...what? What exactly keeps 'em up there? Some...deep pride in their work? Somebody _telling_ them to keep working? There's gotta be a thousand of 'em up there, doing the shit they do. It can't just be Jade and Aradia. There's no way."

"Prob'ly don't think they can risk it," Gamzee replied as he stretched out his legs on either side of Dave's, the cigarette tweezed between his fingers and lingering at his lips. "Never know for sure when somethin's gonna come along tryin' to squish us again so they gotta be on their guard. And it ain't like just one or two of 'em can ward off an Outer God all by themselves. Gotta have everyone ready for pretty much anything." It was a disheartening thought, for sure; he would have liked to see Aradia again after this long, even if she didn't really want to see him. Sollux would be ecstatic to see her, that was certain.

Dave sighed heavily and laid down, dropping his legs down to dangle off the patio as his head rested on Gamzee's leg. "Fuck that noise, dude, I'd take her place for a day just so everyone could see her again. Shit's gotta be tiring. They've got to be burned out on all this shit." He shook his head and then smiled faintly. "Maybe I will. Just for a day, y'know, just so Aradia or Jade can take a break." He looked up at Gamzee with the same smile and poked him in the chest. "You'd be tired, too, if you did what they do."

"Maybe we can ask Bro about that later," Gamzee nodded then laid his cheek down on the top of Dave's head, taking a last drag off the cigarette before handing it back, breaking off part of what was left of the cookie to pop into his mouth. He was still feeling pretty good, all things considered, but now he was thinking a little too hard about the players outside of the bubble keeping them safe. He came to the realization that not all of them would make it back and he whined quietly, wrapping his arms around Dave's shoulders.

Dave raised a brow and wrapped his arms over Gamzee's. "Don't get too caught up in the negative. Shit happens, bro. Just roll with it." He put his arm up to pap Gamzee's cheek, shooshing him quietly. "You love too deep sometimes, man. Do everything so deep." He had thought about it a lot, he realized; Gamzee seemed like someone who was really just what he seemed on the surface, but there was a shitload in there that rarely saw the light of day. Some of Gamzee's best qualities were hiding deep within that slow-rolling do-as-thou-wilt outer shell. It didn't even take much to see it, just enough consideration to try, and Gamzee's trust.

The only problem was that nobody got close to him. Nobody but Karkat, then Dave and Eridan. There were a lot of people that considered themselves his friend, but thus far nobody had gotten close enough to him to see what the others did. Most times he was glad for that; He didn't need everyone he knew finding out every last thing about him. He was content with what he had. He gave a thoughtful sigh and pressed his lips to the top of Dave's head then hooked his chin over the other's shoulder. "Eventually a rollin' stone gets all these motherfuckin' bumps and chips and starts to slow down though. Path ain't ever just gonna be smooth enough to let it go by without doin' a little damage y'know?"

"Don't be a rock then," Dave murmured. "Be the wind. Wind can roll and sometimes it loses momentum, but it picks back up again. Nothin' fuckin' touches the wind." He smiled lazily and took a drag of his cigarette before watching the cherry of it glow brighter with the slightest breeze. "You can't always be solid, dude. Don't have to be, either. Just...be that which you fuckin' are."

"That which I motherfuckin' are changes a lot," Gamzee mused as he watched the glowing ember and its wisp of smoke. He fell silent as the breeze picked up and closed his eyes. "Bet John knows more about all that shit than I do anyway, windy motherfucker."

"So you're not a rock, you're the wind," Dave retorted with a stretch, reveling in the way his muscles tightened and his joints temporarily locked, before he relaxed again and put out the cigarette. He sat up and smiled down at Gamzee, chuckling as he wiped his thumb over his friend's cheek, picking up some paint before wiping it on his own nose. "Dude, he's the _one_ guy who knows what the hell is up, wind-wise. He'd be the best guy to ask."

Examining the smudge of paint on Dave's nose, Gamzee caught his tongue between his lips and opened his sylladex, briefly stopping to stare at the flashes of color rather than finding what he wanted. It wasn't until his paint had passed in front of him twice that he finally reached out to grab it, opening it and gesturing Dave to sit back down. He drew him in close and brushed his hair back away from his face, stealing his shades and putting them up on top of his own head so that he could see what he was doing. He didn't have to work very hard on covering the pale skin, simply smudging more of the thin white over the worse of the freckles then starting in with a small brush for details. It was simple, but when he was done Dave was barely recognizable.

Sitting down and watching the colors of Gamzee's sylladex was enough of a distraction from going back inside, where he had been planning on curling up somewhere soft, that he completely forgot that he was going to. When Gamzee grabbed the paint, his eyes went wide. He knew what it meant to Gamzee, what the process was to him, and although there was a somberness in amidst his excitement, his eyes were still smiling as he watched Gamzee's expression. Once Gamzee was done with him, Dave stood and looked into his reflection on the glass of the door, his smile spreading. "Dude, that's so fucking wicked," he said as he turned to look over his shoulder at Gamzee with a grin.

"You wear it better'n I do," Gamzee grinned, putting away the paint after he'd fixed where his had been smudged then standing up and propping his arm on Dave's shoulder. He examined their reflections standing there side by side and slouched until his height matched Dave's, putting on an identical expression though he didn't seem able to hold it for more than a few seconds.

"That's probably one of the nicest things you've ever said to me, Gamzee," Dave said earnestly, tugging an errant dreadlock gently, before opening the door and slipping inside. "But you look wrong without it. Once this washes off, I'll be me as I always am. When yours washes off, you're naked." He slipped his hands into his pockets as he settled on walking down the hall of the spare bedrooms, deciding that laying down was definitely in order.

Bro had just lifted Sollux's hand to press his lips to the back of it when he saw Dave slip through towards the bedrooms, his face painted up. "Got ourselves two of 'em now," he murmured with a grin. "Not that it took facepaint to make Dave a clown." That yielded a raised middle finger from the younger Strider as he turned the corner to the bedroom. Sollux caught a glimpse of Dave's face and arched a brow at him then chuckled quietly and turned over onto his back, reclining back against Bro as he dozed, still holding onto his hand loosely and focused intently on the gentle thump of his heart against his back. He barely stirred when Gamzee returned to the room with the plate of cookies in hand, balanced somewhat precariously as the cookies were stacked extremely neatly, the towers of them wobbling some. One was hanging from his mouth, a glass of milk in his free hand, as if he intended to eat every last one if nobody had any objections. He held one out to Bro, scooting along the floor until he was actually within arm's reach. Bro smiled and took the cookie without leaving his spot reclined in the beanbags with his other arm draped over Sollux. He took a bite of the cookie and then nodded.

"Best cookies I've had in at least a year," he said with a smirk. "Wouldn't expect any less from you, Makara." He got a slight smile as he closed his eyes, feeling drowsy as he finished off the cookie in its second bite. He was wondering if he shouldn't send Gamzee in with Dave to keep him company at least until he was asleep, just to keep him from winding up with night terrors. Acid could trigger that, he figured, but decided that Gamzee would go wherever Gamzee wanted, and there was fuckall he could tell the guy. They were on good terms, and he didn't want that to change.

"Man I didn't even know you liked cookies or anything so even better," Gamzee grinned then looked up at Sollux, about to offer one to him until he realized that Sollux had fallen asleep. He chuckled quietly and patted Bro's knee, then stood and carried the plate back into the kitchen to figure out what to do with it when they were sober. When he realized that Dave was nowhere in his general vicinity he frowned slightly, wandering back toward the bedroom and peeking in on him. He grinned and slid inside then closed the door behind him and crawled into bed to flop down beside him. Dave smiled, turning to face Gamzee. He hadn't fallen asleep yet, but the acid was still at work in his mind and he had been spending the time alone to try and string together coherent rationalizations about the very concept and construct of thought itself. But it was easy for Dave to get distracted, and he smiled, leaning his head against Gamzee's shoulder.

"Hey," he said. That was really all he had the mind to say. His pupils had gone wide enough that his irises had simply become thin red rings. "It's really bright," he noted after a couple minutes.

Gamzee smiled at that and muttered, "I can fix that." He shuffled some in place until the blankets beneath them were free, then pulled them right back up and over both of their heads. He laid his cheek against Dave's shoulder, looking back at him with similarly dilated eyes and a wide, lazy grin.

"Genius," Dave said with a yawn, and draped his arm over Gamzee's side. He felt ready to drift off, his body heavy and joints sore, but otherwise just fine with the way the day - and the night - had gone. "You gonna be okay without your sleep meds? Need to smoke before we sleep?"

Taking a moment to seriously consider that, Gamzee's smile faded, but only slightly. He shrugged. "If I don't sleep tonight, I ain't got shit I gotta do tomorrow that I know of so I can sleep then."

When he finally dozed off it was getting close to three in the morning and he'd spent most of his time listening to the house settling as he came down, his arms wrapped around Dave, his nose pressed against the top of his head. He had hit a sudden energy spike that mostly he was able to contain by turning it inward and letting it burn itself out without having to leave Dave's side and the crash had hit too suddenly for him to register that he had fallen asleep until early the next morning when the others started to stir. He was tired though and simply burrowed deeper into the blankets to block out any trace of sunlight.

Dave, by whatever miracle that LSD had bestowed upon him, had yet to get up. He only woke up once Gamzee started shifting around in bed, and he scratched his head with a yawn. "Th'hell time is it?" He asked groggily, sitting up to briefly look at the clock on the dresser. "Jesus fuck, that's late," he grumbled at the fact that it was ten and he'd slept that long. He slunk back under the covers and buried himself against Gamzee's back, grumbling, "I don't wanna, they can't make me. Bitches gonna have to pry me from the warm blankets if they want a taste of this today."

Gamzee had nothing to say to that except for a single muffled grunt.

When Sollux pulled himself upright it was with all the enthusiasm of a reanimated corpse, the groan coming out of his mouth only lending credence to the image. He disentangled himself from Bro and trudged to the bathroom, emptied his bladder then went to the kitchen, pausing at the tower of cookies sitting on the counter. He vaguely remembered making a comment about smelling cookies the night before and then catching a glimpse of the highblood carrying the plate full of them as he picked one up and bit into it. It was as good a breakfast as any.

Bro woke up with a startled huff and rubbed his face. After a split second of realizing where he'd fallen asleep, he watched Sollux shuffle off and then he pulled himself up out of the beanbags. The other guys were probably still asleep. At least the after effects of acid weren't as bad as most drugs; the down time to really parse what had happened during the trip was the most troublesome. There were no physical side effects, outside of joint and spine stiffness. Bro had done his homework in the time he let the guys sink into the trip.

He made his way to the kitchen to get himself some cereal and pressed a kiss to Sollux's cheek. "Mornin'," he muttered, "You doin' alright?"

"I hurt everywhere," he replied then slouched over the counter with his head on his arm, looking ready to go right back to sleep there. He continued to chew on his cookie in that slightly horizontal fashion, until he decided that that wasn't really helping his neck and back issues either. Instead he turned on the spot to lean against Bro's back as he prepared his breakfast. "Oh look, thuddenly perfect leaning thpot," he mumbled with his nose tucked into the crook of Bro's neck. Bro smiled and turned in place to wrap his arms around Sollux's waist, giving him a firm rub up his spine.

"I'll give you a massage later, but only if you don't keep whinin'," he teased, and he pressed a kiss to Sollux's lips. "Drink some water, that should help you some."

Sollux whined a little louder just because he could, giving it a grating, nasal quality then dropping it and returning the kiss. He appreciated Bro's patience with him and everything from his mood swings to his occasional flakiness, and now going out of his way to take care of him and his friends while they went on a drug trip. He hooked his fingers into Bro's pockets and pressed his lips to Bro's cheek then put his head back down on his shoulder. "I'd like that," he murmured. "The mathage, I mean."

Bro slipped his hand into the oversized back pockets of Sollux's pants and pulled him nearer to him, pressing a kiss to the curve of his neck. "Figured you would. Probably would help if you had a hot shower. So what do you remember after the acid hit?" He always liked hearing the stories of what the ones who tripped had remembered of it. Some had perfect clarity of memory, while others had patches of it. He offered up his bowl of cereal for Sollux to finish, as he moved around to rub his matesprit's neck. Sollux took it and drank some of the milk, leaning his head forward some with the other's touch.

"Firtht thing I remember ith thomething about a shitload of cookieth. And glowthtickth? And then pretty much all of the retht of it wath thomething to the effect of oh my god you thmell amathing." He rolled his eyes at himself and the fact that he had nothing that was really interesting to report. He finished off his breakfast and slouched against the counter once more, his head down on his arms. "Rubth now, life and thingth later pleathe..."

"Yep, that's a pretty good summary of what happened with you last night," Bro said with a grin, while he moved his hands down Sollux's spine, trying to get it to relax. "You can spend all day in bed if you want, don't even have to worry about work. I've got most everything under wraps on my end, anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's really no reason for this except one night CH and Meebs thought it'd be a WONDERFUL idea to give these three stooges LSD.
> 
> (Meebs has never dropped acid, but CH has :T)


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another brief Neigh8ors interlude.

While off in Boston, well away from the strange and bizarre happenings of artists and the turbogeeks they hung out with, there was a casual, tentative newly-blossoming matespritship in the works. Vriska hadn't been surprised to learn that Equius had been reticent to strike up any flushed relationships whatsoever, but that obviously didn't hold him back from his thoughts. She had still been quite patient with him, though things hadn't progressed in any way since their little walk at the Lalonde mansion. 

Presently, she was settled back in a chair at his workshop, handing him off tools as he asked for them, keeping him company with quiet smalltalk, and thinly veiled innuendo. She looked at Equius with a browarch and finally shook her head. "Are we going to ever revisit what we talked about or...?" Vriska had been waiting for him to call her over to his place for nearly a month and a half, with nothing on either form of communication that they'd agreed on other than to make plans to work or simply hang out.

His immediate response was that _these things take time and must be cultivated carefully_ , but he knew just as well as she did that not only was that faulty logic, it was frustrating to no end. So in the end he kept quiet, working feverishly on the prosthetic in front of him.

"Is there anything in particular you wished to speak about?" He asked quietly as he bent over the nearly completed single leg, starting to snap panels into place around the shin and calf portions then standing it up to get a proper look at the shape of it. Sleek, unisex in design and powerful enough to kick a hole in a brick wall if someone really wished to do such a thing. He smiled faintly at it and continued with his tinkering.

Vriska rolled her eyes so hard that her head tipped back and she leaned backwards into the back of a chair with a frustrated sigh. "That's bull and you know it," she muttered, before swiveling petulantly in her seat. She watched him affix the panels on the prosthetic, rather impressed with the outer casing that he'd designed for his new makes of prosthetics. "I didn't say I wanted to talk. I said revisit. There's a _huge_ difference there, Equius. The ball's been in your court for a while now."

"And you've known me since we were approximately a sweep old," he sighed, making an adjustment to a knee joint instead of looking back around at her. "Since when is leaving this metaphorical ball in my equally metaphorical court something that you consider a wise decision?"

Vriska shook her head. "I made the clearly silly mistake of thinking that for once, you'd show some amount of assertive and active desire to actually _do_ something you want to do. But clearly I was mistaken." She abruptly stopped swiveling and stood to walk outside for a cigarette, the clicking of her heels echoing through the workshop. "Heaven forbid you actually show some backbone and go after what you want for once," she grumbled as she opened the door.

"Serket-" he started then sighed, rubbing his fingers into the bridge of his nose. He shook his head, laying his tools aside and following her out. He plucked the cigarette from her hands before she could light it, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder. "You know why I would rather this be slow."

"Jesus, Zahhak, honestly," she huffed and gave Equius a tiny scowl, crossing her arms. "It's been at least seven sweeps. How much slower can it be?" She shook her head and ran a hand through her hair. "Humor me, Equius. Tell me why you think going slow will make this any easier for either of us?" She raised an eyebrow to him before snagging the cigarette back and lighting it. "If you think you're gonna hurt me, you need to reevaluate what you think we can do with each other."

"For those first seven sweeps you never once gave any indication that you wanted anything more than a pale relationship, and the trigger for this was letting you see my own innermost thoughts. It feels weighted in a very...lascivious direction." Frowning deeply, Equius licked his thumb and forefinger and put out the cigarette to prevent her from distracting herself with it. "Perhaps I'm just waiting for the sign that this isn't simply sexual for you."

"No, the trigger for you showing me was my showing an interest in you _beyond_ the pale. If I was just in it for a fuck, I could go to Terezi," she pointed out with a scowl. She didn't deny - and never would - that he was attractive, but that wasn't precisely what this was about. "You're being a complete ass about this, I hope you know." She'd been spending as much time with him as she could, and had been catching up with him, little by little. She'd missed him. It was almost disgusting to her how much.

"Maybe, but I know that your goals can shift fluidly with new information." One of his hands ran around her middle to rest against her side, the other lifting her hand to press his lips to the backs of her fingers. "I know that you're not going to simply live here either. You've been mobile for far too long and while I can appreciate that need to stay in motion, I don't want it to degrade a relationship into nothing more than opportunistic fly-by wish fulfillment on either of our parts."

Vriska huffed at his closeness for only a moment before her cheeks turned subtly blue, and as she watched him kiss her hand her expression softened somewhat. "Thank you kindly for explaining the reality of the situation," she muttered flatly, "But I've been waiting for you to figure yourself out, figure out what _you_ want out of this, before I made any solid plans one way or another. I'd stay. Sure, I'd still be doing what I _need_ to do," she explained, the edge of her voice slowly slipping off as she put her hand up to his cheek, "but I would always come back here. I'm tired of not having a place to call home." She slipped her hand away and then moved away from him to lean up against the wall, crossing her arms. "I've been _waiting_ for you to show me any indication that I'd be welcome here, but while you've been sitting on your hands, waiting for some stupid sign from above to flash on, I've..." She huffed and buried her face in her hand. "Nevermind."

"We bide our time waiting for something that's already present," he sighed, the moment of clarity giving way to something softer. Standing in front of Vriska, he laid his hand on the wall beside her head and bowed his own to press a light, chaste kiss to her lips then standing back some, his fingers dipping into her pocket briefly and taking out her lighter, re-lighting her cigarette for her then turning to go back inside while she got her thoughts in order. With a murmur of thanks she took a drag of her cigarette. She watched him go before settling more comfortably into a squat near the wall, leaning against it to consider her options. Having his not quite confirmation helped matters, but that still didn't change the fact that they really hadn't done or said anything to cement what they had decided on.

Once her cigarette was finished, she walked back in and settled back into her chair. "And I still don't understand why you think what you showed me should be something you frown so heavily upon. I'm up for it. All of it," she explained casually. "And of course that plays a part in how I'm sticking around, why the he...why wouldn't it? But sex isn't the be-all-end-all of life. It's just a simple part in a fuller, grander scheme. And it's _definitely_ something we should explore, though I'm starting to think your hang-ups about even thinking what you do is going to prove to be an even tougher point of contention than my traveling once in a while."

Equius' lips quirked upward into a small smile at the voluntary censorship, something that he greatly appreciated her doing for his sake. He never looked away from the adjustments he was making to the motors in the knee joint of the prosthetic as he replied, "I know it's not and I'm aware now that you have grown more patient since we were young. My concern is letting it become the lynchpin of a potential matespritship. Which I would like to have, in case that has not been made abundantly clear by now." He finally turned back to her, laying his hands on the edge of his worktable.

"I'm trying. I've been trapped in the same mindset for sweeps and just changing the way I think is... Well, you said it yourself. It's not going to make this easy. I suppose what I've been waiting for is to see whether you would grow tired of me before I can overcome this." The only person that had never walked away from him in all of this had been Nepeta, and she had been cemented in his mind as the only person that never would. Now he was being forced to come to the realization that she wasn't the only person in the multiverse that cared about him and it was weighing heavily on his mind for reasons that he still couldn't decipher.

"Have I grown tired of you yet, Zahhak?" She sassed, poking his calf with the toe of her shoe. "I'm going to go insane trying to figure out how someone so brilliant can be so stupid, sure, but I think that's a risk I'm willing to take. And you have to remember, I'm not just sitting around here keeping you company because I want to be pals with you. I don't waste my time like that. This _isn't_ a waste of my time. I genuinely enjoy being here. I enjoy spending time with you, because I enjoy being around you. ...even if you do need a shower like, most of the time." She grinned and looked up at him from her seat, leaning her head down on a part of his workbench that was free of tools and parts. "Just think about it for a minute. When do I spend time with _anybody_ and make plans to do that regularly, Equius?"

He finally gave her a fuller smile, reaching out and gingerly laying his hand on her head. In the time that he'd been here in this reality he'd learned quite a bit of self restraint, making great strides to control his overwhelming strength so that gestures such as this wouldn't end up caving in the average skull. "I've been hasty in my judgments," he admitted, "and I'm sorry for putting you through so much stress."

Vriska smiled at the strangely gentle touch. "You're just lucky you're cute," she teased in a mutter. She fell quiet as she watched him working, thinking about what he was concerned by, and how it did conflict with her curiosity to see how willing he was to put those fantasies to work. She also knew that keeping the ball in his court was likely going to leave him just as ridiculously worked up, and herself unfulfilled. Mixed signals pissed her off. She reached over to put her hand over his and gave him a meaningful glance. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it a lot, however. The physical end of things. And you know me well enough to know that once I get something in my sights, I'm not going to sit idly by."

Willing himself not to become flustered, Equius turned his attention back to the prosthetic and snapped the rest of the plating around the thigh of it, letting the simple act help him to clear his mind. "Then I'll pass this back to you. What would you have happen now?"

Vriska considered that as she slipped back into leaning against the back of the chair, tipping back on it slightly. "Ideally, or practically?"

He knew that look she was giving him well and immediately reached for the towel in his back pocket. "Perhaps you could start with ideally," he suggested, hoping that that was the less likely option to make him fall over himself.

Vriska's smile went sharp at that, but it quickly faded to a coy little grin, as she started up that idle half-swivel as she spoke. "Ideally, I'd find a collar and a leash and put it on you, and make you get on your knees before me, calling me Mistress, before either of us actually got anywhere near a pail, but you know, that's just one of infinite things I'd like to do. Practically, though, I think the best option is to shove you into a shower and make you wash down before I ran my hands _all_ over that body of yours."

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been _that_. The entirety of his face and a large portion of his neck turned the vivid blue of his blood and he had indeed begun to sweat, the response hair-trigger as ever. He cleared his throat and started to rub down in the hopes of making it not quite so obvious, completely avoiding looking straight at Vriska and that vicious little smile. "Just...give me time to finish this," he replied somewhat shakily, his composure utterly shattered.

Vriska slipped out of her chair and stood, pressing a kiss to his neck - having to stand on tiptoe to do so, even being taller than average - and then murmured, "Take your time, what's a few more minutes?" She slipped away, leaving lingering trails over his shoulders with her fingertips and the very ends of her nails as she went towards the stairs up to his apartment. She knew the schedule well enough that she knew Nepeta wouldn't be back for another few hours, giving Vriska plenty of time to usurp Equius' full attention.

It was all Equius could do not to either follow immediately after her like an iron shaving drawn by a powerful magnet, or else fall to the ground bonelessly until the fluster had passed. He threw himself back into the last touches of the limb then carefully laid it aside, going back to the front of the garage and flipping over the sign hanging on the door to read that the shop was closed for the moment. He then ascended the stairs, forcing himself to do so slowly so as not to seem overexcited. He couldn't hear her anywhere, though that didn't mean much.

Vriska had gone into the kitchen to grab herself a glass of water, and had been drinking it slowly, watching the clock and counting the minutes it took for Equius to follow her. She finished off the last little bit just after she heard him enter the apartment, and she set the glass in the sink, slinking up to him with her hands on his upper arms from behind, the robotic hand squeezing just a bit tighter than her organic one. "Lead the way," she said with a smile. Swelling slightly on contact, Equius closed his eyes and led her along silently, stepping out of her grasp to open the bathroom door for her to step through first. After locking it behind him out of habit, he laid slightly shaking hands on her hips, bowing his head to press a soft kiss to the curve of her neck. He reached past her and turned the water on, letting it go to warm up before he stepped back to shed his clothes.

The trembling made her smile momentarily falter, but Vriska tipped her head to one side to let him kiss freely, before she slipped out of her overshirt and tank top, then out of the rest easily. It was obvious that she had no shame over her body; she wore her nudity just as proudly as any clothes she ever chose to wear. She slipped in after grabbing a hair stick from her sylladex and pinned up her long hair up and out of the way of the water's spray. She looked over her shoulder at Equius as she finally shed her glasses, setting them on the pile of her clothes from the opening of the shower curtain. "You coming in?" She asked in a teasing tone. He snapped out of the spell she'd unknowingly had him under, his eyes moving behind his shades over the sharp lines of her body, taking in the musculature that he'd only seen in part over the course of their time together. Swallowing hard, Equius placed his glasses down beside hers then stepped into the shower behind her and closed the curtain.

"You take far too much pleasure in making me uncomfortable," he pointed out casually, his tone assuring that this was by no means a bad thing. He felt as if were he cooled by internal fans like any piece of machinery, they would be working overtime as he attempted with mild success to keep his calm.

A combination body wash and shampoo was passed over Vriska's shoulder, as well as a scrubber that looked newer than the two already hanging in the caddy. "This may have to be quick as the hot water has a tendency to give out every now and then," he warned, as if she wouldn't have already known that after how many times she had happened by to use the shower.

She tutted and shook her head as she poured a fair amount of the soap into the scrubber, before she slipped up close to Equius, enough where her chest was flush against his back. "Don't jinx it," she said in a tone that almost seemed gentle, if it hadn't come from her. She brought the scrubber around over his chest and then down each well-defined muscle. She smiled against his back as she ran her mechanical hand up his hip and then traced it down his cut line.

Equius' lips pressed into a thin line, his fingers twitching at his sides. He wouldn't stop her though, not unless he really had to. "That was supposed to be your loofah," he noted, looking back over his shoulder at her as he lifted one arm to let her continue nonetheless.

"I've got my own in my sylladex, but thanks," she replied, scrubbing upwards to his armpit, before scrubbing down his arm. "You don't have to buy me things, Equius, I'm capable of getting things like this for myself." She smiled as she slipped around him to face him and press a kiss to his cheek. "What's got you so stressed? Relax."

"I'm perfectly aware that you are, but I felt that if you're to be using our shower, you should have one that stays here," he explained, his hand coming to rest against her side. He dipped briefly to peck at her lips then reached up to readjust the shower head then turned in place so that it could spray down his back instead. He chuckled quietly as he pulled his hair over his shoulder to keep it from getting too wet. "Do you not see me right now? I am completely relaxed."

"Mm, this isn't completely relaxed," She teased, before she pressed a kiss to his neck. Vriska put her hand into his a moment and brought it up to kiss each knuckle, before leaning back up for a less chaste kiss while the hand that had the scrubber ran over his side, and down his back to his ass. He immediately tensed up just a bit at the touch, his lips once more pressing together until he could bring himself to look her in the face again, pressing tentatively back into the kiss. The tension was still obvious in the way he moved, but that wasn't something that would just drop because he'd finally accepted and reciprocated Vriska's feelings. He was trying, though and just doing that helped him move back into her touch. He tipped a finger under her chin and lifted her face back up to him, looking her in the eyes then took her lips once more.

"Alright, then maybe this is an _attempt_ at relaxed," he murmured, his hand running back around her waist to rest against her back. She kissed him once more, setting aside the loofah and pretense to run her hands over Equius' back, reveling in the muscles underneath his skin and her fingers.

"And it's appreciated," Vriska said in a consoling tone. "I suppose it isn't fair of me to have said what my ideal next step was, not knowing what yours is. That's a little lopsided, isn't it?" She stepped back to look up into his eyes, but didn't break contact. Her hands still were busy, tracing over Equius' chest and abs, simply admiring them. The easy, mostly innocent movements of her fingers over his torso seemed to put him just a little more at ease. He leaned against her gingerly and let his head fall against hers.

"My ideal would have simply been to keep you here and help to quell the wanderlust," he shrugged, refusing to be embarrassed that his ultimate goal ran a more romantic route.

"That's all? Oh, well then," Vriska said with a laugh, shaking her head. "That's not something I'd argue." She leaned forward to press her lips against one of his pecs, before brushing them down a little more. "But that is fairly expansive for a next step. Too much of a blanket situation than something to be a next step, and really, only part of my own ultimate goal." She moved her hands back around to drape her arms over his shoulders, and look him in the eyes. "How were you intending to quell said wanderlust? Because it had better be something involving movie nights."

The tension broke with that and Equius let out a quiet laugh, his posture slouching just a bit. His hands slid up her back and came to rest against her shoulderblades, pulling her forward to press a last kiss to her lips. "And perhaps an assortment of confections, should you find yourself craving sugar. I know that Nepeta keeps a wealth of small snacks around, I'm sure she wouldn't mind a handful going missing."

"I prefer salty snacks," Vriska said with a smile, pressing another quick kiss to his lips. 

"Then we shall find that instead."

Vriska picked up the loofah again and made quick work of rinsing it out, lathering it back up and then scrubbing herself down. The hot water could go at any minute, and she had the sneaking suspicion that Equius would shoot down any attempt at heavy petting. She still couldn't figure out why he was such a prude, not that it was a turn-off per se. She could work around it for as long as she had to, but it still struck her as bizarre that even as attracted as they were to each other, and as nude as they were, just then, he still seemed terribly put off by the very notion that she wanted something physical.

After Vriska had washed down and rinsed off, the shower running cold just as she was doing so, Equius offered her a robe in which to wrap herself, finding a towel to preserve his own modesty as he moved through the apartment. It was reasonably well-kept, the occasional spare robotics stashed here and there, but out of the way so that they couldn't be tripped over. The curtains over the windows were drawn and rendered the place comfortably dark in the early evening. After dressing in a pair of secondhand shorts and an old wifebeater Equius settled onto the couch, a bag of pretzels in one hand, the remote for his tv in the other. Vriska watched as he slipped away to get dressed and pulled on her own clothes once more, minus the jacket and shoes, the former of which she slung over the back of a chair then set her shoes down below it out of the way. She sprawled out beside Equius, leaning against his side as she chuckled to herself.

"Why do you still live in a shitty little slum like this?" she asked, "When I know you've got to be making lots of dough with your robotics. You should at least be able to afford new clothes," she said with a click of her tongue punctuating it as she ran her fingers over the wifebeater. "Look at this, it's almost threadbare."

"I'm simply comfortable living this way," he shrugged, propping his ankle up on the opposite knee and handing the remote over to her so that she could find whatever it was she felt like watching just then. "Nepeta doesn't seem to mind either, now that she's got a roof overhead and air conditioning."

"You're full of puzzles, aren't you," Vriska murmured as she laid her head back down against his chest. "I'm glad the two of you are comfortable and safe. So long as you're not worried about your safety, I'm not going to press." And it wasn't as if she had any room to talk; She had squirreled away enough money through conning and odd jobs to keep herself afloat once she did finally settle down.

She flipped it to the first game of football she found and idly watched. She'd gotten into it over the past few years, and had yet to really find a team she preferred over the others. She took Equius' arm and wrapped it around her shoulder, holding it there for the time being. While he wasn't very big on sports in general, Equius could sit back and enjoy them on occasion, especially given the attention Vriska paid when a game came on. With his arm draped around her neck he pulled open the top of the pretzel bag and settled it in the small space between their legs, popping one into his mouth. He considered a moment how domestic all of this was, and smiled faintly to himself. It wasn't something he would have expected in his life before coming to settle down here and now that he had it, he couldn't see any reason that he should risk losing it. He was comfortable and Vriska seemed to be as well and that was what mattered to him.

The pretzels were dug into after a couple of minutes and Vriska popped a couple into her mouth before shouting at the call made by the referees. "Oh c'mon! That wasn't a fumble, what are you, blind? He had the ball in his hands the whole time." She sighed heavily and tipped her head back to look up at Equius. "I'm going to crash here tonight. I have a lead on something valuable in the area, but it's going to take some tracking down to get to it."

Watching Vriska get riled up over the play, Equius' brow arched up as his lips pulled into a half smile that faded when she explained that she would be staying until she had to find...whatever it was that she had to find. She hadn't yet explained in full to him just what it was that she was doing when she would disappear for days at a time, only that it was important and usually lucrative. But she enjoyed what she was doing outside of having to deal with the snide comments of the others from their session. He wouldn't stop her from doing what she wanted with herself.

"If you would like, you have the option to sleep here on the couch," he offered, then thought better of it and backpedaled a bit. "There is also more than enough space in my block to accommodate two bodies."

Vriska smiled and turned to face Equius by way of sprawling across the sofa and his lap, and she popped another pretzel in her mouth. "I might take you up on that second thing. Your couch is comfy, but I think sleeping somewhere actually meant to be slept in would be way better." She kept her attention on Equius, since it was a commercial. "Look, I don't want you to think I'm going to invade your space. I'll get my own place soon enough, but for right now, it'd be a whole lot better if I had somewhere free to stay. I'll cook for you guys or something. Do chores or whatever. I just don't feel like paying money for some stupid hotel again."

"There would be no sense in doing so when you're perfectly welcome to stay here," Equius nodded. He took another pretzel for himself and bit it in half as he glanced at the tv, then back down at Vriska. "I wasn't aware that you'd learned how to cook," he mused, dragging his fingertips through the loose strands of hair that had fallen free of the sloppy bun she'd pulled it into prior to their shower. Every time he touched her, she felt her pulse spike, and it made her silently berate herself a little for being so hopelessly smitten. But she outwardly smiled faintly more at it, her eyes fluttering closed.

"After Spidermom died, I kinda had to learn. Nobody's gonna feed me but me, and it's not like I can survive on fast food. Anyway, it's not so hard to do. It's following instructions." She took another pretzel, and turned back to watch the TV again.

"Then I suppose that you can do it here if you like. It would give Nepeta a chance to sit rather than cooking for us both for a change." He himself hadn't exactly learned to cook and barely trusted himself to handle anything in the kitchen lest he should cause some irreparable damage and end up costing them more money than it was really worth. He continued to drag his fingers through the long, loose black curls, eventually just pulling the stick out of Vriska's hair and letting it fall into his lap. Without another word he stood, letting her lean back against the back of the couch instead for a moment as he went back to the bathroom and retrieved a hairbrush. "Sit up," he said quietly when he came back, collecting her hair and starting to brush the tangles out of it. "You don't really seem to take the time to take care of this mane you call your hair," he mused, arching a brow up at her.

"I really don't have _time _to take care of it like I should," Vriska responded as she sat up and crossed her legs, sitting up straight to let him brush her hair. "I was thinking about cutting it all off. At least then, it wouldn't get in my way." But she liked the way it fell around her face and framed her body when it was down, and she enjoyed the simple act of braiding it when she did. She let him brush it out, however, and the smile that came to her face was sublime and content.__

__"Whatever you decide to do with it, I trust you will attempt to take the time to care for it," he replied gently as he continued to drag the brush through it. When he could run it through from root to tip without it catching, he took to braiding it loosely until it laid in a relaxed rope down the middle of her back, tied off with one of the simple black hairties that he'd taken to keeping around his wrist for when he was working. With Equius' gentle care of her hair, she had to hold herself back from purring, and she tugged her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees. She turned around once he was finished with it, and leaned up to kiss his cheek._ _

__"Thanks. I'll try to be better with keeping it nice."_ _

__Nepeta's return home was its usual noisy affair, barely pausing when Vriska was noticed as she started talking about meeting some strange young man asking about how to dye roses as she set out a couple of takeout containers, meaning that nobody would have to cook that night unless they really wanted to. Her now shoulder-length hair was tied half up behind her head, her bangs falling to frame her face. She bounced her way over to Equius to occupy his attention now that she was home to steal it from Vriska and was rewarded with just that. Vriska didn't mind at all anyway; she'd always been just fine with Leijon, and the moiraillegiance was the strongest and best one she'd ever seen. All moirails should work just as well, she thought as she confiscated a container of rice for her own, as well as some beef and broccoli to go with. She settled in to eat, and pulled out her phone to start catching up with the people she often spoke to, including her coworkers and Bro. She smiled to herself at his rundown of the night prior, with him having to babysit a pair of tripping artists as well as Sollux. Nepeta noticed, and asked what she was amused by, and she relayed the information to the two of them._ _

__The night dragged on, and she was caught up in a discussion with one of her contacts about the complete ridiculousness of having not thought to spread out through the states like they should have been doing this whole time. They had enough people to make a dragnet of sorts for rare valuable treasures. She had traveled outside to their balcony and was camped out on one of the chairs, chain smoking as she talked to him. Equius had chosen to keep Nepeta company as she continued to talk about her day after they'd all finished eating, letting Vriska have her time on the phone. He had no context for most of what she was discussing and no idea who she was actually talking to, but he wouldn't pry for the information. He accompanied Nepeta back to her room and sat there with her until she'd fallen asleep, as had become a nightly ritual for them to keep her from suffering the intense night terrors that he now knew had plagued several of the others. As soon as she'd fallen asleep he crept out again and stepped out to stand like a sentry at Vriska's side. It was cool out here at night, quite comfortable especially for this time of year._ _

__Vriska looked up at the door when it opened and gave Equius a brief, sharp smile. She wrapped things up on the phone, running her hand up Equius' back idly, since he was right there and she could. She looked up at him once she hung up and smiled faintly. "The coordination in this detail is ridiculous. Tightly contained chaos. But things are finally figured out, and we're finally working in a network instead of a clusterfuck." She stood and pressed a kiss to Equius' cheek. "Which means less time on the road, and working closer to home. Good news for everybody."_ _

__"Very fortunate indeed," he agreed with a small smile and laid his hand on her shoulder, running it down to take her hand and run his thumb over her knuckles. "I only have to wonder how long it will last before you get restless."_ _

__With a squeeze of Equius' hand, she gave him a sassy look and shook her head. "Yes, let's just worry about that right now, instead of feeling happy for the news." Her brow quirked momentarily before she took his hand and started back inside. "Let's worry about the future when the future happens. If I get stircrazy, you'll be the first to hear about it." She had even had her choice of where she'd be set up, and she chose to be in New England. For more than the obvious reasons, but also because the likelihood of being caught in an urban center like Boston or New York City was slim. She had better luck in highly populated areas. Without warning he scooped her off her feet and carried her back toward his bedroom, his expression neutral but definitely rather amused as he did so. Vriska was heavier than she looked, all compact muscle and wiry strength. Still almost nothing for him to lift but impressive nonetheless. With a sharp gasp of surprise, Vriska put on a fake scowl and swatted Equius' shoulder for picking her up without warning. She was put down after the bedroom door had been closed behind him, seated on the edge of the cocoon stationed against the back wall of the slightly cluttered space. She held onto him for the duration, however, and once back on her feet, she shook her head in amusement, following as she went back to pinning her braid up. Once she was right back in his space, Vriska looked at him with a smirk, putting her hand on his chest, while her other hand ran through his hair._ _

__"I'm not that tired," she pointed out quietly. And it was true; Vriska rarely actually slept. Most of the time she spent laying down, it was spent going through a ridiculous amount of plans and a to b to c connections she had to make to make everything go smoothly._ _

__"That may be, but I am on a schedule," Equius replied, laying his hand over hers and bowing his head briefly to touch the end of his nose against hers, a precursor to an actual kiss that was little more than a peck. "I would like to have you here with me though rather than milling about the apartment by yourself. You deserve not to be alone for a little while."_ _

__Vriska sighed and shook her head with a small smile. "Thank you, Equius." She'd also been trying to be coy, but that seemed to go over his head. She leaned back up to kiss him again, a slow, lingering thing, more chaste than she wanted. "I wouldn't want to keep you up if that isn't what you want," she tried again as she reached up to remove his glasses, setting them aside so she could look into his eyes. They were a much deeper blue now that he'd grown up, and the bags beneath them had faded off some now that he'd finally realized that he wasn't going to be under nearly as much pressure from both society and from himself. He'd gained something of a reputation in this particular neighborhood as almost Elizabethan in his manners, no matter who he was speaking to, purely out of habit. The relaxed state looked good on him. When she got a chance to look into his eyes, it made her own expression soften just faintly. He had always worn sunglasses, which always made it something of a secret. Vriska liked the underlying feeling of getting to know secrets, no matter how silly it was, and this was no different. With the kiss, her own eyes fluttered closed, and she leaned into him, her robotic fingers tracing down his cheek and then back down his neck. When they drew away from each other, she pouted, not because she was greedily wanting more, but because it had to end, even temporarily._ _

__Looking back at her closely, Equius dipped his hand into the hair at the nape of her neck, bowing his head to press another longer, more intimate kiss to her lips. His movements were slow, careful and thought out as he made them, his free hand running over her hip to rest just below the small of her back. He pulled her close to him as he held the kiss a few seconds longer, then stood back up straight and peeled his shirt off over his head to lay on the top of his dresser to be worn again later._ _

__Once her own shirt was slipped off and tossed aside onto the back of a chair, Vriska slipped out of her shorts and underwear as well before she hopped up onto the brim of the cocoon, crossing her legs at the ankles as she looked at Equius with a smile._ _

__After Equius shed his own shorts he turned to face her again, making an extreme effort to control the fluster that made him want to break out in a sweat again. He laid his hands on her knees and eased them apart just enough to be able to stand between them, looking her in the face once more. His touches continued to remain more on the innocent side, but it was clear that he was trying very hard to get comfortable with the idea of touching and being intimate with another person outside of the confines of his own imagination. He started to let the walls down around his mind, letting her into the graphic tangle of flesh that took up his attention when he wasn't focused on one of his myriad projects._ _

__With him between her legs, Vriska wasn't bothering with wondering what was going on in his mind, and wasn't bothering with prying. She had better things to occupy herself with. She put her arms over his shoulders, running her hands through his hair before slipping them down his spine. She dipped down to press a kiss to the corner of his lips, whispering an encouraging, "you're so careful, it's wonderful," before claiming his mouth once more. Vriska put her legs around his waist and pulled him closer still, letting out a little murmur at the feeling of his skin against hers. He opened his mouth to argue that it was necessary, until it was occupied by hers and easily consumed. One of his hands came to rest on the edge of the cocoon beside her leg and braced him as he leaned forward, the other hand running up the center of her body and coming to rest against her jaw and tipping it up to give him access to her neck. He was grateful that she wasn't so fragile that he could hurt her with a touch, but he wouldn't be surprised if she came out of any endeavor with him with a few bruises pretty much everywhere. Tipping her head up to let Equius do as he wished, she ran her nails across his scalp, smiling faintly as she tugged his hair, lightly at first to see what his reaction would be to it, before her other hand went down to cup over his, guiding it down her leg. Vriska finally slipped quietly into his mind and caught her lower lip with her fang, trying not to get too riled up just by the vivid imagery._ _

__"Everything you want," she murmured, letting a little shiver of breath escape, "is more than fine with me."_ _

__He began to pick up on the subtle scent between them and took a deep breath, his nose still pressed into the hollow of her throat as his hand followed hers then moved in on its own to brush over the inside of her thigh, spreading them further apart. slowly he started to mouth his way down her body, trusting that more than his hands to do what he wanted without risking hurting her. Before long he was on his knees in front of her, worshiping her relatively unblemished thighs, his hands resting at her hips. He looked up at her from there, nonverbally asking permission to go on. Vriska moaned lightly with her hand still in Equius' hair, looking down at him with a smirk, slipping her leg over his shoulder to guide him slowly closer while she held the edge of the cocoon, keeping herself from falling into the slime behind her. His arms hooked under her thighs, Equius pushed forward until his lips were pressed firmly against the sheath of her bulge, his tongue running up along the cool skin then dipping in and pushing into the sensitive inner walls. Her flavor was subtle and pleasant, making him all the more enthusiastic as he opened his mouth a little wider, pressing in as deeply as he could manage while one finger touched the tip of her bulge so that it would have something to curl around when it emerged._ _

__She had to keep herself from moaning loudly and brought her robotic hand to her mouth, clamping down so she muffled herself, groaning through her nose instead as her toes curled at the initial penetration of his tongue. Vriska huffed half a chuckle at her own reaction, and shook her head as she felt her bulge slipped out, tightly curling around Equius' finger, and then winding around his hand as well. She was already dripping and worked up, and she slid one foot down his back, pushing him closer again, not that he needed to be any deeper. It was simply because she _could_ make him get closer, and egg him on. His chest was nearly pressed to the side of his cocoon as it was and he didn't have much more room, though he certainly tried. He cocked his head just enough to one side to reach in deeper, his free hand creeping back behind her to rest on the firm curve of her ass and pull her hips forward. He was quiet about his ministrations, but not for a lack of enthusiasm; the longer he went, the more he learned and processed about just what she liked and held onto that information as if it were sacred._ _

__It wasn't long - only a few minutes - before Vriska huffed a breath and put her hand down firmly on Equius' shoulder, groaning "Get up here, Zahhak," practically demanding it rather than sounding needy. She wasn't about to let him go unrewarded for how unraveled he made her feel. The minor issue of his overwhelming strength getting in the way of a good time came to mind and she got a vicious smile at her mental solution to it. "How much do you trust me?" She asked as she curled her fingers through his sleek hair, her lower lip caught under her fang again._ _

__Wiping his mouth with his hand, Equius looked back at her with his head at a slight tilt, seriously considering that for all of two seconds before replying, "Implicitly."_ _

__Vriska smiled and kissed him roughly before nodding to the cocoon, murmuring against his lips. "Get in." She slipped into the cocoon as she withdrew from him, moving her hand down to let her bulge twist and constrict around her fingers as she sat up, waiting for him to join her._ _

__For as bulky as he was, Equius moved gracefully as he climbed in after her. He sat down in the slime in front of her then laid back, keeping a careful eye on her. Once Equius was settled, she slipped up over him, straddling his legs as she brought her hand away from her own bulge to tease against his sheath and brush her fingers down to slip into him momentarily. "I'm going to make it so you can't move your legs or hips, but you'll still be in charge of everything else," she explained as she slipped into his mind to take control away from him in those areas alone. Her hand moved up to tease his bulge up and out, looking into his eyes. "I'll give you back your control once we're done, of course, but this is just as much for my safety as it is for your pleasure."_ _

__As the ability to move the lower half of his body was taken from him Equius frowned, but that gave way to a softer look accompanied by a bitten lip and furrowed brow. "C...Completely understandable," he murmured, shuddering as she manipulated his bulge. He looked up at Vriska with slightly hazy eyes, willing her to come close enough for him to get his mouth on her again._ _

__Vriska moved herself close enough to nip his ear, and did so with a smirk, before tipping her head back to allow him to do as he wished to her neck. As she did, she slipped her hand away to let her bulge tangle with his momentarily, so she could free up her hands to go back to touching his firm chest and arms. She twisted her bulge tightly around his, the strength of its grip not unlike a boa constrictor's around its prey. On reflex his responded in kind, the strength of it predictable. He also seemed to be able to control it easily, letting it tangle around hers and run up along the texture of it. His hands rested flat against her back as he didn't quite trust gripping down on anything in case he cause her some incredibly painful damage. He mouthed and sucked along the curve of her throat and down her chest, his face nestled between the modest curves of her spheres._ _

__It didn't surprise Vriska that he had learned to control his bulge, though it did delight her immensely. She didn't have the same kind of control, and it irked her somewhat, but she did manage to encourage his bulge to slip further back, down towards her nook with the pulsating tightness of its grip. She let out a soft, raspy moan when he got closer to her spheres, arching her back at his mouth's coolness against her skin. As soon as his bulge had found the relative warmth of her nook it started to push in, though he was careful to control how much at a time; while the length of it was average, the girth was a good deal more substantial and could easily end up hurting her if it went in too quickly. He chose to make the most of the slow ministrations by sucking at the soft, pliant skin pressing against his cheek, careful to keep his teeth out of the way for the most part, knowing that they weren't the safest to bring anything soft near. He let a quiet grunt through his nose at the urge to thrust up, his lower body remaining immobile in Vriska's grip._ _

__The mental feeling of her grip on his hips being tugged was strong in itself and she let out a soft, whispered laugh as she rolled her own hips down in a firm movement. She let out a shuddered moan, attempting to stay quiet for Nepeta's sake, though she had every desire to be loud as she possibly could be - she hadn't quite expected the girth of him, and although there was no trouble with friction, she felt herself stretching to accommodate him. He'd stilled for the moment simply to let her adjust, his eyes falling closed in his concentration. He laid back again and let a shuddering sigh as he was finally able to push in further until he couldn't move anymore. He had never been very loud in much of anything that he did and this was no exception. She tightened her thighs' grip on his hips before she started a slow movement onto him, rolling herself against his bulge while her own writhed and twisted in need of something to curl around. She moved her hand down to facilitate that, looking down at him with a nearly sweet smile, gracefully moving against him, giving him just the kind of show she thought he'd enjoy while he was leaned back. She brought her free hand up to press her chromed fingers up against her lips as her eyes slipped closed, smiling as she played her hand down her own body._ _

__As he released his rigid control on his bulge, Equius opened his eyes, only to nearly have them roll back at the sight before him. He let out a shuddering sigh and ran his hand up along her stomach to rest against the center of her chest, letting him get a good look at her face. "Absolutely breathtaking," he murmured and tangled his fingers around her bulge._ _

__"Yes you are," she cooed back, her eyes opening up to look down at him. She had started to drip more prolifically, though by no means close to her peak, and that made it easier still to rock herself down against him. As she did, she arched her back, and then arched back more and more, bringing her hands to rest against his thighs, then down behind and below herself to play against his nook in turn, slipping her fingers inside. She considered, briefly, turning around on him to have a better angle to push her bulge inside him in turn, but decided against it; this was too much fun as it was and she wasn't sure how long he'd hold out this way, anyway._ _

__Had he not had an iron grip on his self control, he might have come already, especially with the introduction of fingers into flesh rarely explored. When she'd responded to his compliment he only slowed down further, his body thrumming with tightly reigned energy. Bent back as she was, Equius could see in sharp detail the curve of her ribcage and the play of light over her chest. He could have written sonnets about it had he been in a better position to do so but for now, he simply held her thighs in a bruising grip and let her do whatever she wanted with him._ _

__The grip made her let out a soft moan, and she smiled, pushing herself back up to look into his eyes, slipping her fingers away from his nook to bring the dripping digits into her mouth, flicking her tongue against them to clean them off. She caught sight of the pail nearby, and kept it in mind for when she knew she'd need it - which, considering how he was reacting, wouldn't be long for her. She leaned back down once she'd cleaned her fingers of his fluids, and put her mouth over his neck, brushing her sharp fangs against the flesh, but not biting. She pressed her tongue against his skin, however, and let out a little murmur of delight, slowly letting him get partial control of his hips and legs, and whispered, "I'll keep you from being too rough, just go ahead. Go."_ _

__The only thing that kept him from slamming up into her with the force of a sledgehammer was the grip she still had on him. He jerked up and braced his feet against the bottom of the cocoon, lifting her up with the force of it. He could smell himself on her breath and it was both disconcerting and undeniably erotic. It wouldn't be much longer before he would have to scrabble for the pail as his body grew overly sensitive to every last thing. She leaned over him and pulled the pail closer as she shuddered her every breath, her other hand's grip rough and bruising against his shoulder. She buried her face into his neck to keep from showing him exactly how much that both hurt and turned her on, her cheeks having gone blue from the sensation and nearness of her peak. She finally positioned the bucket between their thighs and slipped away to aim herself down, the steady drip becoming a deluge after just a moment of realizing how the lack of him within her made her feel strangely hollow._ _

__Equius couldn't help the quiet, slightly mournful growl when she pulled away, the fragrance of blueberries filling the cocoon as she came. He had to wrap a hand around himself to keep holding back, his brow knitted in slight frustration until he could finally bring himself to sit up and let his own genetic material combine with hers in the pail between them. Panting harshly, he looked back at her as soon as it had tapered off, the scent around them nearly suffocating in its intensity._ _

__After taking a few long moments to come down, Equius very carefully lifted the nearly brimming pail out of the cocoon to place on the floor beside it to be disposed of later, or else potentially handed over for the reproduction project, whichever they decided was most suitable. Vriska in the meanwhile had slipped off of his lap and relinquished her grip on his autonomy, slipping close to him to remove her glasses and set them up and away for the night. She rested her head against his shoulder and kept one leg tangled against his, draping one arm over his chest. She smiled at their mingled scent and the cozy afterglow, as she brushed her fingers against his chest in idle, light lines._ _

__With a near inaudible purr Equius laid back, dragging his hand up and down Vriska's spine thoughtfully. This hadn't been how he'd expected his night to go by a longshot, but there was absolutely no way he'd argue against the results. He leaned his cheek against the top of her head and yawned quietly, then pressed his lips to the part of her hair. She was already half asleep by the then, lulled by the quiet purr. She murmured a quiet, "We should go on a real date some day," and closed her eyes. She'd never been on a date before, not a real one at least. She figured of all the people she had ever felt flushed for, Equius would know how to really knock that out of the park. There was a definite appeal to the romantic aspect that she so often ignored._ _

__There was maybe half a second of mulling the thought over before Equius gave a soft, vague noise of agreement before finally drifting off to sleep, one arm draped around Vriska's waist._ _


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halloween in the Brollux household, and then pale get-togethers and a revelation or three.
> 
> HOLY SHIT PILES OF LINKS TO FOLLOW.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In between chapters, there were forays on Dreamwidth that led to a lot of development where Gamzee was concerned. It all couldn't efficiently be edited into the main story, or we would have tried. Read these threads before you go on to the chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> [Gamzee is, of course, not infallible.](http://bakerstreet.dreamwidth.org/1043095.html?thread=650011287#cmt650011287)
> 
>  
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> [But at least he has someone on his side.](http://tiltshotghostimage.dreamwidth.org/1091.html)
> 
>  
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> [Also this.](http://tiltshotghostimage.dreamwidth.org/2627.html)
> 
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> [And this happened.](http://smuppetwrangler.dreamwidth.org/2967.html#cutid1)

In the event of autumn and general holidays happening, the Strider pastime seemed to either be to celebrate it to the point of making even the most enthusiastic holiday participants sick of it, or else to let it go completely unacknowledged. This served the purposes of at least one Captor quite well, as human holidays were things that he personally regarded as complete dogshit on a stale English muffin. As the fall started to come on heavily and turn the leaves on the trees surrounding their lovely property a myriad of colors, Sollux had taken to spending more and more time resolutely staying inside, his sinuses deciding that they were in fact completely intolerant of seasonal pollen of any kind.

Bro's general opinion of holidays was that if grocery stores had aisles dedicated to it, it was probably not the kind of party he was up for. Except for a singular holiday, which required candy and decorations that were more farcical and ridiculous than scary like they should be. Halloween owned. But, regardless of that, he didn't dress up; the extent of his costuming for Halloween was wearing a black shirt that, in Impact font, read HORSE. He'd gotten Sollux one that said BEE, but he wasn't forcing his matesprit to wear the damn thing.

It was the evening of the 31st, and the majority of the kids had come and gone, grabbing candy out of a giant bowl that Bro had shoved at least five large bags of fun-size candies in, promising Sollux that they could eat the remainder themselves. On the TV, mostly as background filler, were some of the most ridiculous, straight up pants-on-head retarded movies ever made for the holiday. Bro was sprawled across their couch, arms around Sollux's thin waist as they ate popcorn and drank beer. "Man, if the dumbass kid just _stopped_ going where radios were, this wouldn't be a goddamn problem," Bro pointed out to the movie. "Then again, shit was universal in the 80s."

Sollux had by now given up on rolling his eyes at the lineup of hilariously bad movies, each gesture making his head start to ache a little bit more. "We're watching Teeth after this, dude. Or at least something with some _good_ gore. Braindead maybe." He'd talked with Dave some about the specific kinds of special effects that were poured into human horror movies, each of them going into rather lengthy technical schpiels about preferred methodology of delivering the most gut-wrenching images. It was generally agreed that Japanese horror had the eerie, and surreal down to a science, but it was the Americans and the French that seemed to really capture the best of realistic blood and guts slashers. It had made Sollux just a little bit elitist about his selection of horror titles.

"We could watch Suspiria," Bro offered. While the cheesy horror movies were fun, and he liked talking back at them and taking digs at the shit special effects, there were times he just loved the shit out of Argento. "Hey check it," he said as he sat up. "I was thinkin', we should throw a party in December. Get all the gang over here. Yeah, I know, there's some shit goin' down then," he didn't have to have his doomy husband tell him about shit waiting in the wings, "but the more people we've got here, the better that'll be. That and shit dude. Presents."

"We all get presents out the ass no matter what we decide to do, whether it be birthdays or wriggling days or just plain desire to give someone something shiny." Sollux snorted quietly and leaned back against the arm of the couch, his arms crossed over his chest as he stretched his legs across Bro's lap. "You know that a lot of the time, the attacks come _because_ we congregate." It was the same all over the world, he'd learned; there were reports of attacks coming from all points on their pseudo-planet intermittently, meaning that more people were indeed waking up and drawing fire.

"This time is different," Bro said with a shake of his head as he stopped the movie, slipping away to change it out for one that was actually good. "This will happen regardless of who is or isn't here. And there's that fun little bullshit about if we try to prevent it, it'll only trigger it into happenin' ahead'a schedule." He pulled out Trick Or Treat, and put in Suspiria. "And Bec's givin' a certain couple of girls a week off, and I think that's reason enough to celebrate. You can hate on Perigee's Eve all you want, but you can't deny how that's reason enough to party."

"Still don't get how the hell you actually communicate with Harley's lusus, he's a damn barkfiend... So concerning the guest list, you intend to invite the Egberts? John will want to see Jade if the girls do come down," Sollux pointed out, taking another couple of swallows from his beer, looking a bit disappointed when he emptied it. He stood to fetch another, bringing back an extra for Bro as well. "Of course, they may already have plans of their own that don't figure any of us into it, which is just as well."

"I'd invite all of 'em. Don't see why Egbert and his son would be exempt. But knowin' him, he's probably gonna decline in the most polite way possible." He sat back down once the DVD was loaded, and popped the beer's cap before taking a swig. "As for talkin' to Bec, it's not like Guardians need words." He shrugged slightly and took a swig of his beer, smirking with a thought. "How'd you talk to your lusus? I mean, it's not like y'all were incapable of communication."

"Vague gestures and guesswork." Sollux settled back down on the couch with his legs pulled up in front of him, his feet pushed together with his knees butterflied out on either side. He picked up the remote for the DVD player and started the movie finally, letting the conversation drop for the time being. He wouldn't have brought the Egberts up at all, except for John's apparent habit of trying to make both Karkat and Dave rue their existences. The first time was hilarious. The second, mostly stupid, and any other time he was faced with the dipshit, all he wanted to do was slap the goofy-looking grin off his face for whatever reason was convenient at the time.

The movie was one of the few horrors that Bro really enjoyed - and for a movie about a ballet school, it really knew how not to pull its punches - and he quieted down as he watched it. His hand moved up into Sollux's hair as he paid attention to the film, running through it for a minute, before he moved his hand down to give Sollux's neck halfassed massage. He noticed that there weren't any more knocks on the door, so about half an hour into the movie, he got up to turn off the porch light and retrieved the candy bowl, setting down the rest of the chocolates in front of them to be picked through as reward for putting up with the kids that night. Sollux tore open a bag of MnM's with his teeth and poured a few of the chocolates into his mouth, turning some in his seat to lay against Bro's side instead while he watched. He'd watched every movie in each of their collections at least once, and this was no exception. He sucked on the mouthful of candy rather than crunching on it, moving it around his mouth until it was mostly mush. He ended up dozing after a little while, his head had falling back against the other's shoulder three fourths of the way through the movie, hands in his lap and the yellow button-up he'd picked to wear with the BEE tee falling down some around his shoulders.

With Sollux asleep on him, Bro watched the rest of the movie with a content smile. Once the it was over, he turned off the entire system and set aside his mostly-finished beer to put his arms around his matesprit, one under his knees and the other around his shoulders, lifting him with little effort. He had done this often enough where he knew that Sollux would just easily sleep through it as he climbed the stairs to their bedroom, and laid him down in the bed. He knew that Sollux had gotten precious little sleep over the past day and some change, and Bro didn't want to have him wake up for no reason, even as awake as he was, himself. Once he knew Sollux was out cold, he slipped off to go work on the servers.

It was rare for Bro to get much sleep at all before dawn. He'd never been one to keep a strict sleep schedule, even before the game came along and fucked everyone over. Things hadn't changed with his death, and only changed for the worse when he was tapped to work as a Guardian. He'd only ever gotten a maximum of five hours, and was more than capable of running smoothly off of that, but it meant long hours of lonesome work while everyone slept around him, and time that needed to be filled somehow.

Sollux seemed to run on just as little sleep as naturally as he ever had on Alternia and before Bro could get truly bored, he had awoken from his nap and crawled back out and downstairs to take a shower, rubbing at his eyes in exhaustion but otherwise perfectly fine. He emerged in a towel wrapped around his largely insubstantial waist and draped himself over Bro's shoulders, peeking down at what he was doing then reaching down to tap it out just that little bit faster.

"You're gonna hafta thleep thometime," he murmured and tucked his nose behind the other's ear with a quiet yawn.

With a smile at Sollux's help, Bro huffed a chuckle and replied, "I don't wanna and you can't make me," before he turned to sneak a kiss to Sollux's cheek. "Nah dude, I'll crash eventually, you know how I do. Just gotta get myself to a point of bodily exhaustion that mere fuckin' code can't accomplish." He turned his chair to face Sollux and pulled him into his lap. "I could do a few laps 'round the neighborhood right now. I'm _really_ not tired."

"Feel like walking? Bet we could do a couple lapth around the neighborhood, come back and thee how you feel and in the event that you're thtill not tired, we can figure thomething out." Grinning, Sollux straightened up and dragged his fingers back through Bro's hair, scratching at the back of his head.

"I said I _could_ , not that I want to," Bro replied, though he didn't seem to be too opposed to the idea of a late night walk around the weird community in which they lived. His hands rested on Sollux's skinny hips as he smiled fondly up at him. "If you go get dressed, we can go and do that now." But what a damn waste of good near nudity, he thought.

"If you don't want to we can stay inside," Sollux shrugged, lifting one knee up to lean against the edge of Bro's chair, his elbows leaning on the other's shoulders with his hands linked behind his neck. He rolled his tongue some in his mouth, waking up a little more over time. "It's chilly as hell out anyway."

Bro raised his eyebrows in an implied shrug, as he slipped his fingers against the towel, untucking the bit that held it on Sollux's body. "Not sayin' no to the prospect of a walk," he corrected, "but you just convinced me to stay in. Ain't much of a fan of the cold, myself." He looked over at the screen briefly, before he looked back at Sollux. "Then again, if we're not goin' on a walk, what _will_ we be doing?" Playing coy wouldn't EVER get boring.

Sollux shifted his leg forward and climbed into the chair along with Bro, settled in his lap with his arms draped around his matesprit's neck. "Hmm, I have no idea," he replied in a mock thoughtful tone. "I'm sure we could think of something to help us expend a little energy though." With a teasing little nip at Bro's lower lip Sollux drew him into a soft kiss, lingering in it for a moment then drawing back with a sly, quiet little laugh. Settling back in his chair a little to give Sollux more room, Bro eagerly responded to the kiss as he put his hand on the small of his husband's back.

"Only a little energy? Mm, dunno how well _that'd_ work," he chuckled as well, trailing his other hand over the front of Sollux's neck, down his chest before diverting its course down to his grubscars, caressing his body, reveling in his skin. Sollux pressed forward against him and bumped his nose against Bro's, his hands coming to lie against the sides of his neck.

"How about we just assume that my definition of 'a little' runs about the same as your definition of 'a minute'." He sucked Bro into another, longer kiss, drawing it out and using the time to reacquaint himself with the familiar landscape of his mouth. His fingers curled at the nape of Bro's neck, tugging gently at his hair.

Bro chuckled again as he leaned into the kiss with his fingers moving up Sollux's spine. He traced the tip of his tongue across Sollux's with a low sound, and his fingers slipped into the other's hair with a slight tug. Once they broke the kiss momentarily, he put his arms around his matesprit and picked him up just to get them down on the couch again, where he sprawled out and brought him back into another, rougher kiss. He pulled Sollux down into an upward rock of his hips as Sollux let out another quiet laugh and braced his arms around Bro's head. He fell forward, pushing back into the kiss as he pawed at Bro's clothes, having decided in the last minute or so that there were entirely too many layers between them. Quickly removing his HORSE shirt and undoing his pants, Bro looked up at Sollux with an amused smirk as he ran his thumb firmly across his matesprit's lips. He considered what they could do that would well and truly wear him out, and decided, after a moment, to suggest, "How about you make me work for it?"

Sollux opened his mouth to bite down gently on Bro's thumb as it passed over his lips. "You wanna work for it, huh... I can do that." Grinning, Sollux lifted himself back up and settled on top of the other's thighs, stretching out languidly then simply leaning against the back of the couch as he considered how he might want to do it. In the end, voyeurism won out and he slid away completely, perching his foot up on Bro's knee.

"I think I'll let you get creative."

"Let _me_ get creative? Oh, I see how it is. Instead of tyin' me down or anything, you're gonna get lazy," Bro teased. He stood and walked away from the sofa to rummage in a cabinet that they stashed various toys and restraints. "See, and here I was implying you actually _make_ me do things, but nope, gotta be all half-asleep and shit," he licked his lower lip as he considered briefly what to bring out, deciding ultimately that he was far happier with no props for the time being. He did, however, grab the pail that everything was stuffed in and walked over with that, setting it down on the floor as he crouched down before his husband on the floor. Sollux just laughed at that, propping his head on his hand and tipped Bro a smug little wink.

"You're the one that wanted to have to work for it, so you're working for it. Besides, I like seeing you make this shit up on the fly." He watched Bro with his head at a tilt, interested in seeing how he was going to approach such an open-ended challenge.

"Nice excuse for just wanting to be lazy," chided Bro as he settled his hands on Sollux's knees. "So how is this me working for it, anyhow? I could just get what I want." He moved his hands up Sollux's thighs, and then back to his knees, brow arched.

"I thought about asking you to put on a little show for me," Sollux replied with a soft, sleepy chuckle, "but it wouldn't be something I haven't already seen."

"Hm." Bro said as he stood, "That means I'll have to make it somethin' you _haven't_ seen. Even if you know every inch of me, that don't mean you've seen everything I can _do_." He stepped back from Sollux and rubbed his chin. "And we've indulged pretty much every kink each other has, so this is gonna be pretty tough." He looked back over at Sollux without turning to face him. "Unless you've been holdin' out on me." Oh, the sly grin, it was _pure_. Sollux just held his silence, dragging the tips of his tongue across his lips and letting his grin widen a little further. This would be part of Bro's 'working for it': a guessing game of sorts that would either end in frustrated sex or discovery of new kinks. He lifted one foot and propped his leg up on Bro's shoulder, enjoying the idea of either possibility quite a bit. Bro slipped Sollux's foot back down and set it on the floor before he smirked and stepped far enough back to not be touched by his matesprit as he slowly worked his jeans down from his hips.

"That's very helpful, Sollux, thank you. Guess that means I can be mum as hell about what _I_ had in mind, too. Got a new thing I wanted to try out, but since you're not bein' cooperative..."

Sollux's brow arched up as he watched the display with that same smug smile in place once more. "Then don't talk, just do." If Bro actually managed to surprise him, all the better. Bro shrugged and slipped out of his jeans before stepping away from them, casual as ever as he walked to one of their spare rooms to grab a box that had shipped to them a few weeks prior. What he brought out with him were two small cases: one with a TENS unit, and the other which held sterile, steel sounds of various widths, with a cleaning kit beside them. He set both cases on the table in front of Sollux and folded his hands behind his back, waiting for his matesprit to choose which one they'd play with first.

Sollux's head tilted, his hand coming to his chin with his fingers tapping across his lips as he looked at each thoughtfully. One, he had experience with, the other, not so much. He opened the box of sounds and tweezed one out, turning it over as his smile started to curl. The electric play, he could go either way on given how often he tended to use that particular route to entertain each of them, without the use of such an apparatus. Now his only question was who the sleek little rods would be going into.

Bro stepped closer to put his hand on Sollux'ss shoulder, dipping down to one knee beside his husband as he murmured, "That's my set. There's a far more flexible set for troll anatomy, providin' you want to try that out one day." He figured the fair amount of discomfort sounding provided would quell his masochistic tendencies, and the novelty and general taboo of it brought out an unexplainable thrill. It also played into his denial/control kink; it was hard to get off with something in your urethra, or at least that was what he'd been told. "You down with it?"

Sollux's lips pressed together some in thought, eventually nodding and turning in place to face Bro fully. He couldn't say he was surprised, knowing what he did about Bro's needs, but this was certainly an interesting approach to it. He replaced the sound in its box then picked out a smaller one, twirling it for a moment between his fingers then leaning up against Bro's side. "You might have to walk me through this one..."

Bro nodded once as he pressed a gentle kiss to Sollux's temple, and slipped away once more to go back to the cabinet and grab the gel lubricant - liquid lube would be a waste, and he wasn't about to try and use Sollux's fluid as lube, as likely as a UTI would be as a result. He brought back the tube of lubricant and set it down beside the sounds, before he slid his boxers down and off his hips. "So gettin' that into me will take patience and precision," he said. "A steady hand, lots of lube," he added as he settled down beside Sollux on the sofa, working the one piercing he had that went through his urethra out, setting the curved piece of jewelry aside. "And trust on my part." Trust which he had implicitly in Sollux, as they both knew. Sollux nodded and took a moment to shift and bend down to mouth along Bro's cock, bringing it up to where he could easily see what he would be doing. He reached for the lubricant first, squeezing a small amount onto the tip of his finger then running it around the head, simply teasing for the time being until he could go for the first sound. He took care to slick the entirety of the slim rod thoroughly before looking back up at Bro, his expression extremely steady for one looking something new and potentially hazardous in the face.

The teasing was enough to make Bro lean back with a content smile. He kept the tube of lubricant in one hand, just so they had it nearby as he looked down his body at Sollux, murmuring, "Slowly." He had no qualms about the size of the thing, just the newness of it. He wasn't even sure what to expect out of the sensation. He rested his head against his free hand and nodded for Sollux to start.

Sollux stretched out on his side with his arm over Bro's thigh, eye-level with the head of his dick as he ran the top of the sound along the center. He eased the tip of it in slowly, careful to stop and pull back just a bit at any resistance. He chewed at his lower lip as he slid the thing further in, keeping every adjustment slow and easy until it had disappeared halfway down. The initial insertion felt just like putting in his piercing's jewelry, but once it breached past where the piercing went, a cold shiver of sensation went up Bro's spine and he gave a short, shallow gasp, his smile twitching into place. Glancing up at Bro's face with just a touch of apprehension, Sollux ran his hand up along his matesprit's stomach then down his thigh. "So far so good?"

There wasn't much pain or discomfort, so far, but he attributed that to the thin width of the sound itself. "Yeah, it's good," he murmured. "Could take the one a couple sizes up," he decided. Nodding, Sollux retracted the sound and laid it aside to be cleaned, reaching for one of the larger sizes and lubricating it just as thoroughly. He took a moment to mouth and tease along the side and down the base before repeating the process, sliding the wider rod slowly into the other's urethra, his free hand holding him still to keep him from getting hurt. THERE was the discomfort he was looking for, laced with the unique and novel sensation that Bro knew he wouldn't soon become used to. Sollux licked his lips after a moment's thought, glancing up at Bro then letting a tingle of psionic energy envelop and hold his erection up as the sound was thrust very slowly into him.

He let out a quiet groan, which became a louder gasp once Sollux started in with the psionics. He wanted to tell Sollux how it felt, but the look on his face spoke better than he could at the moment - it was clearly enough to be getting him deep into it. He caught his lower lip between his teeth and huffed through his nose, getting goosebumps at the slight chill of the metal inside him, though it was quickly warming up. Sollux smiled faintly and pressed his lips to the inside of Bro's thigh, holding the sound in place as he ramped up the intensity of the psionics just a little then let his hands slip away. He bit down on Bro's thigh, leaving a ring of obvious marks in the pale skin. Getting Bro as sensitive as possible seemed to have become the game, now that he couldn't easily come. Bro was plenty sensitive, as could be assessed by the fact that with the bite, he let out a loud groan and arched his back, while precome dripped down around the rod. He finally caught himself enough to murmur, "that feels amazing," and looked down at Sollux with a decadent smile.

Sucking gently at the wound, Sollux ran his hand back up along Bro's thigh then down the cut of his hip to wrap around the base of him and give him a slow pump, his fingers closing around the sound and moving it in languid strokes. He debated for a moment on going up another size, but given that this was new to them, it was best to wait for Bro's word on the matter. For the time being, just watching him writhe was enough. Once he got used to the feeling of having the sound in him, Bro reached down to slowly twist it, proving to himself that that particular sensation was well worth the discomfort as well. He smiled down at Sollux as he rocked into the pump of his hand, and then moved the rod out of himself, slowly pulling it up and out. "Gonna need to do a _lot_ more of that in the near future," he murmured. "For now, I think it's time I get to you."

"What, you have something in mind for me?" Sollux teased as he released his hold and sat back upright, licking a spot of blood from his upper lip. He leaned against Bro's side and scratched the tip of his nail behind his matesprit's ear, smiling faintly at the blush he could see. Bro arched against Sollux with a purring groan before smirking and setting the sound aside, before completely wrapping his arms around his husband, nipping his neck and earlobe.

"I've got a _shitload_ in mind for you," he promised, before he left a trail of bites and licks down his matesprit's body. His fingers ran over Sollux's sides as he descended, and with a swift movement - barely perceptible by most - he moved to grab the TENS unit, deciding just where he was going to place the four leads. Stretching out on his back with his arms up over his head, Sollux chuckled quietly, letting his heel rest on the floor. He sucked in a quiet breath at the coolness of the pads when they were stuck to his skin. "It's been a long time since I've done any actual electric play," he mentioned offhand, his cheek coming to rest against his arm.

The TENS unit had actually been in his possession years before Sollux had even come into his life, for its intended rehabilitative purposes, but he'd found the fun of it out of curiosity. It clearly hadn't made that much of an impression though, given he had only recently unearthed the thing from the boxes that had come with him from Texas. He licked his lower lip as he positioned the last lead, having affixed the leads against Sollux's lower abdominal muscles, knowing that it got himself rather worked up when he placed them there. "Yeah, been a few years for me, too," he admitted with a kiss to the skin between the four pads. He turned on the unit and slowly worked on amplifying the energy. Sollux hissed quietly, trying to keep himself from tensing up at the sudden peculiar tingling sending warm, rather ticklish sensations deep into his lower belly. He pressed his lips together and closed his eyes as the muscles twitched. Its effects weren't immediately apparent, but after a certain point he shuddered and gripped down on the cushion under his head as the air immediately around his nether regions began to sweeten. He murmured after a little longer to relocate two of them to his inner thighs, far enough down that they wouldn't get wet. Bro carefully removed the leads from one place to the other and looked up at Sollux for confirmation that they were in the right place,. He slipped between his matesprit's thighs himself, brushing his fingers over Sollux's sheath and then down towards his nooks, where his fingers teased, staying shallow for the moment. He never got over the expressions on Sollux's face when he was overwhelmed by the sensation of something, and his smile tilted as he brushed his fingers along the entrance of Sollux's nooks.

"Fuckin' look at you," he muttered with a calm smile, "Enjoyin' yourself so much."

As much as he really couldn't move his legs with the leads attached to his thighs, Sollux still used his shin to knock Bro's hand away from his nooks, giving him an arched brow and a soft smirk. "You have to work for that," he purred, then grinned up at him until the voltage was upped once more, giving him cause to moan quietly, squirming on the spot.

"Oh will I?" Bro asked, brow arched at Sollux with a cocky smile. He ran his hands up the outer side of Sollux's thighs as he licked his lower lip. "And how do you propose I'm gonna go and earn that?"

Reining in as much of his composure as he could manage, Sollux sucked in a deep, calming breath, though it barely worked for more than a few moments to keep his voice steady. "Challenge for you...if you can get me off without ever needing the pail, I'll let you do whatever you want." It was something that he'd never had done before, though he knew it was possible; everyone seemed to be in it for the money shot, but he wanted to reach climax just once before actually blowing a load.

Bro's brows arched high, then he smiled, a bit puzzled. "Can you _do_ that?" He asked, while he thought over the various ways he had managed to stimulate Sollux to the point of near orgasm, before he grinned. "Well, then you're gonna need to let me up in there," he said with a shrug.

"I can do that, but it'th pretty hard. That'th what maketh it a challenge," Sollux murmured, licking his lips and giving Bro a tilted smile, his hips lifting up some as he braced his feet, one on the floor, the other up against the arm of the couch. "Have fun."

Smirking as he slipped away with a pat to Sollux's knee, Bro went over to the cabinet again, keeping the TENS unit on while he shuffled around for one specific set of toys, then came back with a blindfold and a pair of slender, long glass toys with curved tips, which he kept out of Sollux's view. He set them quietly down before he swiftly went up and tied the blindfold over his matesprit's eyes. "Don't peek," he said with a smile, before he slid his hands back down Sollux's body. Slicking the glass toys over with lube was the first issue of business after he assured himself that the leads to the TENS unit were still attached firmly. He then held both at their bases and teased against Sollux's nooks with the chilled glass. Slipping them in slowly, Bro murmured, "you know I'm not gonna stop til I get you to do that, now." He moved the toys deeper in and angled them in such a way to brush over a spot that he could only just barely reach with his own fingers. It was far enough back that trying to reach it practically required the use of toys. But he knew it was there, and what it did to Sollux when it was properly stimulated.

His brow furrowing at the coolness of the toys slipping into him, Sollux immediately sucked his lower lip in between his teeth. It was a minor distraction from the electricity, but soon they warmed and he was able to focus on all three at once. Swallowing another quiet moan, Sollux nearly commented on what Bro was doing, until the toys were positioned _just so_ and his chest inflated, his breath catching and shuddering some when he let it out again. "Ah fu-" He caught his tongue between his teeth, though he had to let it go before it was punctured through and instead he let his mouth fall open. He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands and trying to keep them out of the equation entirely was becoming harder and harder.

Putting the bases of the toys into one hand to move them in a slow, but perfectly indulgent rhythm, Bro leaned forward to catch one of Sollux's hands with his free one, and pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw, which opened up and blossomed into a careful, but firm bite. He wanted Sollux to appreciate every second of this, and was doing all he could to provide exactly what his matesprit had asked for.

The care that Bro always seem to take with such endeavors never ceased to surprise him. Sollux squeezed down on Bro's hand and wrapped the other arm around his matesprit's shoulders, huffing a breath into his ear. The TENS leads were starting to become painful from how long they'd been left alone but as the toys were angled into that spot that he could barely reach with his own fingers he couldn't exactly say as much without making Bro stop completely. It must have been showing on his face though, as the unit was turned off, giving the muscles a chance to relax. At the relief, Sollux could stretch out and really enjoy what Bro was doing, his leg lifting rather weakly and draping across the other's hip. Bro huffed another breath against Sollux's neck and moved up to nip his ear and leave a hot breath against it before flicking his tongue over the lobe. He went back to manipulating the toys, speeding up his ministrations while he moved his head to catch Sollux's mouth with his own. It wasn't so much about getting to do anything he wanted - what he wanted more than anything at that moment was to give Sollux the orgasm he craved - but more the enjoyment of trying to get his matesprit there.

Sollux moved in the kiss to run his tongue back over Bro's then drew back to tuck his nose under the shelf of his jaw. He wanted to pull the blindfold off to be able to look his matesprit and husband in the face, to watch his concentration as he strove to meet the challenge that had been set down. At a particularly hard pass over the sweet spot he arched up, his nails digging furrows into Bro's shoulder as those of the other hand bit into the spaces between Bro's knuckles. Bro took an inward hiss at the pain before he let out a low chuckle against his neck, and he slipped his hand away to brush his fingers against his grubscars before removing the leads from Sollux's thighs. He moved down once they were removed, and kissed the sore muscles, his mouth opening to trail his tongue wide against the place between where one set of leads had been while he sped the movements of the toys further. He let out a low murmur as he rolled his own hips into the couch cushion, his own erection starting to become something of an unignorable problem. He rumbled, "God you look so good like this," before he moved his mouth upwards towards Sollux's hip.

Keeping his bulges from slipping out into the open was becoming a losing battle. As Bro's mouth moved over his thigh and up his hip the first one slid out, the other joining it after a few seconds as the pair rubbed against one-another and crept up over Bro's cheek. Sollux moved his hand down to let them tangle around his fingers, gripping down hard to try and keep them out of the equation. "Come on, little more," he panted quietly, his hips pushing forward as the toys were angled in a slightly different way with the subtle movement of his body. Bro reached up to pull the blindfold off, before he sat back up once more to put both his hands to work at manipulating the toys, moving them in such a way as to work around the edges of the other's globes, instead of straight up and over them, keeping a steady pace. Once he got them into a decent position, he slipped one hand away while the other took over for it while still keeping the toy moving, and he brought his free hand down to brush his fingers over Sollux's chute, teasing there while he looked his husband in the eye. He had a determined little grin on his face, sure and steady, no hint of defeat in it yet.

"C'mon babe," he murmured in encouragement. Sollux's eyes opened wide once the blindfold was removed and he stared straight back at Bro, letting out a hot breath across his lips. There was a quiet, barely-there purr rolling up from his chest the longer it went until he finally let out a quiet, rather helpless-sounding whine. He was right at the peak, his nerves singing a glass-shattering high note that only needed just the right touch to send him over. He was leaking heavily from his nooks, but with the lack of stimulation to his bulges it didn't seem as if he would be needing to grope for a bucket yet. Bro grinned and let Sollux stay at that high point for just a moment before he slicked his finger over with the slick fluid that his matesprit's nooks had provided, and then slipped a single fingertip carefully into Sollux's chute, as he kept up with the toys' movements in the same, steady pace. Sollux's muscles clenched down around the digit inside him, his eyes closing tight as he let out a high, almost pained-sounding gasp. He sucked in a deep breath as the lights flashing behind his eyes began to subside, letting him lie back. He was leaking heavily around the toys still deep in his nooks, the couch beneath him starting to soak with the fluid. He laid back as he shuddered a quiet laugh, looking up at Bro with a lopsided smile.

Bro slowly removed his finger and the toys, careful not to overstimulate Sollux as he did, smiling victoriously as he set the glass toys aside. He settled back against the other side of the couch, one foot up against the back, as his other leg dangled off the front. He was glad that Sollux enjoyed that and his expression said as much as he tipped his head back against the armrest, and laced his fingers together over his chest. Sollux took a moment to pull himself together, drawing his hand away as his bulges slipped most of the way back inside, slightly engorged but not enough to prevent them being withdrawn. He pulled himself back upright using the back of the couch, leaning on it heavily and giving Bro a crooked smirk.

"Tho...? You can't tell me you're jutht thatithfied with that."

"Didn't say I was," Bro pointed out with a cocky grin. "I mean, that was pretty fuckin' awesome, but yeah, I'm not done yet." He reached over to grab Sollux's wrist, pulling him down towards him to wrap an arm around him. "I'm pretty much down for whatever at this point. Anything goes, as long as it goes."

Falling forward onto Bro's chest, Sollux grinned and butted his head gently, his arms draping over his matesprit's shoulders. "You don't have any specific ideas anymore?" He pecked playfully at Bro's lips then rearranged his legs to rest over the one stretched out to rest on the ground.

"Ran out, well's gone dry," Bro deadpanned, although he was still smiling as he snuck another few quick kisses. "But you're a bright guy, you can figure somethin' out for me." He knew it was futile, trying to play the dumb Texan in front of Sollux, but it was worth a try. Except it really wasn't. Sollux just arched an eyebrow at him, laying there on his chest with his legs slung over Bro's lap.

"And what if I'm still feeling a little sleepy, hm?"

"I'm sure there's a couple throw pillows I can jam my dick between," Bro said with a lazy shrug and a smirk. "You can go off to bed, I'm not gonna say no." He did, however, roll his hips a little at that, and pressed another kiss to Sollux's forehead.

"Should I be offended that you would have an affair with the pillows?" Sollux snorted then bit on Bro's lower lip, pulling then letting it go and sitting up. "If I go to bed you're coming with me and I'm not gonna let you argue either."

"I'll go with you, just let me clean the stuff up, and I'll be in," Bro said, nodding to the table full of toys. "Shouldn't be more than a couple minutes to get the stuff in the dishwasher." He'd been considering buying an autoclave for no other reason than to sterilize some of their toys, but the need hadn't really presented itself yet. He pressed another quick kiss to Sollux's cheek, and then patted his ass. "Up, spindly one, I'm likin' the prospect of bed more and more."

Sollux stretched as he stood, lifting up onto his tiptoes briefly then starting up the stairs toward the bedroom. He would need to really get off in the near future to alleviate the pressure in his lower abdomen, but that wouldn't be a problem, he knew. He intended to see to Bro when he got situated, but when he crawled back into bed and got comfortable he wasn't sure he felt like moving anymore. He fidgeted a bit on the spot, ending up sprawling out on his back with his arm up over his eyes. Once Bro joined him, the things had been put away and the mess on the couch had been blotted off as best it could be - he'd have to take the wet/dry vac to it in the morning - before he even thought to settle in. He sprawled out on the bed, wrapping his arm over Sollux's waist and pulling him closer.

"Next time I sound, I'm gonna need a camera on it," he decided with a mutter. "Somethin' worth showin' off."

"Thought the same thing myself," Sollux murmured, rolling onto his side and leaning up against Bro comfortably. "One of these days we might try and make up a to-do list for videos so if we run out of ideas we can just refer to that." He dragged his fingers along the line of Bro's collarbone then draped his arm back over his matesprit's neck, pecking his lips once more. Already he was starting to doze back off, deciding that they could most certainly have a very good morning when they woke up again.

Kissing Sollux in kind, Bro nodded sleepily and wrapped his arm more easily around his husband. "Sounds pretty reasonable. Remind me in the mornin'." His fingers kneaded against Sollux's back as he fell asleep, comfortable in their easy sprawl against each other.

In the morning (or early afternoon, apparently) Sollux was already up before Bro, sitting on the kitchen counter with his phone in hand, sipping from a mug of coffee approximately the size of his head. He was chatting with Dave about what they'd done for Halloween, namely absolutely jack all besides movies, laughing a little at a photo of Karkat with a layer of flesh toned body paint and bleached out hair. He looked absolutely ridiculous, even more so than Dave painted grey with false horns and dark hair. He gave it a week before they each got sick of their respective hair colors and dyed them back. Bro shuffled in about twenty minutes after he realized that Sollux wasn't anywhere within arm's reach, scratching through his scruff and looking just about like he was about to pass right back out.

"Think we should give the guest rooms up to the girls while they're down here visitin'?" He asked groggily as he poured himself some coffee and looked through the fridge with a huge yawn. He had been seriously considering at least semi-adopting Jade until she could get on her feet since her human guardian was MIA, and Bec had other shit to take care of once the world was settled in. "Maybe let 'em stay here once shit is settled in permanent like, and let 'em get on their feet before they go off being members of society or...whatever our Lara Croft ladies wanna do."

"Pretty sure Jade would be happy ath a clam boarding here until she findth thomething for herthelf," Sollux yawned. Morning was a time for him to be lazy with his speech and so everything was lisp. "Ath for Aradia...she'th probably got some kind of planth for her life when she cometh to thtay permanent. I'd thay jutht athk them perthonally when it getth to that point." He handed over a bowl and a box of cereal in case Bro wanted some food with his caffeine. With his the milk in one hand, Bro sat down beside Sollux, and he took the cereal and bowl with a nod of thanks. He dug in with a spoon fetched from the nearby drawer.

"Yeah, figured I'd ask. I just know Jade's got nowhere to be once she's done. The island ain't here - its only purpose was to be the frog temple's place, y'know? And it ain't like Gramps is around to take care'a her or nothin'." He shrugged. "It's either here, with the Egberts, or with Madame Mad Science."

"I'd thay Dad'd be more than happy to take her in," Sollux nodded and took the cereal back, putting it back up out of the way. He finished the majority of his coffee then glanced down into the mug, thinking for a moment before getting the cereal down again and filling his mug with it, followed by the milk that was still out. He snagged a spoon and started to eat without ever leaving his seat. "Rothe and Kanaya have more thpathe at their dithpothal tho there ith alwayth the pothibility of athking them to let the girlth thtay a while, too."

"I'm guessin' she'd like hangin' with Mom, now that I think about it," Bro muttered over a mouthful of cereal, rubbing his face with his other hand. "Still, better to give her options than leave our saving graces out in the cold after all they've done for us. Should tell the guys they're showin' up, anyway. I know Dave's been worrying his face off about those girls, whether or not he wants to admit it."

"Thame with Karkat. He might not admit it to anyone, 'thpecially himthelf, but he hath a giant thoft thpot for them both. Of courthe, we _could_ altho thurprithe them," Sollux added with a small smirk, then opened his mouth after chewing another spoonful of cereal and took a picture, sending it off to Dave in revenge for the last selfie he'd received. Bro chuckled quietly and shook his head.

"You really think that'd go over well? The last time I kept a secret from lil' man, he threw me over his shoulder for it."

\--

When Dave got the selfie, he huffed a chuckle of his own, and shot back one of his own - this time it was of a bright red bitemark left on him by Karkat. It was only hours fresh, and looked significantly worse than it was on his pale skin, especially accented with his dyed hair. "I don't think Sollux approved of our costumes," he murmured as he walked past Karkat on his way to grab a cup of coffee.

"You look ridiculous with black hair and blonde eyebrows," Karkat replied as he tapped away on his laptop between bites of the poptart he was currently calling breakfast. He'd been forced to get a new one after his husktop had finally rolled over and died and now he had to get used to the odd keyboard layout while typing the first draft of a term paper. "I'm guessing that he didn't dress up at all?"

"Nope, Bro got him a shirt that has "BEE" on it in impact font. Laziest assholes, I fuckin' swear. You can't punk out like that on Halloween, that just ain't done. And at least it looks better than black eyebrows with blond hair." He leaned over the couch to kiss Karkat's cheek. "I hope you know I make a terrible you. I can't fit all that barely pent up nervous rage. Shit, dude, where do you keep it all?" He had a seat on the floor, beside the front of the couch, looking up at Karkat with a small smile.

"It's stored in the nubs." Karkat looked back at him with a smile of his own, glancing around at a snore from the other room. He shook his head and returned to work, cramming the last of his poptart into his mouth. "If it's any consolation, I make a shitty Strider," he said around his mouthful.

"Nah, you got me down pat. You're kind of ridiculous good at impressions and you've known me long enough where your impersonation is eerie." He took a long swig of his coffee as he looked over at the door. "Sleeping off her candy hangover still?" He asked of Terezi. "I have never seen anyone eat so many skittles in my life."

"If she didn't get diabetes from that Faygo binge, I really thought this shit wouldn't even faze her," Karkat snorted, scratching through the slightly off blonde that his hair had been dyed. He sat back and stretched his arms over his head, then put on his Sollux voice: "You're both thuch fucking wrigglerth, what the hell are you even planning to do drethed like that? Dave thuckth at getting mad and you trying to be cool ith like a pawbeatht trying to thwim."

The impression was enough for Dave to laugh and shake his head, "Basically exactly that. Like he has any room to talk. At least we tried. Man, and you'd think that Bro would have at least tried to dress up. They're like grinches, only halloweeny." He looked up at the ceiling as he laid his head back against Karkat's knee, sighing. "I don't wanna go to work. I don't want to do stuff. Can we just... not do things for a week?"

Karkat reached down and dragged his fingers through Dave's hair, scratching gently and tucking it back behind his ears. "We could," he started, "but then people would start getting curious and nobody would leave us alone and it would achieve exactly the opposite of what we'd be attempting to do in the first place. Damn us for having moderately successful social lives."

"Goddamn people wanting us to be awesome in their general vicinity." Dave sighed again and took another long drink of his coffee. "At least I don't have class today. I can slack off 'til work, that's good enough for me." And he'd be going to work with black hair. That was something he was more than prepared to have people side-eye him for. He knew there'd be definite words from a certain Brit about the state of his haircolor once he saw it, but he figured Cass was the last fucker to be able to judge. He looked down into the bottom of his now-empty cup and sighed. "I guess I gotta fuckin' do work though. Got papers to write, professors to sate like the foul dark gods they are."

"Most professors were glubbed by horrors specifically to make us all hate our lives." Karkat nodded and he put his laptop up on the arm of the couch then tipped over onto his side, letting his arm drape over Dave's shoulder. He didn't have to leave for another hour, thankfully, meaning that he would have time to work a little longer on his paper, or else just grumble about life in the same square foot as his matesprit.

"Man, fuck the horrorterrors, the real evil we should be fighting is against stringent professors and their shit-ass curriculum. Like, why do I need to write a paper on the importance of Victorian Memento Mori photography and its impact on modern photography? There _isn't_ fucking any. You know what? There's literally been twice as many photos taken in the past three years as there had been _ever before_ in history. Ever. And you know what the vast majority of that shit was? Photos of food and stupid unironic duck-lipped selfies. I shit you fuckin' not." He shook his head. "There's fuckall that can be said about dead people posed in front of a camera in the 1800s that relates to spray-tan ducklip myspace angles."

Karkat wrinkled his nose and turned over onto his stomach with his head down on Dave's shoulder, arm wrapped loosely around his neck. "If I ever catch you unironically duckfacing for a photo I'm shoving you into traffic."

"I'm pretty much honorbound to not make that face unless it's for ironic purposes," Dave assured him as he turned his head to press a kiss to Karkat's cheek. "If you haven't noticed by now, I really don't take selfies that aren't 100% irony-based. And neither should anybody else." His smile went tilted as he reached up to rumple Karkat's hair, and then stood up. "I've gotta go take a shower. I smell like a jock strap."

"It worries me that you know what a jockstrap smells like," Karkat replied and sat back up to return to his homework.

Half an hour later Terezi finally put in an appearance, trudging out of her bedroom and into the kitchen, a blob of slime clinging to one of her feet and a slightly sick look on her face. She bent to rifle through the refrigerator briefly, then slunk into the living room and stretched out on her stomach with her head on Karkat's thigh, a bottle of water in hand.

"Karkles... Why did you let me have that much sugar?"

"Because you would have bitten my hand off otherwise."

Dave returned from the shower with his towel wrapped around his hips while he went looking for where he set his tongue barbell. "Anybody got any idea where I left my barbell? I kinda need it so my shit doesn't close up," he said as he looked over the shelves.

"Can't help you, coolkid, it's too small to smell. And would it be too much to ask if you didn't walk around mostly naked?" Terezi said with a squint behind her glasses. "Smelling all that paleness is giving me a headache."

"Your input is noted and blithely disregarded," Dave replied with a roll of his eyes. "And I _know_ you love this shit, so don't even fuckin' play." He leaned down to give Terezi a smooch on the cheek, before squinching up his nose at the squelch of slime under his feet. "Oh god, you missed some, 'Rezi."

"Goddammit. Where's the wet/dry?" She groaned and rolled back upright to clean up after herself. Karkat, meanwhile, put the laptop aside again and passed by Dave to the kitchen, where the barbell was sitting on the counter beside the coffee pot; presumably Dave had left it there so that he could easily find it when he came back through on his way out. He picked up the jewelry and came back to his matesprit's side with the bar in his palm.

"Keep better track of your shit or the cats will hide it under something and then you won't WANT to put it back into your mouth."

With a grateful grin, Dave took his barbell back and gave Karkat a slightly rough kiss of appreciation. "You're a goddamn lifesaver" He gave his matesprit a lopsided smile as he put the jewelry back in, making eye contact as he flicked the tip of his tongue at him. Once it was in place, the ball screwed back on, Dave walked back towards the bedroom to get dressed and work on his paper. Karkat just stuck his tongue after Dave and went back to the couch, pulling his feet up onto it as Terezi reappeared with the vacuum to clean up the mess before either of the cats could start investigating it; Em still hadn't learned to keep away from it and Aura was just a kitten and didn't know any better. Ever since Dave had brought her home, she tended to stay in their room, usually taking up large portions of their bed while they were in it themselves. Em curled up on the arm of the couch and goggled at the vacuum as it went by.

Dave grinned at how fucking domestic everything was between the three of them as he pulled on a pair of loose jeans and a shirt that he wasn't sure whether it was his or Karkat's. The whole thing was cozy as hell, a sharp contrast to their lives on the meteor. He smiled faintly as he realized that he'd done it, he'd gotten what he wanted. Terezi and Karkat were both where he could talk to them. It took them this long to get back to it and he was more grateful than anything. He finally grabbed his phone again and texted Bro, asking if there were any plans for the week other than SSDD and then sent another text to Rose, asking her what they should do about Christmas. It wasn't as if they celebrated, but shit, he figured, they should fucking start. They _deserved_ that shit.

Once Terezi was done vacuuming up the slime, she plopped herself back down on the couch and grabbed her husktop to start on her own work, tipping her head up to face Karkat. "You don't have work too, do you? Wanna go get a late lunch after your class?"

"Thankfully, Bill gave me the day off so I could actually buckle down on my papers," Karkat nodded as he slouched some in his seat to let them both get more comfortable. "Lunch would be good though. We might even bring something back for Dave for dinner, if we actually think of that while we're there." Resting his elbow against the back of the couch, huffed quietly at his computer screen; this wasn't how he wanted to spend his day, not by a longshot. He would have much rather gone back to bed instead of going out and doing responsible adult things. He glanced up at his pesterchum client as a new window popped up, switching his focus to Kanaya as she started with the small talk, leading into a similar discussion of Christmas. She enjoyed most things about the holiday even if she didn't personally celebrate, and loved berating the tacky fashion sense the humans employed. Dave returned from the bedroom and plopped down beside Karkat, his phone in hand and both conversations still open.

"So Bro and Rose want to do up a thing for Christmas. Bro says we might have some special guests drop by. And I mean, not fuckin' dumb special guests, but like, David Bowie level special guests, make some fuckin' holiday memories that transcend generations type shit. Dude, you talkin' to Kanaya? Tell her hey. Not that I didn't tell Rose to tell her hey already, but this makes double sure my salutations are fuckin' felt. So Bro was being a vague shit, as per Bro's usual, but I'm pretty sure he meant our ladies upstairs." He leaned against Karkat as he took the socks from his back pocket to pull them on.

Karkat just arched a brow at him but accepted that either they were both exaggerating again, or else there was someone that they legitimately felt was just _that_ important that would be showing up.

"I had the same feeling, but I don't want to get too hopeful," he sighed, turning the laptop toward Dave. "You tell her yourself if you're so determined to pester her with greetings." He passed off the vague announcement to Kanaya nonetheless, and apparently she had the same idea.

Dave grinned and quickly tapped the capslock off to say hello to Kanaya, and as he typed the words, he snuck a kiss to Karkat's neck. "Maybe this time, we won't have unholy terrors all fallin' out around our ears. I'd like _one_ damn gathering where we didn't have drama." He smiled against Karkat's jaw and then went back to getting ready for work, pulling on the other sock. "Shit, one weekend of seein' everybody without the consequence of playing eldritch exterminator would be pleasant as hell, y'know?"

Karkat agreed with a small smile and leaned his head against Dave's, letting him type until he was done then flicking the capslock back on, purely out of habit. He laid his hand against Dave's cheek, his thumb running over the other's jaw. "We can hope for it all we want but given how shitty things have gone in the past, I really doubt things will go _that_ well. But maybe if they do come and we have that backup, it won't be as hard to deal with."

"Pff, all I want is a vacation that doesn't involve limb loss, death, and Bro shouting at people. Can that be my present? I'd like that present." Dave stood after catching Karkat in a brief kiss, then hugged Terezi as he passed behind her. "I'll see you guys in a few hours. Try not to light the city on fire, okay?" He shoved his shoes on while putting his shades on and tucked his wallet in his pocket, before pulling on his coat, pocketing his phone, and heading out the door. Seeing Jade again would be like staring history straight in the face. He wasn't sure he even remembered what she looked like.

As Karkat and Terezi set about making their plans for the day between classes and when Dave came home, the sky darkened, the cloud cover intensifying as Dave walked. It refused to start raining though, leaving the air humid and sticky in spite of the coolness. Because of the looming threat, the coffee shop was starting to grow packed with pedestrians, students and office jockeys alike. The line needed to be culled down soon or it would be out the door. Without Karkat there for the day, it was bound to be hectic. Once at work, Dave took his station at the counter, getting into a rhythm of taking orders, making flirtatious small talk, filling those orders, working the register, lather, rinse, repeat. He managed to talk Bill into putting something upbeat on the speakers instead of the usual boring latin-flavored indie music they usually had on. He was nodding his head to the beat of some pretty mellow ambient trance when he looked up at the door to an incoming customer, giving them the upward nod and brow waggle as he made someone their latte.

After that person had taken a seat to wait for the line to be trimmed down, another man, smaller and slightly nervous-looking but smiling nonetheless as he joined the line. There was a messenger bag over his shoulder, his hands clasped around the strap. He bounced a little on the balls of his feet as the line crept forward, the barista sending customers away with their orders with impressive quickness. When he was up at the front, he immediately ordered a large coffee with cream and sugar and just a little bit of cinnamon then stood to one side, his head tilted up at Dave, much as Karkat's had been the first day he'd walked into the cafe. Unlike Karkat, though, he wasn't angry; in fact, he didn't even look capable of getting angry, his tanned face round and sweet and slightly lined, the face of a slightly stressed man approaching middle age as gracefully as anyone ever did. And not unlike Karkat's entrance back into Dave's life, Dave was getting the wiggins like he knew the guy, though he knew for a fact that it'd be impossible. He didn't know anybody who even remotely looked like the little dude. He made the large coffee swiftly with the perfect amount of cream, sugar, and cinnamon before handing it off with a "There you go, champ. Free refills on those, by the way, 'cause y'know. It's just americano." He got a lopsided smile as he went back to take another order, swinging around with a turn on his heel, his maneuver throughout most of his life for when he was in a mood where he was just kind of on autopilot and had to change directions.

The little man nodded, giving Dave a broader smile then replying, "Alright, thanks Dave!" and going to turn around himself, only to pause mid-step on the way to one of the few open seats left. He pursed his lips, eyebrows lifting as he shook his head, forcing himself to get moving again, cradling his coffee in both hands to keep it from being spilled. Dave blinked, and he turned back around. "Hey, duder," he called as he worked on pressing the grinds for a cup of mocha, "Do I know you? You look familiar, but I can't place you. Must have left my brain in my other haircolor." He was having one hell of a time over it. He was usually pretty fucking good with names and faces, and the guy's personality was obviously one that he wouldn't soon forget. The little man turned around again, looking up at Dave and mushing his mouth to one side, still holding his coffee in both hands. So he _was_ right, that was a dye job (as if Dave's eyebrows hadn't given it away) and he just knew that if he got a look at Dave's eyes that they would be that peculiar shade of red that he didn't seem to see on anyone, even the resident trolls.

"My name's Wade," he replied, standing rather awkwardly in the middle of the walkway between a pair of tables. "You uh... Ok, weird question, just getting that out of the way, but...does Can Town mean anything to you?"

Can Town. Holy shit. Dave's mind was a flood of memories and mental images all centered around one single, robed figure with a sash, and as he was overtaken in a wash of those memories, he finished up the order and waved someone else over to take over for him as he walked over to Wade. "Your name is _Wade?_ " He said, his grin spanning as wide as it could on his face as he leaned down to hug the shorter man. "Holy damn, dude, look at you! You're all... Human and junk!" He beamed as he tried not to vibrate off this plane of existence from the excitement. "I can't believe you're actually here!"

Wade let out a surprised squawk and clutched his coffee between them, slightly bewildered but letting out a quiet chuckle as he glanced around at the other patrons, a few of whom had taken to watching the slight spectacle. "Y-yeah, I don't really get it either...apparently a lot of us got put here in human bodies? My wife should be showing up soon too, actually..."

She already had come through the door and was watching the amusing scene with a hand over her mouth, hiding her sheer amusement at the young man fussing over her husband. Dave blinked owlishly. "Wife? You have a wife? Oh my god, I bet she's awesome, can I meet her? Dude! Karkat's at class right now, but he's here, too. We live together. Him and me and Terezi. Dude, do you know how excited they'll be to know you're _alive_?" He blinked when a delicate hand was set on his shoulder and he looked up to see a lithe, tall, pretty blonde woman standing there. She was serious looking, despite the amusement lingering on her face.

"You must be Dave," she said as he stood up to look at her, still completely agog.

When he was released, Wade took a moment to straighten his clothes and put down his miraculously un-spilt coffee, looking up as his wife appeared and giving her a relieved smile. "Yes, I have a wife and yes, she is amazing. Dave, this is Penelope. Penny, I've obviously told you about everything before so now you get to meet him in the flesh." He looked between the two of them, his hands coming together in front of him.

Dave beamed as he took Penelope's hand and shook it. "I'm pleased to meet you, Ms... Whatever. Penelope. Wade's... Holy shit, no, this is insane, you don't even know. Dude kept me sane for _years_. He put up with me and my friends and he is the _king_ of card games, you don't even... well maybe you DO know, holy damn." He looked between the two of them while he tried to figure out what he was going to do. He pulled his phone out and grinned as he announced, "I gotta tell Karkat." He started texting his matesprit and bounced a little in place while Penny looked over at Wade.

"He's nothing like I imagined," she murmured, before slipping away to get herself a coffee.

"He's not normally this excitable," Wade assured her, then took a seat with his own coffee and looked up at Dave still towering over him. "How did you get even taller and still remain the same width? You must have a strange metabolism," he commented then smiled more brightly at the idea of seeing the others again as well, though he grew somewhat wary when he remembered some of what had happened with Terezi and the murderous highblood. "Who else is around?"

"I'm a medical anomaly, what can I say." Dave tucked his phone back in the apron's pocket and took a seat at a table to wait for Wade's wife and grinned. "Shit, who else? Well my Bro's here, he lives with Sollux," he started, and thought about it some more, "Tavros lives across town, and then the rest of everybody is spread out across the country. Rose and Kanaya live in Boston, as do Vriska, Equius and Nepeta. Gamzee and Eridan live in California, so does John, I guess. Jade and Aradia are up top," he said as he pointed skywards, and then grinned, "And we don't know where Feferi wound up, Australia last I heard. We're all here, alive for the moment, and doing all right. A friend of mine _said_ that carapacians were around, but holy damn. I wasn't even expecting to see you. I was pretty much convinced you hadn't made it." His brow furrowed faintly at the thought.

Wade automatically looked up when Dave pointed toward the ceiling, frowning some. "So this really is a dream bubble kind of thing, huh. You know, I've never spoken to any of the people in charge of all that but I had a feeling that all of this was just a little too...I don't know, haphazard? The history of this place is kind of slapdash. I wonder how many people have thought about the fact that this planet doesn't even have an actual name." Indeed, most of the inhabitants of the world at least from what he knew tended to refer to it as Earth, or as whatever their home planets had been if they were similar to this one.

Dave nodded to that. "Yeah, I know, it's messed up. I told Bro he should suggest some names, but then I realized that if _Bro_ suggested names, we'd wind up with a world named Lickedy Split or some shit. Honestly? Asylum should be its name. Simply because that's what it is." He got a text back from Terezi at least, and he laughed, turning his phone for Wade to see the aqua text, and he smiled a little. "Bro's said that they're working on making up the history as they go along. It's mad fucked up, and sure, a lot of it is based on Earth history and geography, but they're trying to work in trolls to make it look legit. Dunno why you guys got human'd, but it looks good on you. Her too, I presume. Nobody but me is _that_ pale." He grinned when Penny returned to take a seat beside them, smiling.

"She is my porcelain doll," Wade replied as he laid his hand on Penelope's back, leaning up to kiss her cheek affectionately then laughing quietly at the text and shaking his head. "Terezi still hasn't learned how to sit still, I take it. And you said you lived with Karkat as well, that must be an adventure in itself."

"No, she really hasn't. She moved in with us after we found her again. She was living down in Texas. So was Bro, but everybody moved up here like they were pulled in by Karkat's sparkling personality or some shit." He grinned a little. "Karkat and I are together," he explained, "and actually, he works here too, but he's got off today. He's studying for a huge fuckoff test, so Bill gave him the day. As for Terezi, she's just... Our Terezi. There's no other way to describe her. We love her, she loves us, but since Karkat has a moirail, and I guess I do, too? She's not like, officially pale with us. She's just our official mascot or something."

"I'd picture her more as a sort of cheerleader for you," Wade commented then looked around at a sudden very noisy entrance and several scandalized looks from the patrons nearest to the chaos, one of his hands coming up to hide his smile as he watched that familiar pair of red shades approaching. The troll behind Terezi took him slightly off-guard. "...Karkat?"

"Who's asking," Karkat asked in return, frowning as he narrowed his eyes at Wade, looking down at Dave then glancing between the two of them until it hit home and he just sort of had to gesture to Wade in general, at a loss for words. Wade was, understandably, just as confused as he was. Terezi, on the other hand, was far less contained than Dave - who, even when he was practically vibrating from excitement, managed to maintain a small amount of chill - and she squealed as she ran to hug the Mayor and held on tight enough to nearly squeeze the wind out of him. Dave, on the other hand, looked up at Karkat with a grin. "I found him, that means I get to keep him, right?"

"I think that's up to me," Penny pointed out with a demure sip of her coffee, smiling over at Karkat. "Well, I suppose the three of you kept him safe."

Dave chuckled and looked over at her, then looked back down at Wade when poke up again.

"It's actually up to our daughters."

"Holy shit, you have kids?!?" Terezi squealed.

"First of all, I'm pretty sure that we don't have room in the apartment for someone else, much less a fucking family," Karkat snorted, sitting down at the adjacent table with his arms and legs crossed. "Secondly, are you sure? This guy isn't a carapacian. Why would the carapacians be turned human? Mom would probably know, if that were the case." He was mostly frustrated at all of this. Everything was happening at once again.

"But...uh, Karkat?" Wade muffled against Terezi's arm as she held onto him, "Hi, yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm me even if I don't have an exoskeleton. It's pretty hard to imagine things like living on a meteor and running a town made of cans, books and chalk. And...the honks in the vents." He shuddered visibly at that.

"The honks are totally docile and will not harm you," Dave pointed out casually, smiling as best he could even when Terezi did her best to argue.

"That's not true, he's _not_ totally docile. Just be glad he's in California." She wrinkled her nose. "I still don't see how you can blatantly go against all tha-"

"Come on, 'Rezi, he's rehabilitated, and that was a complete fluke. Don't fucking start, okay?" He sighed and looked to Wade, then to Penny.

"Okay the skinny on the clown is that he was in a mental institute for a few years, they got him on meds, did some rehab shit on his brain so he's not all..." He made a vague motion. "Violent. Gamzee and she weren't good for each other back then, but that was _back then._ He's changed. A lot of us have." He looked a little worried that he'd have to convince the Mayor of all people that Gamzee was good people. Wade still looked a little nervous about it, especially with Terezi still hanging onto him, though her grip had loosened up marginally and allowed him to actually sit up and sip from his own coffee.

"If Dave and Karkat are ok with him now, I don't see any reason that I should worry," he finally decided. He smiled back at Dave with that, wincing a little as Terezi huffed her frustration at all of them then went to take a seat of her own. Karkat sat up instead and looked between him and Penny, nodding some when Wade looked to him for confirmation.

"Gamzee's alright now. Believe me, I was nervous for a long time too and Dave read me the riot act over that. But he's a lot more mellow now, has his head worked around to something a lot more grounded. He paints now," he added. "He actually has some things hanging in galleries in California and Boston."

Dave nodded at that. "He's really mad talented. I never woulda guessed it, but holy damn. And of course, we've got Kanaya and Rose, both crazy good at what they do, too. Rose is on the wagon again, has been since she's been here, at least from what I've seen. Wrote a couple books, got published, goes to school. Kanaya is this wicked good seamstress..." He grinned and caught himself. "Sorry, I just... You know, tryin' to catch you up. I should ask you about _you_ , dude. You look..." Very very human. "You look great."

"We look just like everyone else here," Wade nodded, looking around when Terezi finally released him and offering an apologetic little smile. "It was a shock to all of us when we started to remember. Getting used to being soft was certainly something..." He gave Dave a small smile and sipped at his coffee then looked up again, thinking for a moment. What _was_ there in his life worth updating Dave on?

"Well...as you obviously know I married miss Parcel Mistress, though she goes by Penelope in this reality. It really suits her, doesn't it?" He smiled warmly back at his wife, obviously smitten. "We've got two daughters. Annie is two, Sophie is three. We just moved here recently after my division was relocated. I'm a phone technician," he shrugged. It wasn't much to brag about, but he was certainly happy with it. "The two of you are in school right now, right?"

Dave hung on every word, still obviously fascinated by the Mayor and his wife. "Wow, girls," he murmured, "Yeah, all of us are. Terezi's in law, I'm in film, and dunkass here's in philosophy. I'm surrounded by brainiacs, it's nuts." He looked over at Penelope with a smile as she reached over to take Wade's hand and squeeze it. "It's really amazing, seeing you both out of the blue like this. I'm so fuckin' happy to know you both made it here. You don't even fucking know how shitty I've felt, wondering about you. Well. Him. Dude was a rock of antsy stability for all of us."

Penelope smiled and looked sweetly down to her husband and patted his hand. "He's that for me and our girls, now."

"I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't be able to function even half as well as I do without my family," Wade said quietly, taking his wife's hand and holding it loosely. "You all doing so well is a load off my mind too, believe me. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of any of you in so long I almost didn't think you made it."

"Like Dave already said, we're all kind of spread out. That's not on accident either," Terezi sighed, just watching the couple together with her chin on her hand. "We're all coming together though and that's what matters. Just...promise you won't die ok? That kind of thing hurts like hell and I'm not even sure if you guys can be brought back."

"Wha- ...Oh. Oh, yeah, I don't intend to any time soon..."

"Dude, if you die, I will straight up fucking destroy what did it to you. Heart attack? I'll get Eridan to find some magic heart disease drug. And then I will have fuckin' Equius build a huge fuckoff heart that I can beat the shit out of. Because no." Dave sulked in his seat, scowling faintly before he looked up at Bill whistling for him to get back to work.

Terezi cackled a little. "I think he means to say he'd miss you too much, Wade was it?" She grinned from ear to ear and leaned over to rumple Wade's hair. "We all would."

"For a reputed 'cool kid' he's not very good at keeping himself together, is he?" Penelope murmured once Dave was out of earshot. Karkat just shook his head, slouching down in his seat and watching Dave go back to work.

"He's been like this the whole time I've known him," Wade shrugged, then chuckled as Karkat and Terezi both nodded. He reached over after a glance at his watch reminded him that they were actually on a schedule, shaking Karkat's hand when it was offered in return and huffing quietly as he explained that they still had to go to the store then head back home to relieve their babysitter. Terezi whined at him and hopped back up again, going to hug him once more and claiming that she wasn't about to let him leave yet. She only let go when Penelope put a hand on her shoulder, pouting up at her then back at Wade.

Karkat cleared his throat to get their attention. "If you don't have much of anything planned around Christmas, there's gonna be a pretty big thing at Dave's brother's place. Nobody is going to object to seeing you again or meeting your family, obviously."

Wade's face lit up at that. Christmas was something that he'd gotten into wholeheartedly since coming to live in this reality, and being able to spend it with more people was a delightful prospect. "What do you say, Penny? I can imagine that any party a Strider throws will certainly be something to remember."

Penelope smiled at that and nodded. "I suppose it wouldn't be too terribly out of our way; we really only celebrate with the girls, but if we can find a sitter, we'll come. Wade, don't forget to give them your number. They'll want to call you eventually." She smiled serenely to Karkat and Terezi, and at Dave waving to the two of them, she waved back, laughing softly with a shake of her head.

"I was thinking perhaps the girls could come actually," Wade replied as he took both of the immediately offered phones to put his number into. "But of course, I know the sitter would come at a moment's notice whenever we asked. At least we can plan in advance for whatever we ultimately decide to do." He headed back to the counter in the hopes of getting a lid for his and Penelope's coffees, as well as to let Dave know about the invitation that had been extended. Dave thought about it for a few moments, considering the fact that their group was rowdy in general, but the vast majority of them weren't stupid enough to start acting more than PG around little ones. A few of them, sure, but the vast majority of them were well-behaved. He turned to Wade and grinned once he arrived to start explaining the whole thing.

"Bring the kids. If they need somebody to take care of them, I'm sure Kanaya could come through with a little matronly snuggling and playing games and whatever." He looked over at PM who gave him a gentle smile. "And if worst comes to worst, I'm an all right babysitter, I guess. I don't lose my cool too fast when it comes to kids, at least."

"That's a good idea. Putting them in Kanaya's care, I mean," Wade nodded as he tucked his phone back into his pocket. He reached out a hand to shake Dave's before he and Penelope had to leave, casting one last glance back at Karkat and Terezi both still sitting at the table and watching them in turn.

Terezi jumped a bit when Karkat's head thunked down on the tabletop.

"We've doomed them. I hope you realize this," he grumbled, pouting up at her then putting his cheek back down on the table, whining at her until she was convinced to go and get him a coffee. Dave rolled his eyes, but he made Terezi and Karkat's coffees, handing them over and waiving the need to pay. It was a weird day for the lot of them, but it was going to be just fine. Knowing that the Mayor was alive made it such that Dave's good mood wouldn't diminish for anything.

Once his shift was over, he walked home with Karkat and Terezi, the latter of whom was chattering about nothing in particular to keep Dave from gushing about Wade, or Karkat from griping about whatever doom and gloom he had stored up, and once they made it back to their flat, Dave looked over to his matesprit, on the way into the bedroom to get changed from his work clothes.

"Give fishy a call, dude. See if he wants to be a part of this retardation. I'm sure Gamzee will be a resounding yes, but you never know with the royal pain."

"Oh come on, you know that Eridan would come no matter what it was, especially if Gamzee came. He's done stupider things." Nonetheless, Karkat did feel like talking to Eridan, as he hadn't had the chance in a while. He considered telling Eridan who they'd run into that day, but he wasn't sure that his moirail would actually care. Whatever, he would still tell him, and likely launch into a rant about how they were legitimately going to ruin the lives of the Mayor's family with all of this. He sent off a message demanding Eridan's help in not fucking up his hair while he attempted to dye it back as an excuse, getting the feeling that Eridan would know how to do that kind of thing anyway, especially with how much the seadweller had scoffed at his dye job to begin with.

Eridan send back an equally snarky text, **let me just hop a plane and get to that kar wwhat is this actually about** , though he hadn't really had much of a poor day, himself. He was missing his moirail terribly, and since work and school schedules had been eating away at their ability to communicate, he knew that it was mutual. Honestly, he really _would_ have hopped a flight if it wasn't completely disruptive of his and Gamzee's lives. He looked over at his matesprit and smiled a little, rubbing his jaw in thought. In a few days, the company was giving all the higher ups a month's vacation so they didn't have to worry about holidays getting fucked with work, and although he wasn't one to celebrate even so much as Perigee, he did like the time off.

"Feel like goin' to Colorado for the month?" he asked, tapping his nails against the back of his phone.

Gamzee looked up from his place on the floor and put his head back against Eridan's knee, coming out of his spaced out reverie when Eridan spoke. "Oh yeah, you got time off comin' right? That'd be a good way to spend it," he agreed then went back to zoning out. Eridan's phone buzzed with another message from Karkat, finally bringing up the Christmas party. He couldn't help continuing to whine about the state of his hair, trying to convince Eridan that it was necessary before they did anything else to make him not look like an idiot. Eridan smiled and put one hand down to run over Gamzee's hair as he read Karkat's message.

"Should go start gettin' packed," he said offhandedly. "We'll be goin' tomorrow mornin, arrivin' 'round noon." He knew the flights out to Denver pretty well by now, and knew it wouldn't be hard for him to book a pair of tickets to Colorado on such short notice. He retrieved his hand to start tapping out the response, **better be ready to make gam an me dinner tomorroww as repayment for properly black hair** and he set the phone down to rub his face. He hadn't ever done much else than get his hair dyed professionally, but he figured with his attention to detail, a box of store-bought dye or two given Karkat's thick hair, and a little petroleum jelly and gloves, it wouldn't take much.

Karkat rolled his eyes a bit at the confirmation but smiled faintly and pocketed the phone, slouching down behind his laptop as he picked back up on his homework. The less he had to do all at once while Eridan and Gamzee were there, the easier life would be. He just hoped that nothing too irredeemably stupid would happen while the two of them were there. He knew that congregating usually led to bad things but dammit, he wanted his moirail. And this barely counted as congregating anyway, at least in his mind. He just hoped that Eridan wouldn't fuss too much about the human-sized accommodations.

Once that was settled, Eridan slipped into a sitting position once more and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to Gamzee's cheek. "I'm gonna start gettin' packed, babe."

\--

The weather was cold in Colorado and it made Eridan wrinkle his nose with discomfort. Taking the extra couple days out of the office wasn't going to destroy his reputation - they barely needed him in this late in the week, anyway, and what they did need him for, he could do via phone. He asked Gamzee to take the car out of his sylladex, and once they were ready to be on their way, he texted Karkat that it'd be about an hour until they were in Boulder, and he'd have to text Gamzee the address to put into the GPS.

Dave was cleaning up by then, surprised that as clean as Karkat tended to be, he kept finding small messes that he didn't want to get sneered at by the visiting shithead that just happened to be mated to his moirail and moirails with his mate. He looked up at Karkat with a lopsided grin, holding up a pair of the other's boxers that he'd somehow found in the crevices of the sofa. "Glad we found these now, instead of later."

Karkat looked up from the last dish he was loading into the dishwasher and stared at the boxers for a moment, then turned an interesting shade of red. "Oh good god just put those in the laundry, Strider. Preferably _before_ Eridan gets here in time to see you holding them. The last thing I need is him harping on my taste in underwear." He rolled his eyes and finished the chore before starting on an actual meal for them all. Terezi would be out for the night, cramming with her study group for an upcoming exam. Karkat had almost suggested that Gamzee and Eridan take over her room while they were there, but he barely got two sentences in before being violently rebuffed via a flat, heavy pillow to the side of the head. He'd let it drop after that.

When the knock came on the door he was in the middle of prodding a pan full of scallops, yelling at Dave to get the door so he wouldn't have to walk away from the project. Seafood wasn't exactly a specialty of his and it wasn't often that he cooked it so figuring it out had been something of an adventure, but it smelled good, if fishy. He just hoped Eridan wouldn't complain about it too much. He was already stressing out a little too much for his own good.

Dave rolled his eyes from where he was in the other room, cleaning up a little more just on the off chance that one of their guests wandered into their room, grouching. "You're closer, you lazyass douche," he complained as he passed Karkat with a quick goose on his way over to the door. "Well shit, it's a couple of purple people! Did we order highbloods for the evening's entertainment, Vantas?" As he spoke, he pulled Gamzee into a big, manly hug, smiling wide while Eridan breezed past him to go follow the scent of the scallops into the kitchen. Gamzee was, predictably, being loud about getting reacquainted with Dave, even if they hadn't been apart for long. He immediately draped himself over his moirail's shoulders and started talking about nothing in particular, just meandering conversation about what was new as of late. Dave managed, at the least, to subtly lead Gamzee away from the door with a grin as they conversed, wandering them off into the living room, where it gave Karkat and Eridan some peace while the former cooked.

Eridan settled next to his moirail, smiling faintly as he immediately turned the heat down and grinned a bit. "Gonna scald 'em at that heat. It smells delicious, Kar."

Karkat huffed quietly as he tried to force the sudden blush down after having his ass grabbed, glancing down at the setting of the knob to remember for next time he tried this. He leaned back against Eridan for a moment then nodded over at the covered pan on the other burner. "Make sure the green beans haven't turned black, would you? Since dipshit in there can't even look at the stove without setting it on fire I don't have an extra hand while I eyeball this shit."

Eridan huffed a chuckle as he stepped in to look over at the beans, tutting as he grabbed a little glass of tap water to pour into them, before giving them a thorough, gentle stir. "You don't seem like an absentminded cook, Kar, so what's with this nervousness?" He gave a little browarch to the still blond puff of hair on his moirail's head, glad that he'd picked up a home dye kit on the way here. It wasn't a cheap purchase, either, having gone with the top line stuff that would take to any kind of hair without dying the scalp or skin very easily, along with other necessities.

"Stuff. A lot of stuff," Karkat muttered as he turned over a few of the scallops then prodded one with his fingertip to check the firmness. "We ran into the Mayor yesterday, did I ever mention that? Only he's not WV anymore. He's _Wade_. He's human. And he _remembers_." He frowned deeply as he turned down the heat just a little further and put a lid over the pan, leaning against Eridan's shoulder. "He has a fucking family now. I don't like this, Eridan. The more people we find the more danger it puts everyone in. I don't want every fucking social gathering to end in blood..."

"Kar, I think you're overthinkin' this just a little," Eridan replied with a shake of his head. "Or at least overreactin'. He was with you on the meteor for years, and he was just fine. What's spendin' time with you here gonna do? Think reasonably." He wrapped his arm around Karkat and squeezed lightly, rubbing his hand over his moirail's arm. "You worry too much."

Karkat's hands came up to tuck under his arms, his frown persisting even with the attempt at comfort. "You all spent years with me on the meteor too and every time I spend time with more than one or two of you at once things start getting crushed and at least one person dies, every fucking time. It doesn't even matter that we come back because one of these days, we _won't_. And if it turns out that the person that doesn't come back is _him_ , then what?"

"Karkat," murmured Eridan with a sigh, putting his head down against his friend's, "we're nearly to the finish line. Do you _really_ think anybody's gonna let anythin' happen to the Mayor or to any a us this close to actualizin' this dream?" He papped his friend's cheek lightly and shook his head with a chuckle. "Especially when I've _really_ got to teach you how to fuckin' cook seafood, this is just..." he sighed with a shake of his head, his tone amused. "This is a wreck, honestly."

"Oh, bite me, you miserable sack of chum," was the muffled response as Karkat put his forehead against Eridan's shoulder, face pressed against his arm. He had a point though; the closer they came to the endgame, the more alert everyone was and the more they were starting to take precautions against the attacks, the safer they were all likely to be. He just wished the looming dread would take a night off for once. "One of these days, someone is going to convince you to eat red meat and it won't kill you, you know. Just because your immunity and processing shit sucked doesn't mean you can't acclimate."

"Who's the miserable one, short and owly? Hm?" Eridan sassed back as he wrapped his arm more firmly around Karkat, while his fingers twitched, and the food began to get stirred slowly and carefully by white energy. "I'm not takin' that risk, you don't know the pain that kind a indigestion causes me. I've gotten so far as poultry, an' that'll do it for me."

"I genuinely pity that you'll never bring yourself to try Bro's barbecue," Karkat snorted and shoved a little on Eridan's side, rolling his eyes at the little flashes of white lacing the food as it was stirred hands-free. "Anyway, what did you even intend to do while staying here for a month? You had to realize that you're putting Gamzee in the same apartment as a very worn-out and stressed Terezi. Are you _trying_ to get one of them hurt?"

"I'm not intendin' on stayin' here, Kar. I wouldn't impose. Nor, a course, would he. There won't be any rehashin' a old bad blood this month. Besides," he added with a smile as he slipped away, the energy continuing as he went to the cupboards to look through their spices, smiling that Karkat had found it reasonable to get a pepper mill. He took it out and slipped back beside his friend, "There's resorts in the mountains I'm sure Gam would enjoy seein'. I'm not one for snow games, it's too rough on me, but I'm sure he'd pick up snowboardin' just as easily as he did firedancin', and even if he's not into that, there's nice lodges up there, an' museums an' whatnot." He shrugged a shoulder and poured a small amount of pepper onto the scallops, as well as salt, just enough to bring out the taste. He took the scallops off the heat and plated them, then took care of the beans. "I'm sure you'd do nothin' but grouse if I invited you along. So I think I will anyway," he teased. "I don't hear enough a it."

"Don't put Gamzee on a snowboard, he'd end up on tv and then neither of you will ever be left alone. I'm surprised you don't already find paparazzi in your vegetable garden." After the first couple of articles with photos of Eridan attached, he was surprised that there _hadn't_ been any lurking reporters just itching to get at Eridan's private life. Not that he really had much to hide, but it seemed that humans and trolls alike had that propensity to snoop around with absolutely no good in mind. Which honestly he couldn't say would end up working around Eridan's household anyway, given that if Gamzee ever spotted a reporter he'd end up sitting down and talking to the person until they were both blue in the face then send him home with a small stack of cookies.

Karkat was pulled out of that train of thought by Eridan's comment about dragging him along though and he gave an overly loud snort at the thought. "No. Also, fuck no. You know I don't do snow even at the best of times. It's entirely too fucking cold this time of year to do anything but vegetate at home."

"Again, that's what the lodges are for," Eridan pointed out with a halfhearted shrug. He tutted when he realized that there would need to be more to side with the scallops before they could call it a meal, so he dug around his moirail's kitchen before he could find something to cover the greens and scallops with and started to prepare some egg noodles, just to balance everything else. It'd take too long to make rice. Karkat just let him take over dinner, hanging back against the counter with his arms crossed and his pout still firmly in place.

"Fine, if I'm coming Dave is too so he's not left out of the assholery. He'd have fun hanging out with Gamzee for all of that anyway and maybe while we're there we can talk to Bro about this Christmas thing that everyone's planning. I was hoping to get you in on that since you're unnecessarily good at that flashy shit."

"Christmas," said Eridan with the tone he usually reserved for the word 'lowbloods'. "Ergh. Well, a party's a party, I suppose. If rumors are true, however, that means we'll be seein' Aradia an' Jade again. It'll be nice to have 'em around." He took a lean against the opposite wall from Karkat, shrugging. "Bro's got that under control, I'm assumin'. It doesn't seem like he needs help with any a his parties."

"Yeah, that's the rumor but I don't know how much I trust it. We need them up there more than ever if we're really as close as everyone's been saying. I would rather not have the fucking world end when we're this close to home free." Karkat shook his head then reached for one of the green beans and put it into his mouth before he fetched a bag of spinach from the crisper to make into a fast salad while the noodles were cooking. At least nobody would go to bed hungry that night, between the two of them working to feed them all.

Eridan watched his friend scuttle back into work, and sighed, rubbing his temple. "You realize how much you put the weight a the world on your own shoulders, Kar? Face it. If fate should have it that the bubble pops an' we all die 'cause a some stupid Perigee get-together, I doubt any a us from our group would let that happen in the first place, and secondly - more importantly really - we're too fuckin' ready for it. They blow everythin' up at every fuckin' chance they get... hn. Except for when you guys found me. That was drama of a completely outer god-free variety." He stirred the noodles and lifted one out with energy to see how much longer they needed. "You're so willin' to see the worst in everythin'. When did I get to bein' the positive one a us?"

"See, you just admitted it, even if shit doesn't happen outside of the bubble it still happens down here planetside. Like ok, I don't regret meeting back up with you. Honestly, that's one of the best things to happen to any of us if only because you're one of the only ones that knows what he's doing with his life." Karkat continued to grump quietly while he finished the salad, using up the last of their hoisin sauce as a dressing and throwing away the bottle. "I'll finish the noodles, you go get the artsy fucks."

Eridan nodded and slipped off to do as he was asked, papping Karkat's face on his way towards the living room to get the others. "Food's ready, gentlemen." He put his hand on Gamzee's shoulder, squeezing it gently with a fond smile. He returned to the kitchen, still smiling as he helped to plate the food, saving a plate to put in the fridge for Terezi when she returned, and went to settle in and eat.

Karkat took the dishes in to eat in the living room so they could all still talk, settling down at Eridan's side and eating quietly as he listened to the others. He was determined to continue pouting but the more Gamzee talked about his projects, collaborative ideas with Dave, his garden and every other thing that came to mind, he couldn't help but relax and settle into his meal more easily. He hadn't figured anything out for dessert, but if anyone wanted it he was sure they still had ice cream.

"Where are you staying anyway?" he asked when dinner was finished and the plates were in hand to rinse off and put in the washer. Eridan had mentioned that they would try for a lodge for the month in the mountains, but he hadn't mentioned where that would be.

"Boulderado, as usual, at least for the weekend. We'll be headin' up to Vail in a couple days." Eridan responded as he settled in with the help in clean-up, letting the others continue their rambling discussion that often dripped off into freeflowing rap. "Though I was thinkin' a sendin' em off that direction tonight, give 'em their space. Or kidnappin' you for the night so we got some peace an' quiet for a change." He settled back with his cup of coffee as he stayed out of Karkat's way, head tilted slightly. "A course, if you're scheduled for work tomorrow, or have a class, I completely understand. Doesn't mean I won't consider kidnappin' you anyway," he teased with a sly smirk, "But I still would understand."

Karkat's head tipped upward as he thought about that. As far as he knew, he didn't have anything scheduled for tomorrow that he couldn't easily skip. It was a review day for the only lecture he had, which he could do from home, or wherever he could hook up his laptop, really. He closed the dishwasher then turned back around to face Eridan with his hands in his pockets, shrugging a shoulder. "As long as I'm not gonna be harassed into going out in the snow, fine."

Eridan scoffed. "Yeah, _that's_ somethin' I do frequently an' willin'ly." He rolled his eyes as he continued, "That's why you'll find me livin' in such frigid climates as southern California an' Florida." He considered it momentarily and then sighed. "It'd be a better idea to send 'em off, instead. If Terezi came home early, it'd be up to Dave to be between 'em, and as much as I trust his abilities to keep things level, I just would rather avoid the situation altogether."

"I just don't trust that you wouldn't go out of your way to brave the cold just to see me suffer," Karkat huffed, though it was obvious that there was no malice at all behind the comment. He leaned up against Eridan's chest with his face down on the other's shoulder, letting out a quiet huff. "Yeah, the last thing we need here is a bloodbath triggered by a honk," he muttered, wincing a bit at the sound of a honking laugh from Gamzee's direction. He was fairly certain that it would never hold the same happy connotation that it once had, even with the knowledge that Gamzee was alright now.

Eridan put his arms around Karkat and shook his head with a soft sigh. "Kar," he murmured as he ran his hand over his moirail's hair, "he's got that side a him carefully locked off. I trust him completely to keep it that way," he explained in a hushed tone. "He's as easygoin' as he ever was. I'm more worried about what Terezi would do, honestly. If she provoked him, I don't think he could handle the emotional stress. He's delicate. I don't want to see him torn up about what he's done again, Kar," he shook his head. "You have nothin' to worry about on his end, though."

Karkat heaved a heavy sigh and shook his own head in return. "That's what I meant. I know he's ok. But you know Terezi's not. I just don't want her to go off and force him into a position that he doesn't want to be in because of something that's more or less a reflex. Christ, I doubt he would even defend himself anymore if he could help it."

With a quiet shoosh, Eridan kissed his moirail's forehead. "So we'll have 'em go to the hotel for the night. I doubt either of 'em will wreck the place too terribly." He nudged Karkat slightly. "Tell me what you've gotten accomplished with your dissertation since you last said somethin' about it. It's been a few months, surely you've gotten to someone else now."

Wrinkling his nose, Karkat leaned back against the counter again and tucked his hands up under his arms, looking toward Gamzee and Dave in the living room, still talking back and forth. The last time that Eridan had checked in on his progress, he'd written about Dave and Terezi, Sollux and Bro and had started on Eridan himself. He was saving himself for last, and already he'd written close to a small novella about the ones that he'd done so far. And this was before he'd even started revising any of it. "I need to get to Tavros but he's incredibly fucking busy lately so I'm probably going to have to save him for the beginning of the year."

"Sometimes I forget that he lives here," Eridan commented. "Maybe we should visit him since we're in town. It would probably make them both happy," he said with a small smile. "Shame that he's so busy, but I'm not surprised. Workin' with animals like he does, it's probably a dash to get the littler ones out a the cold." He wrinkled his nose at the rather morbid, vivid mental image that brought up. "Let's get 'em to scoot there now, before they start gettin' too tired to move." He slipped away to walk over to the living room. "Dave, I trust you know where the Boulderado is. Here's my room key. You two should head there tonight. I think it'd do all a us some good to have time alone together. Don't run the bill up too high, hm?" He leaned down to give Gamzee a kiss.

"We ain't gonna light nothin' on fire or buy our weight in chocolate or some shit, don't worry," Gamzee laughed and returned the kiss, standing up and pulling his drooping jeans back up comfortably, helping Dave to his feet as he pocketed the room key. They'd already discussed that idea on the way to town, and figured between the two of them, Dave and Gamzee would be able to find some way of entertaining themselves in an old, fancy-ass hotel. Karkat just shook his head at the two of them as they made their way out, stopping Dave briefly to offer him a kiss as well before shooing him off. He turned back to Eridan then crawled over the back of the couch to settle against the arm of it.

"So what, you feel like watching a movie or anything?" Anything quiet where he could just settle down and do nothing much at all with his moirail sounded perfect right about now.

"A movie sounds just fine," Eridan said with a nod. "Talkin' seems to be leadin' all to the same dark roads, so whatever you feel like watchin' is good for me." He rarely had objections in Karkat's taste in movies, save for a couple of really stupid ones that he put his foot down about ages prior, that he wasn't even sure existed in the dream bubble anyway. He settled against the other corner of the couch, tucking his feet under him as he got comfortable, eying the selection of movies on the shelves.

Curled up on his end of the couch, Karkat eyeballed his movies indecisively. Eridan wasn't nearly as bugged by his taste in film as Dave was, but he still wanted to find something that he knew for sure that they would both enjoy. He crawled off of the couch after a few moments' deliberation and sat down in front of the movie cabinet instead, tapping his chin with his fingers as he scanned over the titles where he could more easily see them.

"Well, fuck. Do you have anything in particular you feel like or should I just pick something at random?" He just wanted a movie in general, not a specific thing.

"Anything will do," chuckled Eridan with a shake of his head, still amused by the bright shock of blond on Karkat's head. "Though, before we get too deeply involved in entertainment, I think we're forgettin' somethin' important?" He pointed at his own hair, brow arched. He looked over at the small bag that Gamzee had left of the dye and supplies for that project. "We could watch things while it works. I went with a natural dye instead a some chemical bullshit that would only fry your hair further."

"Human dye is absolute shit for troll hair," Karkat agreed, wrinkling his nose and finally picking out a movie at random, tossing it onto the couch then straightening up. "But yeah, the sooner we get the shit in and working the better and it's not like I'll have anything else to do so letting that go while we watch the movie will be good." He shooed Eridan off toward the bathroom, determined to get this done and over with as soon as possible. The fumes from when he'd bleached his hair had been unholy amounts of awful and he just wanted to get it back to how it had been. Eridan walked along with the bag over his wrist and once in the bathroom, he started placing the products out on the counter, settling up onto it himself as he read the instructions. As he pulled his rings off, he explained that it'd take about forty minutes to really soak in, handing the instructions to Karkat as he pulled on the gloves. The mixture was henna based, and required a small mixture bowl and comb (which he'd bought,) some very hot water (Which he was currently running out with the tap) and the powder, which was thick and earth-scented and rich once it was combined with the near scalding water. Once everything was ready and he'd slicked some petrolium jelly over Karkat's ears and the hairline, he started to work the mixture into Karkat's hair.

"Frankly, I don't really see why you needed _me_ to do this, I'm sure Dave would've been just as thorough," he teased lightly as he took Karkat's hair plait by plait, running the thick goop through from root to tip. Karkat scowled as he crossed his arms, muttering that his horns had better not end up dyed or he'd have to find someone to shave them down and that would end up being miserable for everyone involved. He held still though, letting Eridan do as he wished.

"Dave would have gotten the chemical dye that nearly knocked me on my ass the first time. My hair wouldn't be able to handle more of that shit." And then there was the fact that the two of them had had very little face time in months and he was starting to feel badly deprived, but he didn't feel like admitting that or being subjected to the gloating and teasing that was bound to follow. Eridan smiled softly to himself as he continued to work the dye into Karkat's hair, then put the cap over the whole mess once he got through each lock of hair. He couldn't help but find the whole ordeal somewhat calming, himself. It was rare that they saw each other, and he didn't quite want to admit it himself, but he was starved of his moirail's attention, and the close proximity helped considerably.

"You know, I never did thank you," Eridan said quietly as he slipped away to slowly pull the gloves off his hands, stretching his fingers and the webbing between them that had been pinched in the process of wearing them. "I didn't tell you at all I suppose, but I'd been thinkin' back on what happened before an' you were the only one who ever came to my dream bubble. It helped more than you knew." He set the gloves on the edge of the sink and rinsed out the little bowl that still had a little bit of goo inside it.

Turning back around to face Eridan with his hair slicked back, Karkat frowned up at him then shook his head. There still wasn't much he remembered about that time, even after this long, but he was able to dredge up the image of a very lonely-looking Eridan sitting on the ground in the middle of a crumbling ruin. He grabbed for Eridan's hands when the bowl had been rinsed out and held them clasped between his, pouting up at his moirail.

"The fact you didn't run away when we ran into you in California's been enough for me," he replied just as quietly. "I know you tried, at least at first, but then you didn't and...I'm grateful. Really."

Eridan smirked at that and put one of Karkat's hands up to his blood pusher, shaking his head. "I wasn't gonna put up with anybody else but you. Even you're a handful, at that." He patted Karkat's hand before he slipped out of the bathroom. "And besides, there's a certain levity you bring to my life that nobody yet has ever matched. As sour as you tend to be, you still have the very greatest insults I've ever heard. And I doubt that you'll ever stop _those_ in your lifetime."

"Fishsucking assmonger," Karkat snorted after him then followed, stopping off at the refrigerator to fetch a couple of tubs of frozen yogurt, passing one over to Eridan before taking a moment to put the movie in and settle back in on the couch with the remote in hand. "When did you actually remember any of it though? I've still got a few blank spots I'm trying to fill in as I go."

"Truthfully? I got it all back once I resurrected. Well. Most. Some of it's still blurry, but I'm chalkin' that up to the passage a time instead a scrambled brains syndrome like we've all got at first. I've known since before you an' everybody fell back into my life. An' except for Vris, I didn't intentionally speak to anybody from then. Wound up gettin' in contact with Fef mostly on accident, and she didn't remember anythin', so I left it alone and built on what was established here instead. Once she started rememberin' - that was only about half a year ago - I told her that you're all doin' all right." He paused as he scooped out a small spoonful of frozen yogurt and considered. "If the other girls are comin' to the party, she should come, too."

"You really think she _would_ come though? She's spent so long either wiped or just avoiding us that I don't know if she'd even want to come and subject herself to...well, all of us. Except maybe for Sollux. Though good god, can you even imagine what it's going to be like if she, Aradia and Bro all get talking? Sollux would never come out of the beanbags."

"I think she would," Eridan said with a nod, though his expression was unsure, "Well, provided I behave respectably, an' Sol doesn't die of sheer embarrassment that three a his exes would be in the same room," he shook his head, taking another bite of froyo. "Mm, really, I don't see any reason she wouldn't show up. I think she misses us all more than she's willin' to let on."

"Mostly I'd say that she doesn't want to dredge up any unnecessary drama. Which you know we always have whether we try for it or not." Shaking his head, Karkat started into his own tub, starting the movie when it finally got around to the title menu. It was definitely one of Dave's movies, one that he hadn't watched before, as far as he could recall. "If you want to extend the invitation, be my guest. I don't know how we'll fit everyone into Bro and Sollux's place, but we don't really have anywhere else to cram them."

"They managed to fit basically everybody who has ever so much as said hello to you in there for your birthday," Eridan pointed out, "But that was a little crowded even for my likin'. Hm. I'm wonderin' if it wouldn't be easier to host it at our place instead. It's plenty spacious, has more than one room to slip away into if things get tense between others, plenty a room outside to go an' get some privacy if that's needed," He raised an eyebrow to the whole thing. "An' frankly, if Equius can stay in the same room as Gam without goin' berserk for any amount a time like he did at the Lalondes', it'll be just fine." He slipped his feet out from under him to stretch his legs just a little into the middle of the couch as he let his attention get pulled away by the movie.

"I wonder if we should do some kind of gift exchange thing... Don't the humans do this kind of stupid anonymous present thing at big occasions like this? Though we might have to set guidelines for shit like that. No kink toys, nothing over a certain amount of money, something. I'll ask Dave what he thinks about all that later. At least doing that would make it so that I don't end up with a heap of shit." Karkat quieted finally and got into the movie as well, munching on his yogurt with a slight frown. Christmas wouldn't even be for another month and a half. Planning ahead was good, but this was just excessive. Eridan knew that Karkat was doing too much overthinking, and he only somewhat blamed himself for not having been there very often for his nervous, overly worried moirail, but all that came of his line of thought outwardly was a small crease to his eyebrow, which was so subtle on his resting scowl that it likely didn't register.

About a third of the way through the movie, Eridan stood to bring the frozen yogurt back into the kitchen, then ushered Karkat back to the bathroom to rinse out the henna. As he assumed it would, it had not only dyed his moirail's hair back to its original black, but it left it much softer and healthier-feeling than it had been at the start. "You could do this every month," he pointed out as he rinsed the muddy mess out with the shower head in one hand, and his other hand slicking through Karkat's hair carefully, keeping the water from getting into his face while getting out all the grit, as well as the petroleum from his ears and hairline. Karkat barely protested at Eridan washing his hair out, just closing his eyes and trying not to slouch as his hair was rinsed. He argued that he didn't really have the time to do some expensive treatment on his hair and that, even more than that, Dave was likely to give him no end of shit about doing something even remotely vain. He still got shit about his skinny jeans even though they looked better on him now than they ever had before. When the dye was finally rinsed out and he was able to strip down and take a quick shower without caring in the slightest that Eridan was still there, right on the other side of the shower curtain, he couldn't help admitting that sometimes it was frustrating being so deeply in love with someone he wanted to smack upside the head with a newspaper a lot of the time. He scrubbed the last remaining dye and little bit of vaseline left off his face and hair and rinsed down the rest of himself then snagged a towel to wrap up in before he stepped back out.

Eridan was so used to casual nudity at this point that it was surprising only to him that Karkat was just as easy about it, and as he showered down, Eridan cleaned up after their little project, making sure no dye had hit the floor or counters, and threw all the things away. He explained that although this was the high-end stuff, there were inexpensive non-dye henna treatments that worked just as well, and that he himself used. As he listened to Karkat's bitching about Dave, he smiled fondly; he felt the same way about Gamzee sometimes. There was no taming out the wilder parts of his matesprit, and as infuriating as it was to him, he felt so at peace with him that he would never speak up even against Gamzee's more annoying habits. It had been getting harder to quantify how exactly he felt about Gamzee in general. Usually, he could without a doubt say that it was simply being flushed for his matesprit, but there were times he couldn't bring himself to keep it that simple, that well defined. It was something he'd talked to Karkat about, but it was still hard to justify, in his mind.

When Karkat stepped out, he asked, "Feel like another movie or do you want to just....I dunno, anything else?"

"We could finish the one we paused, but honestly, if you don't mind terribly, I'd really rather just talk for a while. Or not talk. Whatever it is, it's just good to do around you." Eridan shrugged as he took the plastic bag full of used supplies back out of the bathroom to toss in the garbage in the kitchen.

"We'd just have to stop the movie so the image doesn't get burned onto the screen. I'm pretty sure I'd never hear the end of it if I ended up burning Will Smith's face into the middle of the TV screen." Going to do just that, Karkat scratched some at his hair, glancing into the mirror and letting out a quiet sigh of relief. It felt good being back to his natural color again and at least now he wouldn't have to deal with at least one person a day asking what happened to his hair. He draped his arms over Eridan's shoulders with his forehead down against the back of his moirail's head, letting out a huff that turned into a whine. "You need to be here more often, bulgemunch."

Eridan smiled at that and eased himself gracefully around in Karkat's arms to wrap his own arms around his moirail, putting his forehead against Karkat's with a smile. "What happened to that plan you an' Dave had a movin' out to California? Once you're out there, you'll be gettin' more a me than you could possibly stand." He smirked as he settled back down into the couch, dragging the other with him, arms tight around Karkat. "An' I haven't really needed someone to keep me from takin' over the world yet, but I _will_ , once I've got some headway on this project."

"I don't think I could live with letting you come into that much power," Karkat replied with a quiet laugh then turned over in Eridan's grip to lounge back against him, taking a moment to rearrange his towel around him, having refrained from going and getting dressed mainly because of the lack of desire to put in the effort. "We're moving out to California after we finish up with school credits here. We'll transfer them out there in a year or so then you'll have more of me than you could ever want."

"That's a lot a you, are you sure you're willin' to be tellin' me that?" Eridan teased, fussing idly with Karkat's hair to get it to lay into place properly. He wasn't one to make Karkat's hair anything but the fluffy mess it normally was, but he liked to mess with it just enough, especially as soft as it was after the treatment. "It'll be nice havin' you an' him out there eventually. I know Gam's been needin' him just as bad as we've been needin' each other, an' they get the chance to chat every day."

"You work way too hard for your own good, you know that? I mean I know Gamzee takes care of you and makes sure you eat and shit but still. Trying to oversee a project of this magnitude has to be insane even at the best of times. Not to mention the asshole factory of the press now that you're getting real publicity." Wrinkling his nose at the idea, Karkat tipped his head back to look up at Eridan with an arched brow then shook his head. "Even you would get tired of the attention eventually."

"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you," Eridan said with a smirk. "No, it's not terribly offputtin'. I'm used to this, strangely. Bein' the company's poster child is kinda why they even hired me in the first place. It's their oversight that I'm also extremely competent. They want this project to sink; it's a supposed waste a money an' resources, an' I've got to prove to them otherwise in less than five years or it _will_ be sunk, an' who knows what they'll do with me." He shook his head. "I'm under only as much stress as I can give myself. Yeah, that's quite a lot, but I can handle it." He buried his face against Karkat's hair and sighed, closing his eyes. "Just need to remember to come back an' get some groundin' from time to time."

"Great. Reviving our species' hope for survival is a waste of time and money. Wonderful. Good to know. So eventually the only troll left in this world will be Feferi. Without us, the humans would be completely fucked. They would pollute themselves off the fucking planet and when you look at the comparative time spans of each respective species' existence, WE developed FTL travel before they even went to their own fucking moon." Karkat shook his head and turned over to shove his face into Eridan's stomach, prodding a bit at the solid muscle where at one point Eridan had actually been soft, though still not quite comfortable to lean on. "Anyway, when did anyone give you permission to get all...muscly? You're not a gigantic nerd anymore. ...Ok you still are but you don't LOOK like one anymore. What the fuck?"

"Excuse you, Kar, I'm allowed to have muscles," Eridan rolled his eyes, "After bein' brought here, I decided to spend a couple hours a week in the pool. It's nothin' you couldn't accomplish, yourself, if you only learned how to swim," he pointed out with a comfortable little smile starting to tug at the corners of his lips. "I'm not gonna become some sorta wall a meat like Strider the Large, mind, but it bolsters my shit immune system to have good vascular health." He smiled faintly at Karkat's own, taller, more evenly built body as well. "A good part a it is goin' godtier, as well. It started me out, but I've been buildin' on it since."

"I'm good as I am, thanks. I'm an indoor troll, I'll lounge around and read my books and eat what I damn well please and refuse to learn how to swim unless it actually becomes necessary." Karkat stuck his tongue out at Eridan then flopped back facedown into his stomach with a quiet yawn and tucked his arms under his chest as he stared with unfocused eyes back at the black TV screen. Eridan sprawled a bit as Karkat got comfortable, and gave his moirail's scalp a light scratch, starting at the base of his horns.

"Not gonna deny you those pleasures, but once it gets warmer out here, I'm comin' back an' draggin' you out to enjoy some sun. It's not as bright here, an' actually does the same as our moons did, makes our bodies produce necessary nutrients for stayin' emotionally stable. I don't think a lotta trolls understand that, actually. We're so used to bein' nocturnal that we aren't aware that the sun here is not only safe, it's sorta necessary to our health."

"Last time I went out in the sun for any extended period of time, I got a sunburn, remember? It's not blinding unless you stare into it for like five minutes at a time but it's still a pain in the bulge and I get freckles like Dave does if I'm not careful." Karkat rolled his eyes and tried to pretend that nope, he wasn't purring, that was totally not a thing that was happening just then. "I know we don't _have_ to be nocturnal anymore but still. We've been living like that all our lives and suddenly we were expected to change that."

"It's different here, an' as much as I hate change," and boy did Eridan absolutely hate it when it was forcing him to acclimate to a more human lifestyle, "it's necessary. An' you only got sunburnt because nobody thought to put sunscreen on you in the first fuckin' place. A little sun now an' then would do you good. Him too, since you're both pasty as can be," Eridan pointed out. He continued scratching Karkat's scalp gently, ignoring his moirail's purr as best he could, no matter how heartwarming it was. It was for the other's comfort. "There's absolutely no excuse to be made for bein' cooped up like you do."

"I am _not_ pasty," Karkat muttered, closing his eyes as he tucked his hands under his chin, listening to the soft thump of Eridan's blood pusher and the subtle squish of his insides as he pressed his ear against the seadweller's stomach. "I'm not making excuses. I'm just telling you that I don't need to get out and do shit. I get all the social interaction I could ever want from Dave, Terezi and going to work and school."

Moving his hand down to rest between Karkat's shoulder blades, Eridan sighed. "I had little more social interaction when I was in college, myself, but those were the most dark, depressin' days I'd had. It'd make me go absolutely mad, with as little as you get out beyond classes and work." And he wasn't about to say how he'd just about done so while pushing his way through college. At least Karkat had Terezi and Dave, that much was true. And ostensibly, also Tavros. He sighed deeply. "But what's good for me isn't necessarily good for you, I get that. Just... Keep it in mind if you're feelin' down, Kar, please?"

"I don't need to get out and do shit like you do," Karkat agreed and reached up to prod the end of Eridan's nose. "I haven't been bad since I moved in with Dave. I mean yeah I have my low points but it's never been...y'know, _that_ bad." He figured that if anyone knew what he meant, it'd be Eridan.

"If you ever get that low again, I honestly don't know what I'd do," Eridan said with a pout, opening his eyes to cross them and look at Karkat's finger against his nose. "I'm happy to admit I've never gotten as bad as all that, at least to myself. I did lash out once or twice durin' college, a couple times since, but nothin' on par with what happened on the meteor." He idly wondered if it wasn't because he simply didn't have control of his powers to the degree he had now, or if he simply wasn't as bad off. In any case, he hadn't been even _half_ as low as that since Gamzee had moved in, and there was no doubt in his mind that he'd continue to be just as happy, if not stressed from work. Having a moirail helped considerably from going balls-out crazy, in any case.

"See, the world can't get destroyed by the Horror Terrors, Kar. We're in too good a mood for that."

Karkat put his hand back down and sat back up, pulling his towel back up straight and decided that then would be a good time to go and get dressed. "Don't jinx it," he muttered and headed back to his bedroom to at least find a pair of pajama pants to pull on. "Hey, did you even bring clothes with you or am I going to have to lend you underwear for the night?" he called from down the hall, peeking his head around the doorframe.

"Do I look like a damned idiot, Kar?" Eridan said as he stood from the sofa to go usurp their bathroom for the moment, grabbing his pajamas out of the sylladex. "Don't answer that," he said through the door, shaking his head as he got out of his casual, but obviously designer day clothes, and settled into his considerably less upscale pajama pants and t-shirt that he'd been gifted from a certain Strider. He still hadn't figured out what Bro's fascination with sending Gamzee and himself - and probably everybody else - undershirts in the mail, but he never questioned it, nor did he question their likely ironic connotations. The one he pulled on was one of the few that weren't completely incomprehensible for him: it read 'bitches love seahorses'. He came out of the bathroom once his dirty clothes were packed back away into his sylladex, and he started back out to the living room.

Karkat grinned at him when Eridan preemptively hushed him and came back out in an old black tanktop and a pair of pajama pants that he'd had for years, for whatever reason, electric blue and decorated with cats, quite possibly the biggest eyesore he owned. He crawled back onto the couch and grabbed for the stereo remote, flipping on one of the many burned CDs Dave had loaded into the tray then letting the downtempo ambient give them a touch of white noise to ignore. He waited for Eridan to come back to the couch before flopping back over onto his side.

"Well, at least it isn't as bad as the last one he sent me," he chuckled at the shirt. "I really don't know why he would think I'd wear a shirt that says BOOTY on it."

Eridan looked down at his shirt and then rolled his eyes with a huff of a chuckle. "Gamzee likes his shirts, I merely boggle at the selection he sends us. This is one of the less bafflin' ones. One before this was somethin' to the tune a 'prettiest princess' an' was absolutely festooned in rhinestones." He shook his head as he slipped into a sprawl beside his moirail and settled beside him, arms back around him almost immediately. "Somethin' tells me that he gets off on confusion a others."

"That and an upscale cotton-poly blend." Tucking himself back against Eridan's chest and curling up there with a touch of frustration at how he had to squirm a little to get comfortable. He still had yet to get used to being taller and not being able to completely sprawl out on the couch without ending up hanging halfway off of it. "Gamzee'd love the shit out of just about anything someone gave him. He is ridiculously easy to please."

"It's because he's just not used to kindness an' gifts in general, I imagine," Eridan said in a thoughtful tone, eyes slipping closed once again, completely at ease for how he was laying, despite Karkat's squirming. "That, an' he's genuinely lovin', despite the darker side to him. Where one side a him is all hearts, the other is spades. It's...well, I'm just glad he's workin' actively to keep that other side a him at bay. After hearin' the stories," he said with a shake of his head, "an' seein' it at work for myself, I know my idea a integration was a rubbish one. I just don't want to see him suffer, Kar." Yet another thing he would have been surprised to hear himself say a year prior.

"Don't remind me. Trying to get Dave to tell me what happened when he came home was like trying to reenact the Crusades with nothing but a toothpick and a rusty spoon. At least there haven't been any other incidents, right? You said he was being weened off of most of his medication..."

It broke his heart to remember what happened then, but Eridan bowed his head and murmured, "He slipped up with the sopor, an' when I caught him at it, I realized then that I couldn't tell 'em that he'd slipped. I knew it was an honest mistake, an' one he wouldn't do again if he could help it. There haven't been any more since, no," he murmured as he ran his hand over Karkat's back again, curling a little closer as he recounted. "Seein' him so broken was painful, I could only imagine what kinda agony he was in, himself. Dave dealt with the most a it, he's a good moirail," he explained, "most a the worst a it was while I was at work, bitin' my nails down to the quick at the knowledge that Gam was dealin' with what he was. I knew I couldn't send him away, though. That woulda broken us both. I still haven't said anythin' to 'em about the incident." He took a deep breath. "But that was just one time, an' it's not gonna happen again. We're weenin' him from the unnecessary shit, replacin' 'em with MMJ, which is workin' better than the pills anyway. The antipsychotic's gonna have to be a thing he takes for the rest a his life, I'm pretty sure," he said with a sigh. "But most a it was just supplemental for other shit that was based solely on his environment." He opened his eyes and looked down to Karkat with a small, hopeful smile. "I'm just hopin' that once he's released outta this stupid legal shit, he'll stick around."

"I'm just glad that he's got people to take care of him this time around," Karkat murmured, his expression falling. "Dave's probably the best thing for him, too. They connect on a serious level. What happened in the game should have fucked them both up for that but here they are, taking care of eachother like they've been doing it all their lives."

Eridan quietly shooshed Karkat, shaking his head, murmuring, "We were practically pupas, Kar, don't let that eat away at you for your whole life. You did what you could given your experience at the time. That's admirable in itself. You were extremely fuckin' brave. Even now, I know I wouldn't be able to stand up in the face a...a that." He clenched his jaw, not liking how even the slightest part of his matesprit was so easily referred to as an 'it'.

"It wouldn't have even been necessary if I'd taken care of him beforehand. It was stupid. _I_ was really fucking stupid back then. I'm still pretty stupid about some things but at least it's where Gamzee won't get hurt." Grumbling about everything, Karkat turned over and laid there with his back against Eridan's stomach, face pressed against the couch cushions as he moped. "If it never happens again it'll still be too soon."

Eridan shook his head with another, more adamant shoosh, and pressed a kiss to the top of Karkat's head as he papped him gently. "You're always your worst critic. He doesn't hold anythin' against you, you know. He knows you did what you had to, an' you were caught up with tryin' to keep everythin' together. It's not like he's the kind to hold a grudge, anyhow. You know that as well as I do. I don't see why you're bein' so tough on yourself over ancient history."

Karkat just groaned and turned his face further into the couch cushion. "The rest of you assholes are way too forgiving, you know that?"

"Or we're _right_ and you're a headstrong prick, how about that." Eridan said, poking Karkat in a grubscar. Karkat immediately made a high-pitched sound and a very harassed face."It's like you're a fuckin' case study in how thickheaded someone can be and still manage to exist." He chuckled and left a rough kiss to what he could reach of Karkat's cheek. "I'm gonna make some tea, if you have any. I need somethin' to beat down the chill I'm gettin'. Would you like some?" He should have thought to pack some tea of his own, or perhaps some chai. It would have been nice to have on a cold night like this. Karkat pouted at him and butted his chin then sat up to let him up to make the tea.

"It's up there in the same cabinet as the spices. There's loose and bags and the filter's in the utility drawer for all that. I'm good for the moment but you can have what you want." His collection of tea wasn't all that extensive, but there were flavors for whatever mood he happened to be in, including a box of chai for cold weather.

Eridan's smile was sincere when Karkat looked back at him, and as he stood, he shook his head. "You wouldn't happen to have a milk steamer as well?" He figured if anybody would have one, it'd be a pair of baristas, but his question was answered easily as he noticed that their coffee machine was well more than that. "Nevermind, I should have known." Once he returned, it wasn't with just one large chai latte, but two, handing the other over, refusing to hear any of this 'I'm good' business. "I'd heard that Vriska an' Equius are a flushed thing. That took what, fifteen fuckin' years to happen?"

Karkat huffed a little as he was handed his mug, shaking his head and sitting back against the arm of the couch with his legs crossed. "Yeah, that's apparently a thing that's happened. Hopefully he keeps her out of our hair. Even if she's doing it with good intentions I don't want her meddling anymore."

"With the exception of this little get-together, I'm sure we'll see little a them," Eridan murmured as he settled in with his mug in his hands, "Though one has to wonder how Nep's takin' the change in dynamic. It's no small thing to have your moirail's matesprit move in." 

"Something tells me she's probably enjoying having someone else around to gossip with that won't tell her to watch her mouth," Karkat replied." She's probably made other friends by now that she can chatter at and talk about everyone else with." Shrugging a shoulder, Karkat sipped on his latte, immediately noting that it wasn't quite as good as what Dave made but letting it go given that it was still palatable at least. 

Shrugging slightly, Eridan sipped his chai and sighed contentedly before entertaining a new train of thought. "Though nothin' will beat the current reignin' champions a _how did that fuckin' happen_ , courtesy a Sol an' Strider the Large. I'll never get over that." He huffed and shook his head. "I'm still baffled by how easily Strider auspisticized between us. I'm tellin' you, whatever he is, he isn't fuckin' human."

Karkat just rolled his eyes and leaned back with his hands wrapped around his mug. "All I can really chalk that up to is mutual technophilia and weird tastes in music. Then it just got out of control and you did hear that they got married, right?"

"What? Human marriage?" Eridan's eyes went wide at the surprise, and his jaw dropped faintly before he shook his head. "Sol's lost it. That's all that I can assume." He was happy for Bro, though, for what it was worth; he knew that the elder Strider was completely over the moon for Sollux from the moment he saw the two of them, and the man did nothing to hide it. He chuckled a little, shaking his head. "I suppose that's only prudent to do for a relationship with a human in it. Makes filin' taxes easier at least, I'm sure." He rolled his eyes and nudged Karkat's knee with his toes a little. "What if Dave proposed?"

Karkat looked up at that, blinking back at Eridan owlishly then shaking his head as he looked back down at his cup. "I don't think he'd go for it, to be honest. He probably wouldn't see a point. I mean we're matesprits and we've never run into a problem over not being married and honestly, why would we in the first place? He's a romantic like his brother but somehow I can't really see it happening."

Eridan raised a brow to the answer, and it only got higher as Karkat went on. It seemed as if his moirail _wanted_ it to happen, but was looking on the negative side of things again. As usual. He took a long sip of his chai and wrinkled his nose. He forgot the sugar. Damn. "See, I'm really not seein' Dave as the romantic type. I just can't picture it. You know him far better than I do obviously, but I still don't really see it comin' from him."

"He doesn't really do the whole grand gestures thing or candlelight dinners or any of that kind of thing but...well, I guess you have to hear him talk sometimes. It's both weird and really natural coming from him. I don't know, maybe it's just me." Shrugging again, Karkat finished off his drink then slumped against the back of the couch with his hands tucked between his thighs. He looked back at Eridan, wrinkling his nose at the expression. "Put that eyebrow back down, don't even start."

"What? I'm allowed to be amused by you actually wantin' to get married, it's fuckin' amusing all right?" Eridan chuckled, though his eyebrow returned to just behind the rim of his glasses, and he took another sip of his drink. "Y'know, I haven't really done the candlelight dinner thing? Should, though. Might be a chore to get Gam into a suit but I think he'd humor me for one night." Not that Eridan wanted to be humored. He'd rather have Gamzee go at it with just as much enjoyment as he had in it. And yet, it was really fuckin' hard to get himself to talk Gamzee into wearing a suit for _any_ reason. He just didn't belong in one. He belonged in whatever he felt like wearing at any given time, and while he did scrub up nice, that just wasn't who he was. And Eridan wouldn't change that for anything. He explained that all to Karkat with a sigh, and once he was finished with his chai, he laid his head back on the armrest and looked up at the ceiling with a sigh. "It's imperfect, but I wouldn't change it, y'know?"

"Gamzee looks weird in a suit anyway," Karkat chuckled then lifted one foot up to rest it on Eridan's knee. He ignored the part about his wanting to get married in favor of continuing to pick on Eridan's relationship instead. "If you just planted the idea in his head I bet he'd do that, though. Set up a whole romantic candlelight thing and cook some delicacy and get roses and the whole nine yards. I wouldn't call it perfect either, but it's about as close as anyone can get without it dissolving into Disney shit."

"On the contrary, I think he looks quite charmin' in a suit, but you're right in that it doesn't work well with who he is in general," Eridan nodded, closing his eyes. "Oh, I'm very sure he would. It'd be nice to be wined and dined, I'll admit, but to also do the wooin', that's... well, I'm not gonna say I think it's necessary, but it's fun." But now the idea was lodged in his head of coming home to that, and he wouldn't get it out until he found a way to very carefully insinuate such a scenario to Gamzee, as well. He looked over his knee at Karkat with a smirk. "So once this place is actually a reality an' we're left alone by the outer gods, what are you gonna fret over? I know you'll think a somethin', but you really seem fixated on this doom an' gloom."

"Oh, I'd think of something," Karkat agreed with a toothy little half-smile. "College tuition, natural disasters, shit like that. There's so much to worry about, don't you know?" He shook his head and propped the other foot over the first on top of Eridan's knee, shaking his head. "Whatever the case may eventually be, I'm not just going to spontaneously stop worrying about shit. You know that."

Eridan shook his head. "Got my work cut out for me for a while then. Someone's gotta remind you that nothin' is goin' to really do harm to you if anyone can help it. I don't know a single person who's got a negative opinion a you." He wiggled his knee to shake Karkat's legs in turn, smirking somewhat at that. "Except the natural disasters thing, that's actually somethin' I worry about too. Why I thought comin' to live in California would be a good idea is beyond me sometimes. I wouldn't say I'm at risk for flood, but earthquakes an' landslides are a concern." And he knew there really wasn't much he could do about it but let it not be a concern to him until and unless it happened, and _then_ he could throw a fit.

"Oh I know of plenty of people who have a negative opinion of me. I just don't talk to them on a regular basis so I don't really give a shit." Withdrawing his foot and tucking it under himself, Karkat sat up only to lean heavily against the back of the couch with his cheek in his hand and smirk back at Eridan. "Come on, you know you would have bitched up a storm about a flood just because of the debris if you ended up having to swim. How long did it take you to knock all of the gunk out of your gills after you had to drag Sollux out of his apartment building?" Shaking his head at that, Karkat was almost glad that they hadn't actually been close at that point, just so that he wouldn't have to listen to Eridan griping endlessly about the bits of drywall trapped in his filaments.

"Are you kiddin'?" Joked Eridan with a shake of his head, "I'm still coughin' up concrete from time to time." He rested his own head against the heel of his palm, looking over at Karkat fondly. "You're lucky you don't have gills, you'd bitch constantly. Erm. Moreso than usual." 

"Just watch me, I'll bitch about _your_ gills instead," Karkat murmured and curled up with Eridan there on the couch, persistently immobile. The night wore on with the two and they never did get to another movie, simply dozing off on the sofa together. They never even stirred when Terezi arrived home, shaking her head at them then shuffling off to her bedroom.

\--

In the hotel about a mile away, Dave was busy touching _everything_ in the room, because the lavish suite required investigation, and he was in an exceptionally tactile mood. Gamzee was sprawled out on his stomach on the enormous, overly soft bed as he watched Dave milling about the room, his chin resting on his crossed arms.

"Dude, do you ever get used to your dude's tastes in shit? I mean, he probably coulda gotten a room for a fifth of this price and wouldn't have lost any of the comfort." Dave dropped down onto the obviously antique couch and sprawled his legs out in front of him.

Gamzee shrugged a bit at the question. "It don't really bother me none. Ain't shit I'm used to, but he insists on gettin' this motherfuckin' comfy-ass shit. I ain't gonna argue with it, it's his cash."

"I couldn't deal with this constantly," Dave said with a shake of his head, tipping over to sprawl across the couch instead. "It's too posh for my pedestrian ass. I'm pretty fuckin' sure this sorta thing loses value just by having me near it." His smile was tilted and cocky as he looked over at Gamzee. "Never was into the whole rich kid shit. I mean, I had a choice of going to whatever private schools I wanted, and I still went to public schools up 'til I was in middle school. I guess even _having_ the choice is weird enough."

"Wouldn't know about all that. Ain't ever been to school myself, just learned shit on the fly. But hey, you think you're devaluin' the property just bein' around it, what's that say for my scrub ass bein' all up in this motherfuckin' space gettin' all fuckin' comfy?" Gamzee turned over onto his back, his hands lacing together atop his stomach with his head hanging off the edge of the bed. "Really, it's just better havin' these fuckin' nice places since they're cleaner, makes it so we don't gotta worry so much about Eridan gettin' sick on account'a the room itself."

"Is he really that fragile?" Dave asked, scooting down the bed to poke his toes against Gamzee's knee. "I think he's just a hypochondriac. And a melodramatic princess." But none of what he said sounded even remotely insulting. He couldn't hate the fishboy. He made his two favorite people happy.

"Used to be," Gamzee nodded, lifting his leg then letting it back down on top of Dave's foot to lazily pin it down. "He's too cautious most'a the time when it comes to this shit but I think at least when we're travelin' and we're somewhere cold, he can afford to worry a lil' bit. Like ok, you know that purple bit in his hair?" He gestured to his hairline where he was referring to. "That shit's because he got sick when he was real motherfuckin' little. Tends to get sick every time the temperature drops. 's why he's better off in Cali."

"Huh. Thought he just dyed it because he's proud of his blood color or some shit." With a mellow browarch of surprise, he shrugged. "Makes sense I guess, being a little more cautious, but I really don't think he's _as_ bad off. I mean, maybe it's just me, but I never got sick as a kid. And I kinda attribute that to being around dirt and germs and stuff. It bolstered my immune system. But whatever. If that's how he does, more power to him. Just so long as he doesn't go through like a gallon of Purell or some shit every day." He pushed his shades up and looked over at Gamzee with a smirk. He knew Gamzee was more on par with him as far as shit went in that. The highblood had foresaken riches and aristocracy for simpler, more homey shit.

"Nah, that shit dries out his skin." Gamzee reached out and plucked the shades off of Dave's forehead, slipping them onto his own face and grinning back at him. "Whatcha think cuz, am I Stridery enough for this shit?"

Dave smirked, looking over at Gamzee with a critical eye. "Mm, I dunno, aviators aren't your thing. We'll get you a pair of shades, you can get your Stride on all your own style." He smirked and stood, only to tumble over onto the part of the bed Gamzee wasn't presently occupying. "You know what though? He's all right. I mean, he's a stuck up, rich, pompous prick, but he's good people."

Gamzee moved the aviators up on top of his own head as he scooted over a bit to let Dave sprawl in kind. He tucked his arm up behind his head, looking down at his moirail with a soft frown. "Yeah, he's bean real motherfuckin' good for me. Even better for Karbro. Didn't even have to come all up and volunteerin' to take me in or anything, 'specially after he remembered all that shit what happened up to him gettin' his shit chainsawed."

Leaning his head in his hand to stay somewhat upright, Dave smiled. "It's great that he did. I mean shit, outside of the fucking meteor and all the wack shit surrounding it, I never would have met you otherwise. That'd suck so much ass, I don't even wanna think about it. And I dunno. He just seemed pretty... I don't even know. When he volunteered to take you in, he seemed..." He scratched his head as he tried to think of what, exactly, Eridan seemed like that night. "Desperate, I guess. Like he really wanted you there. Maybe I'm not remembering shit right, or maybe he was just being greedy and lonely. But he was totally on top of that shit like mayo on a sandwich."

"Can't really see why he would be at that point. 'Cept-" Gamzee winced, the edges of his eyes going very faintly red then fading back off before it could really be noticeable. He continued distractedly, talking to himself. "Nah, couldn'a been that shit. He didn't know shit 'fore he got hisself whacked." He shook his head, his chin resting against his arm as his brow furrowed, his eyes turned out toward the carpet and unfocused.

Dave's brow shot up at that, and he tilted his head. "Would you gentlemen like to fill a bro in?" He didn't like pointing out the duality in his best friend, but damn, sometimes they made it fucking obvious. Gamzee sat back up, his head propped up by his hand, the fingers of his free hand twitching a little bit in a nervous fidget, something that never happened unless that evil side of his pan was slinking up close to the surface. His head snapped around after a few seconds, and his eyes were ringed red as he pulled a wide, singularly chilling smile.

"Motherfucker killed us, bro, you remember that shit?" he replied quietly.

Dave's eyes went wide at the change, and cracked his neck as he got into Listen mode, plucking his glasses off Gamzee's head to put them on. "What, at Rose's? That's a bit bass-ackwards, don'tcha think? I mean. If there's a time before all that, I didn't hear of it."

"Yeah, see man, that shit, we _knowed_ he was capable of it. Even if nobody else ever fucking did." The grin grew wider and Gamzee's eyes narrowed down to mean little slits. "So we perforated his fuckin' pan."

"Oh. _Oh_." Dave caught on then and shook his head. "So wait a minute, you're telling me, in your fucking delusional stupid chucklebrain, you think he took you in because _he_ knew he's capable of killing you? Get real. That guy doesn't know shit from sausage about his powers. He doesn't even fucking concede it's magic, okay? He doesn't know dick-all about his aspect OR what it can do." But now that he knew, Dave would definitely be pushing that idea.

Gamzee leaned back, stretching his legs out in front of him and letting one hang off the edge of the bed. "Maybe not consciously, but he knowed instinctively, he had to keep a mother fucking eye on me. He don't even fuckin' know who took out the fuckin' hit on his dumb fuckin' fish ass. Don't see what this doped motherfucker sees in him, really don't," he sighed. "Anyway, fuckin' point is, he got that shit in him able to fuckin' lay me low whether he acknowledges it or no. Only thing keepin' me safe's this idiot fuckin' clown he's so attached to."

"That fucking idiot clown is the only piece of your pan that has any chance, you dumb sack of giggles," Dave chided, "You're irrelevant, you know. I don't care what the big and spookies got to say to you, bro, you're not necessary in this reality." He tucked away the information that he wanted in the back of his mind. So, this dumb shit was the one who got Eridan killed to begin with. Interesting. Also really fucking freaky. He had on his poker face. "So tell me honestly. You one hundred percent believe that Eridan is keeping y'all around because he wants you dead? Have you _seen_ that guy? His temper's almost as bad as Karkat's, but worse in the way that he _means_ it. If he wanted you dead, and I mean perma-dead? He'd have done it by now. What I really think is going down? He was lonely, he didn't want to impose on all of us, so he took you in because he's a selfish prick. And good shit happened from there. I dunno what to tell you, dude, you read into shit way too much."

One hand came up in a stiff wave. "Nah bro, what you got your figure on ain't quite what I meant. You got that shit right, he kept _Gamzee_ around because he was real fuckin' lonely, took him on as a sort of a motherfuckin' project, ended up real good for them." He rolled his eyes. "Nah man, he keeps _me_ around cuz one: he don't know how to fucking kill me without killing the whole fucking pan and two: who better to look after me than the one supplying the inhibitors in the first place? He can lock me down. And _now_ he knows he can fucking kill me. At least insofar as utter fucking destruction. He's real fucking good with that aspect of his when he ain't thinkin' real hard about it. _I_ knowed he could kill me with it. And you know I got me some motherfucking preservation instinct, 'specially now we got a world I can die in."

"Uh huh." Dave wasn't buying into what this douchebag was selling. He could agree that yes, now that there was a proven way of killing Gamzee, it was obvious that the most logical step would be to isolate and kill the asshole inside him. But he was damn sure that Eridan was still trying to integrate them, like a moron. "Look man, if it weren't for the fact that you have a massive rage boner over his ability to kill you, and thus hating him in a strangely platonic way for someone all on _my_ dick, he'd probably want to keep you around as well."

"Man, he ain't got no fucking reason to keep me here. Ain't no place for a full and proper mother fucking high subjugglator in this shit. Come the fuck on, my little fucking mutant brother, you're way underestimating what he can and will do when it comes to me. But, between you n' me?" Leaning down close to Dave, Gamzee's smile stretched further with his lips just brushing the rim of the other's ear. "I'd do it again, make sure it was me doin' it. Make his death heroic as fuck, then paint the whole fuckin' house with him." He laughed out loud and rocked back, a honking cackle startling the people in the room below them.

Dave sneered at the laughter and recoiled. Fucking disgusting. It didn't last long though before Gamzee had fallen back over limply, pouting up at the ceiling, focus fading as the red leeched back out of his eyes. Once the subjugglator's grip on the forefront of Gamzee's pan relented, Dave slipped closer and papped his friend's face. "Don't believe a word of it, dude. That's not what's going down, and you know it." He took Gamzee's hand and held it tight. What a fucking nasty person to be stuck with inside his own mind. He huffed a dry, joyless chuckle and shook his head. "Some roommate you got there."

With his free hand, Gamzee rubbed his fingertips into one eye then simply staring up at the ceiling as he tried to get a handle on things after what Dave had just been told. He hadn't ever wanted that to come out into the open to begin with; it would do nobody any good to know in the first place. "Son of a mother fuck..." If there was any time he seriously wanted to eat his weight in sopor slime, it was now.

"Man," was all Dave could sigh, shaking his head while continuing to pap Gamzee's cheek and chest gently. "Let's load a bowl, bro. You know what? What Chucklefuck has to say don't matter." He wouldn't be bringing any of the history up to anybody. What he heard was between himself and his moirail's fucked up alter ego. Except for the Hope thing. That would be mulled over and figured out how to bring it up. He scrounged in his sylladex and found his pipe which he caught as it flew out, as well as the baggie wrapped in a rubber band around it. "You gotta stop listening to that delusional piece of shit. I mean, I know it's gotta be hard as shit to do, but duder ain't right."

"You try ignorin' a fuckin' foghorn blarin' from the back'a your motherfuckin' head, bro," Gamzee replied wearily, sitting up again slowly and putting his cheek down against Dave's shoulder. He pouted some at the pipe and baggie, then opened his sylladex to fish out his own stash. He had a feeling he'd need more than just a bowl shared between them to shake off that particular outburst.

"Point made," Dave sighed, hugging Gamzee and rubbing his back. "But what he's got to say about it is objectively fuckin' wrong. Anyone can see that Eridan isn't yanking you around. He loves you. All of you, even the idiot asshole part. I mean even if he doesn't say he loves you, he feels it." He packed his own pipe and shook his head. "If I could, I'd shut him up, too."

"Motherfucker's overstayed his welcome by ten fuckin' years," Gamzee muttered and flicked his thumb over his lighter a couple of times, looking down at the pipe in his hand as he turned over Dave's words in his mind. "Yeah, I know. 'cept he ain't got no love for that dark motherfucker and I ain't askin' him to anyway. He don't deserve no motherfuckin' pity." He stopped himself from adding to that thought, a painful pull in his chest prompting a jagged laugh from the back of his mind that he tried to shove down and shut up. "Ever since he took over shit before, he's been gettin' a lot more motherfuckin' antsy. Got some fresh air and wants some more, y'know?"

"That's no good," Dave said with a wrinkle of his nose, before he lit his own pipe, taking a long hit, thinking things over. "Up your dosage maybe?" he suggested. "Ask Danny to do that for you, tell him the creepy waste of pan space is getting unruly. I'll vouch." He exhaled and shook his head, leaning against Gamzee, pouting faintly. "Wish I could help you, man."

"Don't wanna be fuckin' worryin' him. I got this shit," Gamzee sighed, taking a long, quiet breath of the smoke drifting in front of them before lighting up, himself. He held his breath for several seconds after taking his hit, then let it back out through his nose as he continued, "it's just a little exhausting, that's all."

"You shouldn't have to deal with it. Like, at all." He was rolling things over in his mind. Fucking douchebag motherfucker in Gamzee's hindpan needed to get gone. As he took another hit, Dave was silent. It drove him batshit that there really wasn't any chance that anybody but Eridan could fix this shit. Well, nobody _they_ knew. He didn't know any other Hope people, and although Bro was able to rip souls out of people, it wasn't the soul of his best bro that was fucked. It was the Rage. The Voodoos. Bro might know what to do, but he wouldn't be able to do it.

As he let out the small amount of smoke that still lingered in his lungs, he dropped back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling. "I hate this shit just as much as you do, dude. I'm a fucking protector and I can't do this shit up right for you. I can't fix this, and it pisses me off so much. You're too good for this shit."

Shaking his head, Gamzee turned and pressed his lips to Dave's temple then let his forehead rest against his moirail's hair. "Man, you do that shit anyway whether you realize it or not. Makin' sure I'm safe n' motherfuckin' stable like you do, that shit goes a long motherfuckin' way toward protectin' everyone from me and me from myself. And don't tell me don't nobody need protectin' from my shit, you saw yourself that ain't true." He turned back to his pipe and took a long, hard pull, coughing quietly as he let it back out. He pulled his legs up onto the bed and crossed them, his elbows propped up on his knees. "Shit, bro...I think you might legit be the only one that knows anything about all this noise. Not even Vriska knows shit 'cept Eridan was gonna get hit to begin with."

Dave put his hand through Gamzee's dreads and pulled playfully at them, smirking a little. "You're not a threat. Your fuckin' roommate's the one I'm worried about." He closed his eyes and thought it through again. "Well, you saved him from it, too. Might be why he was so quick to take you in; he knew that you were to thank for his being alive today. And although it was the asshole's hit out on him, I doubt he'd blame you for it." He tipped his glasses back up onto his forehead, smiling at Gamzee. "There isn't a single person who knows you who wouldn't vouch for the fact that _you're_ good people. Whether or not that chucklefuck you gotta deal with hijacking your shit is is a totally different can of beans, and you know it."

"He don't need ta know that either, if he doesn't know it already, which I don't see why he motherfuckin' would unless Vriska straight up told 'im the deal." Gamzee shook his head then reached back into his sylladex to retrieve one of the growing collection of scrunchies there, tying his dreads back out of the way then taking a long enough hit to cache his bowl. He leaned his shoulder against Dave's, looking back down at him as he let the smoke out from the corner of his mouth. "I hope you're right about all that though. Don't want nobody gettin' their shit messed up about me any worse than it already has been. I'd like some motherfuckin' peace for a minute, y'know?"

"You fucking deserve it, too," Dave said with a nod, caching his own bowl before laying back against Gamzee. He closed his eyes and sighed out the smoke, leaning himself heavily against his friend's chest. "It's pretty fuckin' cold out, but I kinda want to get my walk on. You ever do that? Just walk to take your mind off shit?" He opened his eyes to look up at Gamzee with a slight smile. "There's hells of shit to do on the mall, and we could hit up the toy store, get some silly shit to play with while we're here. You ever play hacky sack?"

"Yeah, spend a lot of time just walkin' the beach at home," Gamzee replied with a nod, putting his chin on top of Dave's head as one arm draped around his moirail's shoulders. He chuckled quietly and rocked a little bit in place. "Shit man, yeah I played that shit. Met a bunch'a motherfuckers taught me how they get doin' all that, picked it up pretty easy. That was some time before I started learnin' all that poi shit. If we had room in here I'd say we just get some shit then play around here where it's warm since you know all this motherfuckin' snow kinda slows me down."

"Well, it's only a couple blocks from where we are, we can walk there, grab some shit, and go back. They sell devil sticks and poi shit and all sorts of juggling junk, you'll love it." Dave sat up and smirked a little as he swung his legs down onto the floor. "And all sorts of dippy toy shit, like tops and bouncy balls and water worms and all that cool shit."

"You know what motherucker? That sounds like the best shit." Gamzee half-rolled off the bed to go on a brief search for his shoes, then dragged his coat back on and shoved his hands into his pockets, ready to follow Dave wherever he went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CH and Meebs both agreed that if The Mayor had a human PB, it would be Aziz Ansari. [Just look at this little bastard.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdsWtku9gg)
> 
> The dream bubble incident that Eridan mentioned is [here](http://princeofmelodrama.dreamwidth.org/2530.html).
> 
>  
> 
> [A note to all of you that read Asylum and have questions/comments/concerns.](http://datmeebs.tumblr.com/post/87765949817/to-all-the-followers-that-read-asylum-and-all-the)


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, have a happy Tavros.

When Tavros got the message inviting him to the Christmas party the Striders were throwing, he couldn't help but wonder why, at first. He was still on friendly terms with Dave and Karkat, mostly a tertiary figure in their lives, but he supposed that by now he should have expected to get an invite to a thing every now and then, based on Dave's relationship with Gamzee. He was forced to acknowledge that there was actually someone around that wanted him involved in their lives whether it would bring about disaster or not. He'd relayed his confusion over the matter to Cass at least once since the last time he'd come to a gathering with the rest of his session. He supposed that one of these days he would be able to accept that they were around and that they were going to invite him to things.

Cass had been oddly swept up into the group himself through strange circumstances and even stranger idiosyncrasies. He'd been friends with Dave since they'd shared a dorm room together, and since Dave had known better than to disrupt his clinically OCD roommate's shway, Cass didn't hate the guy straight out the door. They only became better friends after that. It was Cass who got Dave the job at the cafe, and he'd opted, rather than work for Bill, to find something more suited to his enjoyment. Hence working at the ASPCA. They liked his laid back attitude and his work ethic, and he liked being able to intuit when the people who wished to adopt were good people or bad people. The animals always went to good homes when he was around.

Meeting Tavros was something more like home to him than the weird lopsidedness of his relationship with Dave. The brownblood and he shared interests in movies and roleplaying, and every Friday after work, they were in campaigns together, lasting all night, or at least as long as anyone could stand. It was a cozy friendship based on some of the nerdiest shit. As it got colder out and then started to snow on them, they were both working longer hours and taking more responsibilities at the shelter, as they did every year. Tavros was still the only brown-blooded troll the shelter had, but at least he wasn't the only one working there that was very good with the animals. Having Cass there had proven a huge boon and it had allowed Tavros to stop and rest every now and then rather than running himself ragged, as he had around Halloween. He was on duty for the trash this evening after he went to lunch, and he told Cass as much before he left to go to the diner, trusting that he had everything under control for an hour. So when Tavros left him in charge of things to go to lunch, he waved amiably and told him to be back before nightfall, stating vaguely "that's when _they_ come out."

He hadn't expected it to be portent. An hour came and passed and he'd finished changing the pads in the kennels and cages, bringing the large bag of wizzed-on papers out to the back where the garbage had been located. It was gone, but Tavros had yet to come back. Cass tilted his head with a furrowed brow of confusion, and as he walked to toss the other bag of garbage, he noticed signs of a struggle, scuff marks on the pavement, a trace of bronze-colored _something_ on the corner of the building, the direction of it leading off towards the bike path.

_Shit._

He rushed to lock up the place and then ran down to the bike path, looking around for any sign of anybody. There was no movement, he couldn't hear any thoughts, absolutely nothing. Shit. Shit _shit_. That was when he saw the blood. His mind didn't parse it as blood at first, but the rusted copper brown of it smeared its way from the cement, up into the high grass of the prairie preserve that nestled up back against the shelter and other buildings. "Tavros?" He called. "If you're out here, throw me a bloody rope, dude." He was panicked. This sort of shit happened in London, not BFE, Colorado!

With his hands bound behind him and tape wrapped around his head and over his mouth to keep him from yelling for help, Tavros wasn't making a sound outside from the muffled grunting as he twisted his hands against the tie and cutting the plastic into his wrists. He was being held against a thick tree by his horns, one of which was broken off just low enough down the vertical portion to send sickening throbs through his head and most of his body. He was lightheaded and his vision was doubling, but when he heard Cass he thrashed, one foot jerking out and planting in his assailant's stomach hard enough to double him over and bring his nose straight into a metal kneecap. There was a sick crunch as it shattered and the man screamed, clutching his bleeding nose as Tavros attempted to bolt, only to be grabbed and swung around by the other horn and back into the tree, face-first. He was knocked out by the blow and he slumped down, bleeding badly from his nose and his wrists. Everything went black before he could register a knife at his throat.

Cass dashed that direction after he heard the scream and pinpointed which of the minds was Tavros', ignoring his, faint though it was for the unconsciousness, to focus on the other brains in the area. It wasn't hard for him to turn up the volume on every disgustingly dark, terrible thought that had ever been a part of each of their minds, adding to it the dark memories of his own and _pushing_. The tortured howls were only silenced when he growled faintly and pushed just a little more, sending each assailant's brain into shock, making every single one of them collapse.

Cthulhu would have been proud, Cass thought with a shake of his head, and he ran up to grab Tavros, hauling him up onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He didn't speak, but he dipped into the other's mind, his own shivery blue and gentle.

_Tavros, you're losing blood. Lots of it. Do you **know** where your quest bed is, mate?_

Tavros' thoughts were slow and blurred and dark, receding points as he dimly registered that he wasn't on the ground anymore. Cass' voice was far away and fuzzy but he pulled up a mental image of a path leading further back away from the trail he'd been dragged down, hard to spot unless someone were to be looking specifically for it. From there he gave a series of images that led up to the mouth of a cave and the impression of a deep blue slab inside. He clung to that image until he couldn't hold onto a thought at all, the pulse of blood slowing down dramatically.

Thank goodness for mental images, Cass thought as he started down that path, keeping his footing (Thanks dad for the monthly hikes,) even with the added weight of his friend over his shoulder. Getting into the cave was a bit of a trick with Tavros' horns, and he momentarily wondered how the guy managed to do anything without a wide load banner attached to him. He settled Tavros' body down on the slab once he reached it, and collapsed a little to catch his breath and grumble, "I'm puttin' you on a diet, mate." He stayed there, catching his breath and worrying at the back of his fingerless gloves with his teeth, looking at Tavros. He wasn't sure how long it'd take; he'd gone god tier in the game, and he'd never had to deal with this before. He pinged Vriska mentally and she pinged back with a _Get comfy, slim, this could take a while._

It was getting close to midnight by the time Tavros came back, shivering on the slab with his hands up over his eyes, the heels pressing into them to stave off the headache that he knew wasn't going to be receding for a while. He felt gingerly along one of his horns as he sat up, one arm wrapping around his legs and pulling them up to keep warm. It was a reflexive action and only after his hand reached the end of his horn and groped to find the tip of it intact did he realize that _his legs were cold_. And not just metallic cold, either. He made a mildly distressed sound in his throat then glanced around the dark cave that he could only see the entrance of, and even then he could only see that by the few stars that were peeking between tree branches.

Cass had fallen asleep in that time, but the sudden sound of thought woke him up. He opened his eyes and squinted in the dark. "Ah, and there you are," he said, voice groggy but otherwise quiet. He sat up and stretched, getting his shoulders to pop before he stood, offering a hand up. "You feelin' all right? Death takes it out of a guy."

Tavros had started to scoot off the slab when Cass spoke up and he stiffened, looking up and squinting into the darkness. He pouted a little as he stood unsteadily, reaching a hand out to grab onto Cass' to steady himself as he stumbled like a newborn calf on shaky legs. He reached behind him with the other to pull at and adjust the ridiculously small pants of his god tier jams, then simply huffed at them and wrinkled his nose as he tried to imagine them into something better. He was much more comfortable in the classical interpretation of his class rather than looking like a sidekick in goofy underpants. It was warmer, too, by far.

"How th...why is it so dark?" he muttered, still a little bit sluggish as to how he got there.

Holding Tavros up by slinging his arm under the other's arms, Cass looked to the mouth of the cave. "We're in a cave, tends to be darker where the light can't reach," he flatly stated. "C'mon, mate, let's get you out. I'm guessin' you got your real legs now? You're lighter by far, bloody things weigh a fuckin' ton." Once they were out of the cave, he stretched again and lit a cigarette. "Christ on a cracker, that was excitin'." By the tone in his voice, it was anything but. He was still nervously worried, but he knew that the guys who'd attacked Tavros were still in the field, and likely would be until found by passersby, comatose and in the case of at least one, clinically braindead. Cass wasn't even the slightest bit upset by his actions, nor would he ever be. The fuckers deserved it. "S'get you home, mate. I'll give you a ride."

Tavros was still holding onto Cass' shoulder when they came back out into the open, trying to will his legs to work like his prosthetics and not quite getting it right. As a result, he walked like his legs were asleep. He agreed with a quiet murmur of "home, yeah," keeping his eyes straight ahead when they came upon the men that had caught him. When they found the other's car, he slid into the back seat, sitting in the middle and slouching down as he picked at the leg of his new pants.

"Uh...thanks," he spoke up after Cass had started the car. "I mean, y'know. For that. I uh...I owe you one."

Cass slipped in as well and looked through the rearview mirror. "Hey. You all right? I'm not gonna just drop you off until I know you're a hundred percent okay. What happened back there's..." He shook his head as he started on their way. "I'm here for you, s'all. You owe me nothing. There's nothing about this that you need to feel responsible for." He shook his head. He'd known too many people who were attacked just for being who they were. It was always a pain in his heart. Tavros was one of the most innocent people he'd ever known. Sure he was kind of a dick sometimes, but that wasn't why he'd been singled out and Cass knew it. Disgusting, worthless, bigoted scum never cared about a person's life, only what they were superficially. And Cass wouldn't have it in this world any more than he did in his first.

"Got a headache," Tavros muttered, tipping his head back against the seat with his hands in his lap. "I'm ok though. Probably gonna go to bed soon as I get in... I'll have to practice walking, that's for sure," he added with an uncomfortable chuckle. He rubbed his hand over the part of his thigh that used to be made up of alloy and cables, a rash of goosebumps running up his arms at being able to actually _feel_ it. "Maybe you could, uh, check Tink's food for me when we get there? And she could probably use some company."

As they waited for a red light to change, Cass pulled out his phone and called Bill, quickly summing up what had happened, and where the attackers were likely still laying. He said it in such a way that it sounded only like a check-in with his guardian, but it wasn't. Not fully. The attackers would find themselves in a hospital and unable to ever hurt another troll again. At least, if Bill wasn't hungry.

Over the course of the drive, Tavros dozed, his head lolling gently back and forth as he slowly wiggled his toes, simply trying to get accustomed to having them. He listened absently to the phone conversation, wondering vaguely about Bill. He wasn't sure he'd ever met him before; all he knew was that he was one of the local guardians and that he ran the coffee shop where Karkat and Dave worked. He decided he might take the time to stop in for a coffee it he was in the area some time, just to see what went on and watch the other two. Karkat being in a position to interact with a lot of people didn't exactly seem like the safest thing ever, but Dave seemed to have managed to calm him down noticeably in the time they'd been together and really, that was a hell of a feat.

"How about breakfast tomorrow," he offered when they pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex. "It's not much, but it's been a long night and all..."

As he parked, Cass smiled faintly. "Yeah, sounds good. C'mon, I'll check on Tinkerbell, and make sure you can get into your cocoon without tipping headlong into it." He slipped out and helped Tavros to the door. "You know, if you want to go pester them, they'd probably enjoy your company. They...they only keep you distanced for your own safety. They don't want you hurt." He smiled reassuringly and shook his head. "So maybe breakfast at the cafe would be nice. Bill's an actual pirate, you know. Actually knew the real Captain Hook."

It was tempting to ask what version of Hook, finding the idea that Bill would have known someone like the Disney iteration incredibly humorous. Tavros was grateful for the help out of the car and into the apartment, having to fish for his keys after willing his clothes back to his work attire. He was still wobbly as he walked, but at least he didn't look like he was on the verge of collapsing anymore. He stopped in the kitchen, flipping on the light as soon as he heard the tinkling of his cat's collar.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised. About Dave and Karkat, I mean. But now I guess I'm in it too, huh?" He gave Cass an awkward little smile as he filled a glass with water and downed it twice.

Cass shrugged faintly. "Depends entirely on who you're talking to. Have you got your memories back? That's really the most defining characteristic of how deep of shit you're in." He leaned down to pick up Tink, scratching under her collar and behind her ears. "Good little lovely," he murmured to her, getting headbutted under his goatee. He looked over at Tavros with a smile. Tavros' own smile faded back off and he leaned against the counter on his elbows, his hands clasped in front of his mouth as if in prayer.

"I remember...my life before the game. Everything about how I lost my legs. How I died, how I left my matesprit and that stupid ring and the stupid fight with the stupid Egbert kid..." There was a litany of mental images flowing through his mind, the conversations with Gamzee and treasure hunting with Vriska, waking up with prosthetics courtesy of one very moist blueblood. He winced as his legs tingled some in an odd sort of reversal of phantom limb syndrom, making him extremely aware of the flesh and blood he was standing on.

"From what I hear of it," Cass continued, "and it only really gets bothersome if the sessions were more than four, the more people from single sessions converge and speak to each other, the worse off celestially it is. Eldritch fuckers dropping out of the sky bad. Dave and Karkat had it happen to them at least twice now. And they just don't want you harmed." He put Tinkerbell down by her food bowl and filled it for her, tapping the edge of it with his nail before standing and looking at his friend with a weak, worried smile.

"They're all getting together for the holidays, because your up-top ladies are coming down for a visit. I'd say you should cherish that time. I've no clue when I get mine back."

Tavros rocked one of his legs restlessly on the ball of his foot, nodding almost imperceptibly. "I don't really know if Jade would want to see me, but Aradia was my friend, so I would like to see her at least. It would be nice if your friends could come too, though."

Cass nodded to all of it and leaned over to put his hand on Tavros' shoulder. "When he was here, you gave so much joy to Gamzee. The love he has for you is profound. And I'm sure whoever else would come would love to see you. It won't be like the last party, at least I doubt it will. For one, I'll be there to be company, and hopefully John won't be there actively trying to piss off Dave and Karkat by sticking his tongue in my mouth." Really, that was just unnecessary and had he been sober, he wouldn't have considered the notion. "Besides. It's nice to have old friends to see."

"Could we just...ban John from coming to these things? Because he's gotten to be even more of an ass than I remember." Wrinkling his nose, Tavros straightened up and scratched back through his mohawk distractedly. He doubted that Dave or Karkat would really argue with that at least. He turned a little bronze around the ears and nodded at the thought about Gamzee. "I had kind of hoped he'd moved on from that whole thing, after he and Eridan became a thing. I mean, I still like him, he's a good friend, but I don't... I'm not flushed or anything, and I don't like that he might be uh... _pining_ or something."

Cass laughed and shook his head. "Human definition, I should have been specific. No, he loves you greatly, but with the exception of perhaps a little lingering redness, I believe it's strictly platonic. I really haven't pried, but it's strictly pale, if that." He shrugged. "Something fraternal and everlasting is what I get from it. And lots of happy honking, though I'm not entirely sure what that means."

"Well...that's better. I would honestly like to hang out with him more," Tavros replied as he moved out of the way to let Cass do as he pleased. He yawned quietly, mouth open wide and showing the array of sharp teeth that were just crooked enough to have warranted a couple of questions of visits to an orthodontist. He crouched down slowly to run his hand down Tink's back and scratch at her tail, prompting a squeaky mew. Cass shrugged and shook his head, meandering towards the fridge to see if there was anything he could make quickly to put some food in his friend and send him off to sleep.

"As far as banning Herr Egbert, that'd be up to the senior Strider, I think. He's your Guardian, at least as far as this part of the country's concerned."

"Aren't John and his dad in California? That would put them pretty close to the rest of us."

"Iunno, mate," Cass said as he sighed at the state of the fridge. He'd need to surreptitiously come by and clean it out for his friend at some point. He grabbed a frozen dinner out of the freezer and proceeded to heat it up in lieu of something better to make, figuring Tavros just needed to eat and drop. "Not my department, keeping all you lot sorted. All I care about out of it is you, Dave, Karkat and the clown. Everybody else can blow me." He smiled and leaned against the counter, arms crossed. It was then that he noticed that his peacoat had brown blood on it and he wrinkled his nose. "Your blood doesn't stain, does it? I really don't want to get another coat."

Tavros looked up and grimaced some. "It...kind of does. But I can get it out, just leave it here and I'll bring it to you at work or something." He flaked some of the dried blood off of the shoulder of the coat with his nail and shook his head. He couldn't understand the human hostility, even with all of the fictional experience with interracial and interspecies violence within his games. He'd heard offhand about one of Karkat's run-ins with another pack of human priders, as well as what had happened to Terezi. It was all just mindless violence.

Cass smiled and shook his head at the help, but shrugged off the coat anyway, handing it over after emptying its pockets. He sighed as he eavesdropped on the other's thoughts. "I'd like to think that it was a diverse and understanding place where I came from, but it wasn't. Even the humans with no powers were afraid of those of us with. One time, a few years before the game, a friend of mine was kidnapped by a group called the Purifiers, and there was a large-scale manhunt to find her and others who were kidnapped and tortured by them." He turned when the microwave beeped, stirred the potatoes, and set the microwave to go again. "I erm. I sorta led that party. You wouldn't believe all the people I got to help if I told you. Point is, humanity is full of idiots regardless of reality. There are those who are foolish and bigoted, and would kill somebody for simply not being what they'd consider just like them." He shook his head. "Even if that person is a good person like you. I'm sorry I hadn't gotten there sooner."

"It's a universal thing, I guess. Everyone's out for blood and the easiest way to spill it's by justifying it in some way, like the whole ethnic cleansing thing." Tavros let his head fall, his eyes on the toes of his shoes. "It's not just going to go away when the world is settled, either. People don't just change like that. But, it's good to know that there are people looking out for eachother."

Cass nodded. "I do that for friends. I keep them safe. I can't do it for everybody, but...the ones I actually value? I can keep you guys safe." The microwave beeped again and he took the meal out, setting it on a plate so it wouldn't be too hot to hold, handing it over to Tavros. "Get something in you. Death kinda made me hungry when I rezzed." He shrugged amiably and smiled. "And it won't last forever. Everything has progress. With Guardians like mine and Dave's, there's a solid chance that trolls will have a stronger foothold on equality than they do now. They'll weed out the rabble."

"That's a lot to weed out," Tavros commented as he took the plate and fished a fork out of one of his drawers, immediately mixing together the peas and potatoes then shoveling a large bite into his mouth without waiting for them to cool much more. He looked up at Cass standing there with him, and he smiled faintly around his mouthful. He swallowed before offering his thanks again then put down his plate and gave a brief mental warning before he went in for a tentative hug, his chin leaned against Cass' shoulder. "I'm just glad you got there at all."

Cass smiled before he wrapped his arms warmly around Tavros, simply grateful that his friend was okay. "I'd hate to think what would've happened if I'd not gone to throw away the last bag myself." He gave Tavros a quick squeeze before drawing away. "I ought to get home, I need sleep that isn't in a cave, and you should get some rest as well. I'll be over at ten to pick you up for breakfast." He tucked everything that had been in his coat pockets into his pants pockets instead. "Upside of all this is that you're not gonna need to call in tomorrow. We've both got off!"

"Thank the powers that be," Tavros chuckled and patted Cass' shoulder then led him to the door to exchange farewells then lock it behind him. He'd start soaking the stained part of the jacket while he was asleep and it would be easy enough to try and get out in the morning before his friend returned, he figured. Now he just wanted to finish his dinner, take a shower and go to bed.

Sleep that night was less than restful, peppered with nightmares fueled by the resurfacing memories. It was only to be expected really, but waking up looking just as rough as when he went to bed wasn't exactly going to be comforting for anyone. He didn't think he wanted to let Karkat and Dave know what happened, figuring that the less they worried about him, the better. He sent Cass a text letting him know that he was awake, then trudged into the bathroom to wash off the slime and finish washing the blood out of the other's coat.

Cass, in the overnight, had taken a shower, and then a sleeping pill to drown out the terrible dreams, and woke up feeling like half-buttered toasty hell himself. After a shower to wake up and primping himself into presentability, he worked on a little schoolwork before his phone buzzed. "Be there with figurative and possibly literal bells on in about 20," he texted his reply, before grabbing a different coat and walking out to his car.

The day was brisk and sunny, and belied the terror of the night prior. He wondered if he should have been more shaken up over what he'd done as he drove to Tavros' apartment. By the time he was there, he decided he was probably underreacting to the whole ordeal, but couldn't be arsed to care much. He knocked on the door and smiled a little. Tavros, at least, was taking it well. For someone who seemed outwardly to be kind of a pushover woobie, he was a strong guy. And it was admirable. By the time Cass got there, Tavros was still in the bathroom, a blow dryer running as he used the air setting to try the wet area on the coat where the bloodstain used to be. He yelled that the door was open, prompting Tinkerbell to carom down the hall and thump into the kitchen counter before rounding on the door, apparently intent on tripping Cass before he got a foot in the door. And with a scooping motion, Tink was in his arms instead of underfoot just as he stepped in, and being babytalked at.

"She's really excited today," he mentioned. He couldn't read animal minds - that was Tavros' deal - but he could tell that she was hyper from her usual self. He set Tink down in the hallway and smiled as he rested against the doorframe of the bathroom. "It's not gonna die if you just let it air dry, dude. C'mon, I'm starved."

"I just figured you would want it back sooner rather than later," Tavros shrugged and handed back the coat, smiling faintly as he dipped his head to kiss the space between his cat's ears and scratch at her ruff. "She was worried last night when I didn't come home until late and all and I told her I had an accident and now...well," he chuckled and let a stream of consciousness run from his cat to his own mind, open for Cass' perusal. She was slightly skittish but mostly excited that Tavros was home and that Cass was there and that she'd been fed and every other little thing that could be considered positive to a cat's mind. She was purring softly in Cass' arms, her tail waving back and forth quite contently. "She'll probably forget all about it soon, that's just how she is."

"Thanks anyway," Cass said as he draped the coat over his shoulder and then listened to the animal thoughts. He liked it when Tavros played translator for him, it was always fun. "Good girl for worrying," Cass murmured into her fur before letting her down near the wall so she could find her way to wherever. "And I'm glad you got your balance. No phantom pain or any such weird shit?"

"Oh, plenty of weirdness," Tavros replied and wrinkled his nose, shaking his leg a little. "Imagine that rubbery kind of feeling that you get after you get your circulation back when your leg falls asleep, but just subtle enough to make it annoying instead of crippling." Shaking his head some, he headed back out into the living room to pull on his boots and coat, his hands shoving deep into his pockets. He waited for Cass to lead the way out then locked the apartment and followed toward the parking lot and his friend's car. "So uh...I'd rather we didn't tell Karkat or Dave what happened just yet. No reason to worry them too much right now, y'know?"

"Mm, 'course. It's a need-to-know basis, and with the exception of us and your ex who knows more about this than me? Nobody needs to know." He smiled and slid into the driver's side, the door to the back unlocked already. "Sorry, I had to ask somebody and since she's your apparent session pallbearer of sorts, she's the first person that came to mind." He sighed. He knew there was still bad blood between Vriska and Tavros, and they had to be kept apart for apparently some of the same reasons he and his cousin couldn't occupy the same room back home.

"I have a feeling it'll get less rubbery and weird after a few days," he added, turning the conversation back to Tavros' legs for a change of topic. "If it doesn't, I'll dig around and see what happens when someone regrows their shit after reaching god tier." He started the car and made their way downtown. From his knowledge of things, the gruesome twosome worked in the afternoons and evenings, so there was a little chance that they'd run into Dave and Karkat. And sure enough, once they walked into the cafe, Cass saw no mega-ironic blond, nor did he hear the strangely loud thoughts of his friend. What he saw, actually, was Bill manning the counter. "Well holy balls, it actually does mundane work!" Cass said with a beaming smile. "Grandpa Bill, you never said you could actually _work_ and _do things_!"

"Psh," Bill responded, his smile rough and fond. "You never asked. And who might this be?" He said, nodding amiably to Tavros.

"Tavros Nitram. Tavros is a coworker and friend and all this other brilliant shit." Cass snuck aside to have a look at the pastries selection while Bill offered a handshake. 

"Pleasure to meet you. ... Name's familiar. You one of Karkat's grubhood friends?"

There were a few patrons that were by now used to some of the more flamboyant characters that came in, usually bent on socializing with their baristas as they worked. As such, nobody really seemed to mind Cass' outburst or Tavros' apologizing as he had to tilt his head to avoid clonking anyone in the head with his horns. When he looked up at Bill, he had to stop and wonder for a moment; this guy looked...really normal, especially for a pirate, but he supposed that assimilation into this sort of society called for that sort of thing from everyone, not just trolls. He realized that Bill's hand was out and he shook it once, his hands much softer and just a little bit warmer than the other's.

"Uh, well, kind of? I mean we're not close, but we're friendly? Sort of."

Bill nodded to the explanation, shaking the brownblood's hand. His own hands were strong and calloused, and he gave a beaming smile. "Aye, but still in that circle, no doubt. It's nice to meet another of you. I've already met the taller fellow with the duochrome eyes by chance, and the young teal lady. All good sorts. Hear nothin' but good of you lot, really." He turned to start on what he knew Cass wanted. "What would you like, Tavros?"

Cass smiled a little, as he'd already swiped a turnover from the pastry case, munching it happily. "G'pa Bill, I told him you knew Hook."

"Did you?" Laughed Bill. "Why him and not Anne? Or... Jack bloody Rackham?"

Tavros waffled for a moment before just asking for an americano, his hands tucking back into his pockets. He turned slightly brown around the ears as he laughed a little and explained that when he was little, he was very much into the story of his world's version of the Peter Pan stories. He still was, just a little more subdued about it these days. But, he would of course love to hear about the others, no doubt in his mind that he would have heard about a few of them by now. He was fidgeting a little on the spot, bouncing some on the balls of his feet, still hyper aware of the movement in his legs. Bill hadn't stopped smiling the entire time and once both drinks were ready, he handed them over.

"Go ahead and take somethin' from the case too. Ward's friends eat free." He chuckled. "And once I'm not caught up in work, I'd love to regale you with the stories. However," he said with a shrug of 'what can you do?' and settled back into the grind. Cass nudged Tavros and led him out onto the heated patio, where there were fewer people to worry about knocking against with horns, and just fewer people in general.

"He's known more than pirates, he just grew up around them and it was his life for most of well... his life. Good portion of his unlife, too." He took a sip of his coffee as he sat down, and pulled the ashtray that was on the table towards himself. "I was thinking about it earlier, and how is it that you and yours don't have your lusii here?"

Tavros had actually thought about that himself, multiple times. The best he could really come up with was that they were living somewhere else, in the wild. "I guess the ones that were more dependent on their lusii, they got them back when they came here, but the rest of us...I don't know. They probably live somewhere that not a lot of people can get to. If Feferi's lusus is here I'd be kind of afraid, since I'm pretty sure nobody would survive that, even outside." He worried about Tinkerbull though. He was so small, and he'd been killed by a wheelchair so really, how much chance did he have out in the wild?

Cass thought about it momentarily, then shook his head. "Nope, still don't understand lusii. I suppose they must be rather good at caretaking, but yeah, I'm fucked for logically understanding how. Especially when it comes to yours. Was he really only the size of a cat? That's...a very tiny caretaker."

"Well, he was...kind of like a watchdog? Only I could talk to him, and he played Fiduspawn with me and he liked to watch when I was gaming. We tended to take care of our lusii just as much as they took care of us, in a lot of cases. I think Crabdad was a lot closer to what you guys would understand, just...more screechy."

Cass nodded to that. "I suppose that makes some amount of sense. I'm sorry I don't know much about troll life, man," he said, lighting a cigarette, staying downwind from Tavros, "Never really had the chance to learn. Trolls didn't exist where I'm from. All I've got to go by is what you and others tell me."

"Yeah, I don't think the vast majority of the humans here had ever even heard of a troll before we showed up. It's a big culture shock kind of thing. But it's the same way for those of us that haven't ever seen a human before and suddenly we had to adjust to living here with a human lifestyle. It's just...hard. And really I would hope that people would realize that and help make it easier." Tavros was pouting at that, lifting and lowering one leg in what was fast becoming a tic.

"I know it's hard to get used to," he said, sitting back up and taking a cigarette. He could have been addressing both the leg issue and that of the severe culture shock. "But hell, we're pretty bright, I'm sure working something out wouldn't be that hard to do. I mean, if you don't mind the occasional strange question from me. Which you already told me you don't, so we're good with that." Cass shrugged. "I'm lucky to have somebody around who doesn't get offended when I ask them pretty straightforward questions, to be honest." He'd gotten used to being yelled at by people for his rather odd questions, and that was before he found himself here.

"Well, how is anyone supposed to learn and adapt if they don't ask questions? And tiptoeing around them doesn't really help anything, either." Shrugging a shoulder, Tavros kicked his foot out and bumped it against the toe of the other boot. "I'm pretty sure if you asked Gamzee, he'd give you some answers too, at least for what he knew for sure. There's probably a lot that's a little...y'know, muddled. I wonder where his lusus is."

"He's got a way of getting to an answer," Cass said with an easy shrug. "It's not the direct route, but it gets there in time. I knew a girl who was just as sideways in talking as he is. If troll thinkpans and human brains are similar, I'd probably say something is up with his amygdala."

"The general shape's probably similar, but I don't know about component parts. That's most likely something you'd have to ask Eridan. I mean, since he went to medical school and all."

Cass took a thoughtful drag of his cigarette, looking out the tall windows of the patio, out into the large alleyway. "I really don't envy you guys. I know where mine is. He's kinda hard to lose." He chuckled a little and shook his head. "He's in the habit of adopting people, though, so he keeps an eye on me and Gaz, and basically every other kid he finds who needs somebody. Even if they've already got their guardian."

The longer they stood outside, the brighter it started to get, throwing everything into a sharper relief and almost making Tavros flinch away from the sun. Some habits were just a little too ingrained to be rid of even in a few years' time, and the idea that the sun was still dangerous was one of those that he'd never been able to shake. "You're lucky," he commented. "You're used to being in the sun, and having your families, and you don't have to remember histories of more than one planet. Maybe when this place is really real, we won't start flying off and conquering others. I like this one just fine, thank you."

"Actually," Cass said with a chuckle, "I came from a reality that pulled in other people from other realities. I was born and grew up there. Learning the histories of other Earths was kind of what I grew up doing. My mum and dad were both transplants, and Bill's been in so many alternate realities, I don't think he even sees this as much of a change at all. Just more to research. It's also why he and I know so many characters." He shrugged at that and took a sip of his coffee, stubbing out his cigarette. "But I can understand where it's really disorienting. Being a nocturnal species from a world where the sun was dangerous and then coming into a reality where the sun's actually beneficial's gotta be fucked up in every sort of way." He smirked and tipped his head a little. "I'm nocturnal by habit only. I find all the good things happen at night."

Tavros took a long swallow of his coffee, which had been cooling in his hand the entire time they'd been talking. "And now, everything happens so much," he said. "But I mostly just meant humans as a whole. Like, you have people to consider family no matter where you are, and we'd never even heard the term before and really the only thing that could count as a family is our relationships with our lusii. And even if you're nocturnal out of habit, the sun still is good for you, like you said. Coming out at night was more a matter of survival for us. I mean we wouldn't like... _burst into flames_ if we went out in the sun, but. Well. You've seen Terezi's eyes."

Cass nodded to that with a bit of a grimace. "Right. I suppose that would be a mess to go into. Kinda like being stuck on the low end of the beach when the tide came in." He finished off his turnover and dusted his fingertips off on his jeans, shaking his head. "And I suppose trolls don't put a lot of weight into fraternal friendship outside of the pale. How society exists on Alternia and other troll planets is insanely beyond me, if everyone is so... distant from each other."

"And even then, even for all the differences in biology and circumstances we're all...pretty similar, y'know?" Tavros looked up with a small smile at that, giving Cass a slight shrug and then a bump with his elbow. "At the center of it we're just a bunch of people trying to survive."

"True enough," Cass said with a smile, nudging back. "Since we're down here, want to check the game store with me? They've got the new companion books that came out, I bet. I've been eying that weapons book since it was announced." He waggled his brows before slipping a pair of sunglasses on. He usually went in on his own, but since it was the only store catering to tabletop roleplayers in town, they knew him well enough there, and likely Tavros as well.

"If they don't, I know we can put them on reserve," Tavros replied and finished his coffee and the danish he'd gotten to go with it, cramming the latter into his mouth now that he remembered he was holding it. He followed Cass back inside and got a refill on his coffee, dropping a five into the tip jar on the way out. He spent the time they were walking answering whatever new questions Cass might have had and in turn asking about Cass' life prior to living there in the bubble. They'd made smalltalk about such things before, but now that he had the majority of his mind back, it was much easier to think and make those little connections back to his own life and be able to engage in a real dialogue. He even brought up the possibility of making up a new campaign map based on his memories of Alternia and his own FLARP sessions, wondering if the rest of their group might enjoy that.

Cass' opinion of it was a wholehearted HOLY SHIT LET'S DO THAT, and he beamed at the prospect of learning a bit more about the FLARP games and about Alternia in general. As he shouldered the door open to the store, he was smiling up a storm, and waved at the person at the counter before making a direct line to the bookshelves on which the companion guides and books were shelved for their game. He bounced and made a high-pitched sound when he found the weapons manual that he had been hoping for, flipping through it with an ear to ear grin. "Oh man, this is great, I love it when they're thorough with their stats and weights and things. Keeps the pedantic part of me totally at bay. Also I still think you _should_ start giving characters penalties if they're overburdened."

Tavros couldn't help but laugh at the sheer amount of excitement, nodding at the suggestion as he picked up one of the books to start flipping through, intending to get one himself, as well as the updated creature and strategy books. "I was really thinking about that after the cheap shot last week. That should not have been feasible even with the buffs he had up." Shaking his head, Tavros stacked the books that he wanted up in the crook of his arm then headed toward the collection of novels they kept near the back of the store, debating on picking up one of them as well for when he was done reading through the guides. He picked up a comic as well and flipped it over with his head at a tilt, glancing around for any other information on it aside from the title and the gorgeous cover art. It wasn't exactly his particular flavor of fantasy, but sci-fi was always fun to dabble in regardless. He brought his books back to the counter and set them down, looking back at Cass and his bubbliness over his weapons guide. "Hey, since we have the day off maybe we can spend that time going over the basics for that game, huh? It might be easier to hash out between the two of us instead of having to work on it alone."

"Sure!" Cass said, having been browsing the puzzle games in the time that Tavros had been wandering. He'd already decided he'd get himself another brainteaser to toss on his living room table. He had several already, but having a fidget toy out was just typical of him, and he often switched them out once he figured out the solution. "Your place or mine? I can cook for us if it's my place, and if it's your place, I can clean out that nasty situation you call a fridge and order some chinese or something."

Tavros stuck his tongue at Cass over that, flipping his debit card out of his wallet to pay for his books. "Come on, my fridge is not nasty! I just don't eat at home very often so I don't keep much in there. It'd be worse if I had a load of vegetables just going bad." Sure, the inside of his refrigerator wasn't the most sanitary, but he also really didn't keep much of anything in there that wouldn't be reheated and finished off within the next day. There were jugs of milk and juice and a carton of eggs, and a bag of cat treats for Tinkerbell, that was really it. It was easily settled that they would put the game together at Cass' place though, as Tavros was more than happy to take advantage of the offer of free food.

Cass was happy to get back home for more than just sleep, at that. It was a rather large ranch style brick home that he shared space with only one other student; they had four bedrooms, but the two of them made rent and utilities on their own. His roommate had work that day, so he didn't feel like he'd be forcing anybody into ~*SUDDEN MEETINGS*~. "Need to feed the menagerie, I'll be right with, have a seat," he said as he nodded to the couch. On that couch was his cat - a tortoiseshell mop who looked up at Tavros with the most unamused expression ever seen on a cat. "That's Cornsnake, we call him Corny. He's actually the kitten of my Mamba, who passed on last year. She came with us into the game, and somehow managed to come here once we got through." The jerboas and snails and banana slug weren't so lucky, he figured. He had other jerboas and snails now, and that was who he was on the way to feed. "So I've been thinking," he said as he scooped up the feed bowl of the jerboas and filled it, setting it back down in their cage - which was really just a glorified hamster cage, tunnels and all. "Terrible decision, regret every moment of it. When you said you and Karkat aren't very close, was it always that way? I mean, it'd explain why you don't really talk to him and Dave."

"Hope you didn't hurt yourself," Tavros called as he perched there on the edge of the couch. He could feel the minds of the jerboas, fast and bright and not exactly focused, and then the dull, serene minds of the snails that were barely more than smudges of consciousness. He looked down at Corny as he stared up at him suspiciously, reaching out mentally and asking that he keep his distance; he'd rather not end up with hives, and the last thing anyone wanted would be to lock the cat in a room by himself. He caught the question and had to sit and think about it a moment. "Well...kind of. I mean, it's like it sounds, we're just not close. We're not uh...exceptionally good friends or anything but we get along well enough and all? Like we don't argue or anything. At least not any more than Karkat argues with everyone else in existence. But things in my whole sphere of existence have always been pretty far from everything to do with him, and vice versa so we never really had a reason to get really friendly in the first place."

"Huh, I'd always thought the entire lot of you were... If not close in some way or another, at least not distant. I suppose that's why you two didn't realize how close you lived 'til Dave and he adopted Esmerelda." Once he'd finished feeding the animals, he nudged Corny off to be barely tolerating of things elsewhere, just so Tavros wouldn't wheeze himself to death. "I'll make lunch a bit later. Shall we get started?"

"Well there was also a lot of us so it's logical not everyone got close. Like I said before though, there's still Aradia, and of course Gamzee. I think, they're enough for me out of that bunch." Tavros grinned as he scooted down onto the floor, pulling the books out of the bag he always had with him as well as a notepad. He started to sketch out something of a basic continental shape, marking with several Xs where he lived and where he'd known several of the others had lived. He described his cliffside and how much of the ocean he could see, and the vast open area behind his hive. There were places he'd visited when he was littler while he was gaming that he filled in as he talked, starting to describe the local fauna, sketching some of them off of the edges of the map. He drew his lusus, and talked about where there were herds of other fairy bulls, and other lusii as well, far inland in most cases but also out in the ocean, where the seadwellers had their hives. He knew the location of Eridan's hive mostly because of the number of times Vriska had gone on about her rivalry with him and was able to make an educated guess as to the location based on the details she had given him. He talked about Sollux's city, which seemed to be a lot like New York, from what he knew of each place. The capital city was untouched, as it was a fortress built over the catacombs in which the grubs were hatched.

He started to describe how the grubs were left on their own, largely self-sufficient but still helpless enough to be culled en masse, often made into paints or other useful products. Then he went on to describe the Drones, and then the different jobs that a grown troll could take, from the Ruffianihilators to the Legislacerators, the Threshecutioners and Archeradicators, the Cavalreapers and the different services of the highblooded Subjugglators. He sketched out a few different examples of the traditional facepaint that he knew of. He took a breath finally and looked up, glancing around for his clock when his stomach decided to announce that it was empty. How long had he been talking, anyway? Long enough that Cass had gotten hungry in that time, too. However, he was too busy listening to Tavros talk and watching him draw, while seeing the mental images that the brownblood conjured up as he spoke about everything. Cass had been asking questions, here and there, making observations based on what Tavros told him. He was, of course, completely blown away by most of it, and grimaced at the thought of mandatory pailing, and how everybody seemed to want to grow up to be a warrior. It wasn't a bad childhood, he supposed, just a very violent one. One he couldn't have imagined had Tavros not been an amazingly visual person. He smiled as he looked up as well and noticed it was creeping up on 1pm.

"C'mon, I'll make some etouffee. Family recipe." He paused, then added, "Not _my_ family recipe, but whatever, nobody asks where I come by my stuff." He stood and offered a hand up. "It kinda looks a little nasty, but holy fuck is it good. And I just happen to have some shrimp I need to cook up."

"Never heard of it," Tavros replied, then took the hand and stood, taking a moment to catch his balance then followed Cass toward the kitchen. He glanced around as they went, taking in the little details of the house until they'd reached the kitchen. He stood out of the way, simply watching Cass as he worked on their meal. "I've probably eaten worse things, by your frame of reference," he continued, smiling faintly and resting his elbows behind him on the counter against which he'd leaned.

"Probably. I probably ate a lot of weird shit to your point of view, too. My dad was a naturalist and a hunter. I've eaten basically every kind of wild animal that isn't endangered," Cass said with a wry chuckle. "Etouffee is a southern dish," he explained as he prepared the vegetables. "It takes a couple hours to make, so you can snack while we wait, the snacks are up in that cupboard," he pointed just behind Tavros' head, and went back to work. "Our Time player's mom's side of the family was from New Orleans so I spent a lot of time in the bayou and learned a recipe or two from the people in Guildhall. She's... Well. She _was_ my wife, but it was really more... I guess... To borrow your romance system, it was really more of a pale thing. We grew up together and it was primarily pale because as often as she and I teased and flirted, we weren't that attracted to each other." He smiled. "Anyway, her grandma taught me how to make this."

"It sounds really nice, all things considered," Tavros replied with a small smile, looking up at the cupboard then reaching up without turning around to grab for a box of triscuits that were sitting there wedged between everything else. They'd suffice to keep his mouth occupied for a while at least. "If it weren't so far from home, I might like to go and see it some time. As it is, I'm fine here at home for a little while longer. Maybe when things are settled, travel will be a little easier."

"We had portkeys, so this being settled in one place shit is so weird to me. I don't mind where I wound up, all things considered," Cass said with a smile and a shrug, "Bill doesn't like being so far inland, never did get the hang of being landlocked, but I like that it's so close to slopes and the dry air's fairly nice." He finished chopping the veggies and set them aside, before he put a large amount of butter in dutch oven to melt it, keeping the half-cup of flour that he poured nearby so he could start the roux easily. "What I wouldn't give to have those here. I mean, it's not going to happen unless we actually wind up with actual wizards in the bubble, but..." He shrugged. "They were handy. But yeah. You should go. It's a great city, there's parts of it that no tourists go that are better than any part of the tourist side. Bourbon St. is overrated, and even though Henn's grandpa grew up in it, the french quarter is actually sorta boring."

"That doesn't really surprise me. I mean, a lot of tourist places seem to be overrated, from what I've heard. I've heard a lot about Disneyland and at least from what Sollux has said, it's not really worth it. You have to take a lot of what Sollux says with a grain of salt and all, but still. I would like to go eventually anyway, just to see more of what it's about. Especially the Animal Kingdom safari thing." Tavros' head tipped a bit and he sidled to one side to be able to see a little better what Cass was doing. He hadn't often gotten to see his friend cook, and it always surprised him a little bit that he could. Cass had told him once that his brother had been a world-class chef, and his father dropped out of culinary school, and whenever anything bad happened, his mother would bake enough to feed Peru. While he was nowhere near their level of expertise, Cass could hold his own in the kitchen. The etouffee was coming together, little by little, and once he tossed the cans of diced tomato and spices in, it was already smelling amazing. He pulled down a can of shrimp stock and whisked that in once the tomatoes were bubbling, and as he waited for it to boil, he smiled.

"Disneyland's all right. Disney _world_ back in our world had been taken over by the Norse goddess of the underworld, so we avoided it after she showed up. I'd like to see it here, though, minus the plague-spreading dwarves."

Tavros couldn't help but laugh a little at the mental image, while still looking slightly horrified. "That sounds like the plot of a kind of mediocre horror movie," he commented, then pushed off from the counter to stand closer to the stove and get a better look at what Cass was doing. He licked his lips some at the smell and stood back again, popping another of the crackers into his mouth. "Maybe, when they get back, I would like to meet the people from your session. You already know a lot of mine at least, so it's only fair."

"I'd love to introduce you to them. Henn and Robbie are my dearest friends, and Gaz... well, she does her own thing." He shrugged to that and smiled over his shoulder at Tavros. Once it started boiling, he reduced the heat on the slow cooker and turned around to bump into Tavros' horn. He laughed quietly and ducked under it to go get the shrimp and start peeling them over the sink. "She's in Boston, right now. She started out in California with our other Guardian, but she wanted to get off the coast and plant herself somewhere more metro. She's an artist and a professional gamer, and before she came to the reality we're all from, she was from a big city. She's always been a loner."

Tavros nodded at that, putting a hand up on his horn then turning so that Cass could move around him without getting accidentally whacked again. He supposed he could understand getting situated somewhere more familiar, when it came to finding one's self in a new reality. He just hadn't left Colorado for lack of desire to try and settle in anywhere else. "I wonder if she'd like Rose..."

Cass looked back over his shoulder at Tavros and smiled a little. "Rose is Dave's sister, right? Probably. I didn't really talk to her much, but they seem like the types to get along in a friendly bitchy way. And you don't have to worry about your horns so much, mate. I'm keeping an eye on them. It was either run into a horn or run into your body just now." He shoved the shrimp shells and tails into a plastic bag, and then tossed them in the garbage, the shrimp itself rinsed off and in a bowl, waiting to be added to the etouffee. After finishing with the shrimp, he scrubbed his hands with the lemon soap that was on the counter next to the sink.

"Well, you know how it is. I'm just in the way in general." Tavros shrugged with a smile of his own, then bent some to watch the bubbling etouffee, his mouth watering at the scent wafting up on the steam. He wasn't really one for spice, but this already promised to be delicious.

Once he put the shrimp back in the fridge, Cass set the timer for 35 minutes, and motioned for Tavros to follow him through to the garage. He never smoked inside, but the garage was technically 'not inside', so that was where he had his ashtray and a small stool, which he sat on as he lit one up. "I know, but I know how long they are and how high off the ground they rest. I'm not gonna accidentally run into them or have you turn your head and knock me out. Fast enough reflexes."

"Yeah, I figured after about the third impromtu limbo," Tavros snorted, standing a short distance away with his hands in his pockets. "I'm just glad you never really seemed like the kind of person to go out of their way to make jokes or anything. About my horns, I mean." He'd had to get used to such things rather quickly when he'd first woken up, including but not limited to crude handlebar-related jokes.

"Why would I?" Cass asked around the filter of his cigarette. "They're a part of you. You can't change it about yourself, and besides, they're attractive horns. I've seen some fuckin' janky horns, dude. Yours are a nice shape and size, you take care of them, there's nothing even remotely mockable about a pair of horns like that." He shrugged and took a long drag of his cigarette. "Anyway, there's no sport in making fun of something somebody can't change."

"You know how people are though, even if everything is completely kosher, they start acting like it's not and making people regret the things they were born with. That's another one of those universal things though. It sucks that everyone's gotten so used to it. I mean at home, it was about blood and sometimes horns? But here it's everything else too and it's not really the easiest thing to see." Looking down at his feet, Tavros smiled a little once more and knocked the heel of one boot against the toe of the other. "At least now there's one less curiosity about me though, right? I mean it was good to be able to refer people back to Equius for prosthetic stuff, but now they won't have to ask at all."

Cass smiled wryly at the whole situation. He had absolutely nothing good to say about bigotry. "Mm. I'm glad something good came out of all that bullshit. You were in so much pain before I found you, losing so much blood. It's absolutely awful, what they did to you. I'm glad I was running on autopilot last night, didn't give myself a chance to see how bad off you were. I just wanted to be sure you were safe." But now that he had a moment to think about it, he had been scared that it wouldn't have worked. And had Tavros not known where his quest bed was, he could have died permanently. The thought made Cass' heart sink. They'd be down one stellar individual, at the expense of some scumbags who should have never made it to the bubble and had a second chance in the first place. He wondered where the fuck _those_ assholes even came from. Tavros seemed content enough now though, even as one hand came up to rub his forehead, rubbing over the smooth space where he'd collided with the tree trunk. He figured that he was pretty lucky that he was knocked out when he had been, making it easier to handle the worst of the pain.

"I've been in worse," he added, looking back at Cass with a slight grimace. "Before the game and for a while in it, I was paralyzed. That was why I had the prosthetics, actually, because the base of my spine and part of my pelvis was basically powdered. I...don't actually think there was any such thing as anesthetic on Alternia so I kind of had to feel all of it."

"Jesus fuck," Cass said with a wince of sympathy. "A few years back, I got hit by a car, wound up shattering my hipbone. I actually had somebody resurrect me because I couldn't live with the pain anymore. That's why my sleeve has the hipbones in it. I can't imagine the christfucking pain that you went through. And I'm so glad you don't have to deal with it again."

"Don't jinx it," Tavros retorted immediately, crossing his arms then grinning back at Cass. "Yeah, I didn't really have the luxury of anyone around for my accident." If it could even be called that. He sill resented the fuck out of Vriska for that, even throughout the matespritship that, now that he looked back on it, really seemed largely one-sided and toxic. "What about the tattoo though, don't those generally sting a lot?"

"They hurt like hell, but I'm not adverse to pain for lasting art. That, and a lot of the tattoos I have that I can see tell my life story and remind me of little things. They remind me of the lessons I learned." He rolled up his sleeve to look at the tattoo that ran from his wrist to his shoulder. It was made up of different component parts, but made to become a cohesive piece somewhere along the way. As he put his cigarette between his lips, he pointed to a bathroom scale and black-bound book, and muttered around the filter, "Like this, it reminds me that I survived being a fuckin' twat about my body. It reminds me that I don't have to be in control of every aspect of my life to be in control of me. And this," he said as he twisted his arm to point out a harp, "is for my ex. He was my everything for so long, but he and I had a falling out, and he disappeared off the face of the earth shortly before the game. He played harp."

Tavros edged a little closer to look first at the scale and book, having to think about that for a moment before he understood what it meant, a soft frown creeping over his expression, but fading away as he took in the harp. It was sweet, really, the way Cass was documenting these things on his skin. "You had a really good artist."

"Henn's dad. He's the other Guardian. He's out in California now, but I'm probably gonna be going to visit him this summer to get a new one." He smiled faintly as he rolled down his sleeve, looking up at Tavros. "Didn't they have body modification in troll culture? I can't imagine having a society in which people didn't do something like that. Wait no, don't seadwellers pierce themselves and whatnot?"

"Yeah, we do, but it's usually more for the seadwellers like you said. Tattoos weren't unheard of or anything, but lowbloods and landdwellers in general didn't really partake. It was more of a higher caste thing. I think Gamzee said something about getting his ears pierced when he texted me once, actually. Then there's a thing they did on a few other planets, that I heard about. Kind of like an etching thing, but for the outer layers of horns. You could get them inlaid with gold if you were royalty." Tavros stepped back a little bit, still smiling to himself as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think I'd ever get anything, except maybe for my septum. It would have to be when I'm not working for an extended period though, so my nose isn't running on it while it's healing."

Cass' eyes widened momentarily as he held back a laugh, finishing off his cigarette and stubbing it out. "That'll look perfect on you. You're definitely the only person I've met who could pull off a septum piercing without it looking hokey. And there's another reason why your horns are good." He stood and went to the door. "I had only one piercing but I took it out years ago." He shook his head. "Metal's not my style. I know that a different version of me had stretched lobes, but I'm less about holes and more about ink." As they stepped back into the kitchen, the scent of the etouffee greeted them, making Cass smile. It was about time to start the rice, so he went about doing that. Tavros followed back inside, taking a breath of the rich scent and letting a quiet hum. He was looking forward to having some of Cass' cooking. He had before, but it was always interesting to try something new.

"See, back in recent western human history, only the working class got tattoos, and they were really looked down upon by the higher classes. Same goes for piercings outside of earlobes. It's only been over the change of the millennium that they've really come into the popular culture. There's less stigma. You probably still wouldn't see them on a human guy of Ampora's status. And I noticed that he'd had a bit of ink peeking out of his shirt."

"Yeah, I don't know the full extent of it," Tavros replied, "but Gamzee said that Eridan had that one really big piece on his back, and then a couple of other ones. The only mods I know for sure that he has are the piercings in his fins, and then Gamzee let it slip at one point that he had one in his bulge? Or something like that, I wasn't exactly paying attention at that point. He was kind of in overshare mode."

"I'm not entirely privy to the whole bulge and nook situation, firsthand," Cass said, "but having a pierced bulge just sounds like a situation of trouble, considering they retract and anything beyond a very small ring would would hinder that." He wrinkled his nose a bit and shook his head. "Not entirely certain it'd be very healthful." Once the rice was on, he nudged Tavros a little with a sly smile, "And in that way, highbloods sound more showy than smart."

"I think it all depends on placement," Tavros shrugged, standing at Cass' side with his hands in his pockets, shoulders shrugged up around his ears. "But I don't think I'd get that done anyway, even if I were a higher blood. I can't imagine trying to walk with something like that in. I don't know how they do it. Or most of the things they do, really. I think the only reason they can actually afford to do a lot of the things they do is sheer resilience."

"Or their sheer thickheadedness," Cass murmured, looking over at Tavros with an impish smile, noticing how he was slumped down. It was really cute, but he still wanted to bring attention to it. "Lovely earrings you've got there, they look like arms." His tone was quiet and soft and sweet, but still lightly teasing.

Tavros blinked at that, then wrinkled his nose and stuck the tip of his tongue out at Cass and let his shoulders back down, crossing his arms instead. "I think, mostly the whole peircing thing with seadwellers is like a showing off of how tough they are. Earfins, I heard are pretty sensitive, so if you have a bunch of piercings in them, it's a display of toughness. So I guess the same would go for bulges? I bet there have been a few with piercings in their webbings like between here," he held up a hand and pinched the space between his thumb and forefinger. He'd seen a couple of humans with the area pierced as well, and it had never made sense to him. That sort of thing seemed like it would get ripped out easier than the others.

"Yeah, Henn's dad's got one of those. It's odd, and I'm sure I've asked what it means, but I don't know. It's weird." When the timer went off, he grabbed the shrimp out of the fridge and slowly stirred them in with the etouffee, then took the rice off the heat. He re-set the timer for 15 minutes, and covered the etouffee again, before smiling at Tavros. He wouldn't stop smiling for a while, he felt. Tavros put his hands on the edge of the counter and leaned forward to watch until the lid was put back on the etouffee, then stood back up and let his arms back down, his hands coming together behind him with his fingers laced together loosely. He glanced back around at Cass and caught the smile, offering one in return.

"Well, I've heard of weirder I guess. I mean, there was one person I met, she had her grubscars done. I could see the rings through the shirt she was wearing at the shelter. That just seems uncomfortable to me." He shook his head at that, watching the steam coming up from their lunch as it simmered.

Cass' smile grew and he stepped away, busying himself with getting a pair of plates, as well as a few containers. He'd made enough etouffee for a small army, and as such, he had plans for what they wouldn't be eating. He always made sure his friends were fed. Food always made its way to the homes of his friends that couldn't cook, and even though Karkat lived with Dave, and could cook just fine, Cass liked to give Karkat a break once in a while and cooked food for the both of them, bringing it over so they could have a quick, home-cooked meal without trouble. The timer went off just as Cass plated up the rice and he turned it off, and got a ladle, spreading the thick meat and veggies over the white rice, handing over the first plate with a fork, winking. "Hope you like it. If it's too spicy, I can put some brown sugar on there to cut down on the heat."

"Brown sugar?" Tavros had to blink at that, looking down at the plate then taking a small forkful and blowing on it to cool it enough to put into his mouth. He moved it around some, then had to sniff a little when his nose began to run. He'd never been able to handle spice very well, for whatever reason. He handed the plate over, wondering briefly how the sugar was supposed to help, though he had seen a few things about what helped cut curry spice as well, including sugar and yogurt. Cooking was weird, and he mostly left it up to the people that were good at it. He could boil eggs, that was really the best he could do, unless something was over a fire. He was good at camp food at least!

"Mm. It doesn't really dull the heat, but it brings out the rest of the flavor just enough to make the heat less of a burden. I figured it out when I was a kid," Cass said with a smile, grabbing the brown sugar and crumbling a small amount over the top of Tavros' meal. "You don't even taste it. It's just slightly sweeter, but you'll taste the shrimp and tomatoes more than the cayenne and red peppers." He got his own plate once he put the rest of the etouffee into containers, and got them into the fridge. The slow cooker would be washed as soon as he was done eating.

"I was thinking about it earlier, but what's pupation even like? I can't imagine," Cass commented as he sauntered into the living room and balanced his plate on his lap, eating over it carefully. Tavros followed him back into the living room and settled down beside him, stirring his meal together then taking a larger bite, making a soft sound now that the spice wasn't quite so overpowering. He looked up at the question, then frowned thoughtfully as he tried to think of something that might be analogous to human growth patterns. He really should have paid a little more attention in high school...

"It happens pretty slow, at least it did for me. Your legs and arms start growing after about a sweep, from the soft insides of your grublegs. You learn to walk a little while after your hands and feet fully form and then the way you move helps your grublegs move into their resting position before the outside drops off. Kind of like...like how a human toddler will lose a tooth, I guess, except our grublegs don't grow back, and we get the scars instead. I mean I our teeth grow back, but they'd do that anyway, no matter how many times we lose them."

"Toddlers don't lose their teeth," Cass said with a small chuckle, "That happens later, when our adult teeth start coming in. I lost my first tooth at about eight. Well past toddler age. But I get you otherwise. Are they sensitive, like regular scars?" He wished he had better resources, or at the very least, better false memories. While most people were lied to about their arrivals, Cass hadn't been. Not enough of what he knew jived with what most people had been told, and it would have been even riskier lying to him, so Bill didn't, just to spare the bubble from a tantrum of a powerful psychic who hated lies.

Tavros nodded some, turning a touch bronze around the ears at the mistake as he replied, "Sometimes. But mostly that depends on the person. Mine aren't overly sensitive unless they're poked directly over my ribs. I know Gamzee's aren't, but Karkat's really are."

Cass nodded to that, thoroughly chewing a portion of shrimp and rice as he thought it over. "Mm, I knew Karkat's were. Dave told me I should try poking him and I told him that if I wanted my eyes gouged out, it certainly wouldn't be for something as silly as my attacker being extra-ticklish." He grinned. "My ex, Soren, was fond of trying to tickle me, since I'm extremely ticklish myself, and I nearly punched him in the face once when he woke me up to do just that. So as a common courtesy, I respect those like me who don't like being tickled. That and Karkat really could kick my ass now that he's taller than me and has some muscle to him."

"Karkat being taller than anybody at all still surprises the crap out of me," Tavros commented with a small smirk after finishing another couple of bites. "I don't really get why god tier does that, grows some people up and repairs others. Maybe it's a psychological thing."

"Perhaps it makes you what you consider for yourself to be physically ideal. I didn't change much at all, but I no longer need contacts. You get to walk on your own two legs again," Cass said as he finished his plateful. "I'm so happy for you in that regard, too." He smiled again. There were so many people who weren't so lucky, but that Tavros was warmed his heart.

Tavros smiled down at his plate, finishing his own meal in short order then wiping his fingers across the corner of his mouth, catching the little bit of sauce there and sucking it off his fingertips. He stood carefully and headed back toward the kitchen to rinse his plate. "Being able to feel my feet again is going to take some being used to," he commented, coming back after washing his hands then sitting back down on the floor beside his notepad. "I kind of had a Kill Bill moment this morning, trying to figure out how to move them. It's been like... I wanna say about ten years since I lost the use of them."

Cass followed with and went about putting both their plates in the dishwasher before giving a cursory scrub to the slow cooker. He released the inside of it from the heating element and put it in the dishwasher as well, and then followed Tavros back. "Jeez, that's a long while. But it's great that you've got the chance again. So many people just want to walk, I'm glad you got your chance to." He smiled weakly and fussed his hair out of his own face after having a seat. "So have we got enough for the campaign?"

"Probably not just yet. I'm gonna ask Karkat and see what he remembers about the history and a little more about the geography. Then the weaponry will have to be another thing, I could probably find that information at the library, if anyone's thought to document it. I can consult with Kanaya too since she was outside a lot during the day. It's a jadeblood thing I think, being able to do that." Tavros picked up his pad and started to write down what he had, as well as what he would need to start building the game from the foundation he already had. He would be writing down the blood castes' abilities as well, thinking that whoever else played with them might like to try troll characters given the setting. He tapped the end of his pen against the paper once he had a decent list of what he'd have to put together, as well as several drawings along the top of the page of the signs that he knew of besides the twelve of his group. "When we do set this up I might invite some of the others along just to spectate and offer advice, if they'd be up for it."

"Mm, that'd be fun as hell, I think." Cass pursed his lips as he thought it over, and then turned back to face Tavros, head tilted. "What'd I be, do you think?" He'd wondered it once or twice before, but he didn't know enough about the castes to know what he most resembled. He figured it was likely something in the browns or yellows, since he really didn't see him as very high up the social food chain.

Tavros rubbed his chin some as he thought about that. Immediately a cerulean blood came to mind because of the psychic abilities he already had, but he also considered one of the yellower bloods for the same reason, though he didn't know if Cass could push his outward physically like a psionic would. Then he considered the tendency to care for everyone in his general vicinity and thought maybe one of the green bloods, namely the jades or the chartreuse. He turned carefully to look back at Cass at that, arching a brow up at him. "What do you think would fit best? Karkat's a mutation of the limebloods that were mostly eradicated, from what I know. Everyone tends to follow the same basic characteristics of their castes so you can probably judge fairly well by who you know so far."

Cass thought it through at that and knew that his psychic powers were mostly latent until he'd reached god tier, physically manifesting through simple intuition and a singular bond with Soren as kids. But as he thought it over, he was thinking more personally - the trolls he'd met and their blood colors and what they were like. "Lord, I hate to say it, but I think I would be a cerulean. I'm not as vindictive as Vriska, but I do love a good schadenfreude situation." He shrugged at that and smiled. "Not proud of it, but that does make sense, in its own way." He wrinkled his nose at Tavros. "It'd be disquieting as fuck if I was that cold."

"She's always been like that, too," Tavros huffed quietly, leaning back against the front of the couch with the paper on his knees. "I'm sure there are nicer cerulean trolls, but from what I know they're a little fewer and further between. Just like, not all of the brownbloods are like me, a lot are more...more _sure_ about things. My dancestor certainly was."

Cass nodded to that. "You're nervous about where you put your feet before you step, just in case. It's not bad, you know," he mentioned, "It shows that you're careful. You really are, too. And I wouldn't call it cowardice at all; you're brave in your own ways. You stand up for yourself, you call bullshit when it's needed." He shrugged. "Its natural on you, and you wouldn't be you without it." He pulled his feet up onto the couch and leaned his head on his knees, his arms wrapped around his legs. "I had to learn the hard way not to try and be just like my ancestor. I idolized Bill for a long, long time. But after a while, I realized that he's just as flawed as anybody else, and in ways I would never wish to be. It's all a matter of perspective, really. I still look up to him, for the goods things that he is, but I'm done pretending like I need to be just like him to be a good person, or successful, or whatever the fuck else."

Tavros smiled softly at that, his hands coming together in his lap around his pen, his toes wiggling restlessly in his boots. "From where I'm sitting, it looks like you did a pretty good job on your own," he said, resting the back of his head on the edge of the couch. "I tried really hard to be more confident when I was younger and it was just...really fake and forced and it kind of ruined a few of my relationships. So I learned better after that and settled down. It's easier just letting life come and standing up to it when it's necessary."

"Confidence isn't something you can fake until you make it. You're doing awesome right now, being who you are." Cass said with a soft smile, eyes closing as he thought about the only other person he knew who was terrible with confidence. Soren was confident in some ways, but all the ways he should have been - all the ways that really mattered - were lacking so severely. But Tavros wasn't at all like Soren. For one thing, Tavros wasn't a glutton for punishment, and wasn't actively seeking out destructive behavior, and he certainly wasn't a fucking flake when it came to things that mattered. 

It was then that Cass stopped comparing them. Catching himself comparing them in the first place was weird. He curled his toes into the fabric of the couch through his socks. "Y'know, the more you tell me about Alternia, at least as far as the terrain goes, it sorta reminds me of the pacific northwest. Up in Washington and Oregon."

"I've never been that far north. It probably is like that though, at least in some places. The continent was huge though and I know a lot further inland there's a desert that sounds a lot like the salt flats in Utah. Just... _way_ bigger. They used to have the psionic training facilities out there, where nobody would get unnecessarily hurt by an accidental explosion." Tavros' fingers tapped against his knuckles as he looked down at the paper in front of him, then flipped a page and started to draw out the circle of the twelve signs, spaced far apart to start putting the signs in between them that he could remember. Karkat would be able to remember more of them, he was certain. He started putting brackets by the sets and listing off the powers that he knew were largely universal within the castes. "There were several places around the continent with huge mountain ranges too, where there were huge groups of lowbloods living there in the valleys. They stayed there because the highbloods can't get to them because of the cold. It would be a good place for at least one or two origins if the group playing gets big enough."

"Smart of them," Cass grinned, scooting closer to see what Tavros was doing, "What would they be going towards the coast for, by the by? Assuming that's what we'd have the group doing." He paused for a moment, and then got a quirky smile. "I'm getting a brownie. Would you like to share?" He just realized he'd had one still stashed, and rather than fuss with a pipe, he decided on that instead. "S'the special kind."

"I think it depends on the caste. A higher blood would probably be looking for employment by a seadweller. If it's a seadweller, they'd most likely be trying to get home. Anyone else...Getting away from whatever their home situation might be, or they heard things were better on the coast under the protection of the royalty, things like that. Or trying to find someone. Whatever motivation people generally give their characters in these things can easily apply to this scenario too."

At the offer of a brownie, Tavros bit his lip, trying to remember if he had work tomorrow and how long such things took to run through his system. He put the pad up on the couch and pushed himself up to sit on the edge of it himself, his hands tucked between his knees. "I think I can handle a little, yeah."

"I meant like, as a quest. It'd likely be something pretty good, like. If you're in a party with a primary objective as well as personal ones, you'll have a better chance of both surviving the trip and working better together in a group." Cass said from around the corner in the kitchen, grabbing the brownie. He pulled off a substantial chunk of it and handed it off, before having a seat. "See, maybe they all need to get to the capitol because there's something going on there in some small frame of time, and there's a limit to the time they can get there before it's over. Or perhaps in a cave on the cliffs, there's supposedly a large treasure left there by some renegade."

"I remember, in Eridan and Vriska's FLARP sessions, they were treasure hunting with Mindfang's diary as their guide, and Eridan ended up finding Ahab's Crosshairs, that rifle that belonged to Dualscar, and Vriska found Mindfang's dice." Taking his piece of the brownie, Tavros popped a small bite into his mouth before continuing, "Maybe it could start out like that, with one or two at the starting point that are trying to gather a party to search for whatever their treasure is. Or it could be some kind of missionary thing, based on when we decide to set it, like the story of the Signless but with our own characters trying to spread his word in that direction after they go off in another. I guess it depends on what the others would think of doing, especially with what little they know of Alternian lore. Having Karkat there would help with that, since he's actually really good with story telling when he calms down enough for that."

"There's a calm setting on Karkat?" Cass wondered aloud, popping another bite of brownie into his mouth. "I thought there were only different volumes of irate." He leaned back into the couch and shrugged. "It helps to balance Dave out, so I can't dissuade him from it. They run at about the same pace, at that."

"It's rare, usually seen from a distance when he doesn't know anyone's watching. Like those really skittish kittens that never come out of the cages unless they can't hear anyone else around." Tavros took a larger bite of his piece, then bent to pull the laces of his boots and work them off, putting them aside before pulling his legs up onto the couch in front of him. "The only one he's that comfortable around is Dave I think, which really says a lot about Dave as a person."

"Dave's strangely disarming," Cass said with a small smile. "And accommodating. I mean, once you get through past the wall of irony. He's got his way of surviving while being as sensitive as he actually is. Karkat doesn't just humor him, and I think a lot of people do. His ex-girlfriend was a fucking terrible person regarding that. She fucked up. Badly." He shook his head. "But I've never seen him as happy as he is right now. They're so good for each other." He popped the rest of his brownie in his mouth and stretched his legs out before curling up around them again, his hair pouring from his back over his shoulders. "They're both skittish kittens in their own ways."

"What happened with his ex-girlfriend?" Tavros asked with a small frown. This was the first that he'd heard of it that he knew of, but even without that precedent of terrible relationship Tavros could see how calm both Dave and Karkat had become over their time together. He reached his free hand out absentmindedly to fuss Cass' hair back up and away from his face, pausing briefly when he realized how soft it was, especially compared his own, or to Vriska's; the only thing she ever didn't seem to mind when he touched her was when he'd try and rearrange her hair so that she could see better where she was going and what she was doing. He tucked his hand back between his knees and finished the last bite of his own brownie, his cheek coming to rest against his knee. "I don't want to pry or anything, but I don't really know anything about them now except for their relationship and how they get along with Gamzee and Eridan."

"Well, it's not really my place, but," Cass said with a sly smile, letting Tavros fuss to his heart's content as he spoke, his head rested on his knees. "I can't even remember her name, but she was up in the olive to jade range, and she was conventionally pretty. She was _awful_ to him, though. Absolutely. From what I've gleaned from you, Vriska was just as bad as this girl. Emotionally manipulative, verbally insulting, pushy, bossy, and had no respect for Dave as an individual. I told him repeatedly how worried I was that she was taking advantage of him, but he kept saying no, no she's not like that, she's chill. You know how it is, I suppose." Cass curled his toes into the fabric. "But she entirely broke his heart and broke it off with him in one of the coldest ways I've ever seen. He was at work, and it was Valentine's day. And he had some huge fuckoff deal planned for them, too."

Tavros listened quietly, his frown growing little by little over time. His face ended up half tucked against his knees, his hands curled in between his chest and his thighs. He'd always wavered between indifferent and largely positive about Dave, and the guy certainly didn't deserve what happened to him. Karkat's wandering back into his life was most likely the best thing that could have happened to him. "He loved her, didn't he..."

Cass nodded with a quiet smile, jaw tightening momentarily over how fucked up the situation had gotten, and how he'd had to physically wrestle a bottle of pills from Dave, and how much he resented her for that, because she was the one who got his friend there. "She moved to Denver after all that. She pissed off a lot of people when she broke his heart, and I don't blame her for moving. She needs to be far, far away from him. I don't think he'd be affected by her anymore, but I still don't think I'd want to hear about it if he saw her again." He wondered if Dave ever told Karkat about her. Dave wasn't so forthcoming. "That was ages back though. He was still sorta sore but mostly over her when Karkat came along. And from what I've been told, it was good timing on both their parts." He reached over to pat Tavros' shoulder, which was less patting and more rub. "Don't feel so shitty about it, mate, it's the past." Whether he was speaking about Dave's problems or Tavros' was anybody's guess.

"We all came here to start over. I guess some of us just need restarts for our restarts," he sighed quietly, a soft smile creeping back into his features. The high was starting to sink in, and the touch was a welcome one. "I'm glad though. I'm glad we all came here and got this weird planet and found eachother and ran into you, and everything else. Wouldn't trade it for anything else."

"I'm glad to have met you and the others, too. Shame it wasn't under better circumstances, truth be told." He was lightly buzzed just then, and as such, Cass completely forgot that he was still touching Tavros. He wasn't too worried, however, about getting his hand back just yet. "Should be interesting, at least; I'm looking forward to when it's actualized in full. That's when I'll be able to test my theory."

"Theory?" Tavros asked, his head tilting up just enough to nearly bump the side of Cass' head with his horn. He winced reflexively and apologized then fixed Cass with his slightly dilated gaze once more. "I don't think things will change all that much except maybe not as much to worry about where it comes to tentacle-y doom."

"Actually, my theory plays into the possibility that things will change a lot, and often, and only temporarily," Cass said with a small smile, having narrowly avoided a quick thwok to the head with a horn and squeezing Tavros' shoulder before letting it go to fuss his mohawk off his forehead, "See, my theory is that the world I'm from was extremely new. It was new, and borrowing from other realities to populate itself. I'm thinking it's entirely possible that when this world is actualized, it might start trying to fill in the gaps the same way ours did. And maybe it'll do the fucked up things ours did from time to time."

"So what, reality's gonna keep being weird for a while? How long do you think that would last?" It would most definitely be something interesting to document, now that more and more people were becoming aware of the real situation. "What happened with your old reality, if it was doing weird things that didn't include horrorterrors?"

"Nobody knew exactly what caused the capital-T Things to happen, since they were so chaotic and at random. They just happened, lasted a week at the most, and faded off." He tipped into the back of the couch and faced Tavros fully, legs tucked under him. "There was only one predictable mess and that was on Halloween. Any number of things could happen. Zombies. Video game monsters. Alien invasion of the War of the Worlds variety. And then you'd have to be able to keep track of what was a Thing and what was one of our local demons or gods if it was them getting pissed off. Either way, it was nasty. One time, I was a very pretty, very non-fuzzy biological woman for a week. That was... so very, very no. I mean other than the face, that was yes, but no no no no." He shook his head with a chuckle.

"Humans are weird about gender like nothing I've ever seen," Tavros commented, shaking his head and turning some in place with his legs crossed in front of him, his hands on his ankles. "I'd probably be mildly disturbed about waking up with rumble spheres and all but I don't think I'd be all _that_ bothered." He shook his head, then immediately stopped at the slight lightheadedness that was making him start to tilt ever so slightly to the right, off of the couch. "So what, you really think we can expect the same kind of thing here?"

"Gender's a hugely fucked concept, but that's not what made me uncomfortable. I'd switched sex. And from what I've heard, trolls really don't have much of a difference from sex organs regardless of sex, minus globes?" Cass scratched his head. "Anyway, yeah, I've got a feeling that's gonna be what happens. If it does, I'll get everybody prepared. There's a reason I learned how to cook for small armies, after all." He reached out and un-tilted Tavros, finding a more comfortable center of balance for his friend, with his hands on Tavros' shoulders to keep him from tipping over. "If it does happen, one can hope that the world's ready for weirdness on par with what I'm used to. I only know a handful of people that would actually like the weird shit. Everyone else will merely be pissed." He smiled as he looked down at Tavros' feet that were flesh and it momentarily surprised him, then it made him happy once again. Tavros' hands came up to rest on Cass' shoulders in kind, finding more stability that way and looking down at his toes as well as he wiggled them, then pulled his leg up in order to get a better look at his own foot.

"I don't actually remember what my toes used to look like. Huh. But these are good toes too so I don't think it matters too much." He grinned crookedly and put his foot back down, letting his leg fall back down over the front of the couch.

"That's gotta be weird, not remembering what body parts look like if they're yours." He smiled and tugged lightly on Tavros' horn with a smirk before calmly reaching over past him for the remote to turn on his stereo. "I don't look forward to it, mind you, but it'll prove that the world that got destroyed when we came into the game was a really young one."

As Cass moved, Tavros moved with him, leaning back with the grab for the stereo remote. He settled against the back of the couch, letting his hands fall back down into his lap. He let the end of his horn rest against the wall beside him, leaning on it and taking a long, easy breath, taking in the scent of their finished lunch and the faint smells of the animals. "Even if your world was young, your reality must have been pretty old, if the game manifested there. I mean that's generally how it works, right? When a universe gets old enough, the game appears and moves it along to whatever comes next."

"Might have been. I mean, it's possible that the wizards made the reality after the destruction of its predecessor, that was a totally valid theory, as well," Cass said with a shake of his head. "Wizards. Wizards did it." He chuckled and rubbed his face, remembering something else. "So once, a guy who wound up being a fairly good friend of mine showed up. Typical mad scientist, and he asked for my theories regarding why the world was the way it was, why it pulled people in and whatnot, and when I told him it was very possibly Wizards, he laughed for a literal half hour before he realized I wasn't joking."

"Damned wizards," Tavros laughed as well. But he'd read a chunk of this world's myriad fantasy novels, he knew the sort of havoc at least one sort of wizard could wreak on a world, and he personally knew a _wwizard a wwhite science_ so there was no doubt in his mind concerning the possibility that wizards did anything. He doubted any Lalondes would argue with them on the subject either. "He probably would have laughed himself stupid at Eridan then."

Cass laughed at that and gestured uselessly for a moment. "Who wouldn't? He takes himself too seriously. Even our worst villains were the kind to laugh at themselves from time to time. Sheesh." He shook his head. "Though I think Gamzee's been teaching the guy to laugh a little, that'll be good for him. What a weird guy. But I think Steel would have found some good in anybody." He tucked his hair back over his shoulders and behind his ears. "It was fun, working for him from time to time."

Tavros giggled helplessly, unable to stop himself even when he tried to stifle it with his hands. He had no idea what was so funny about Cass working for Doctor Steel, but it was at the moment and he was stuck laughing for no discernible reason. He waved a hand at Cass feebly, tipping over again, then back against the back of his couch with his face pressed against the fabric. Blowing a raspberry, Cass beamed and leaned his head against the back of the couch. "He needed _somebody_ to make sure the killbots had a non-kill function, and someone to remind him to eat from time to time. So they were kill-slash-tea luncheon bots when I got done with them. I made sure Jarvis was a little more pushy with Mr. Stark, too. Just a little. And Dib. And Phin. Jeez, I just realized I made sure all the other mad scientists were fed. I _am_ my mother."

"You mother cluckbird all the assorted brains," Tavros agreed, still laughing breathlessly, his arm slung across the back of the couch to hold him up as he wiped at his eyes with the heel of the other hand. "You still do that now, too! Except less genius stuff happening on this end. Unless you count Karkat's stuff too, that's all pretty cerebral."

"Oh, I still babysit every genius I can find. It keeps me busy between work and school. And I dunno. You've got your own brand of genius. It's just more imaginative. That's always something a lot of people overlook. You're brill with your campaigns, and you're uniquely fantastic with animals." Cass shrugged a shoulder. "You might not be saving the world or on the road to becoming some ridiculously famous director, but you save little furry people every day. You intrigue and entertain your friends with your mastery of DMing. That's important, too."

"And you," Tavros pointed at Cass, his finger coming within inches of the other's face, "have been going out of your way to flatter me all day, do you realize that? All these compliments, I might think you were flushed." Tavros' smile grew some at that, and he shook his head, as if he believed his own words were ridiculous. He just couldn't see why Cass or really anyone else would see him in that sort of light.

Cass laughed softly and batted Tavros' hand away, an impish smile settling on his face. "And so what if I am? Even if I wasn't, after last night, I may or may not have made up my mind that you need to hear more good about yourself, because well. What if, y'know?" The impish smile fell off to be replaced by a furrowed brow. "You should've heard all this long before, I think. I'm just making up for it now." He sat up and shrugged. "Maybe I _am_ flushed, but that doesn't change anything. You're a friend first, and until and unless I hear otherwise, I'm going to go under the impression that it's strictly platonic. I'm not pushy. I get crushes on everybody."

Tavros' smile faded off some as he listened, his brow furrowing as well as his face turned a little further into the couch. "I think... I think I'm not sober enough for thinking right now," he muffled, pouting against the cushion. His thoughts were a lot slower, more careful and more abstract than his usual vivid imagery tended to be, and he was reminded of why he didn't smoke but once in a very great while.

Cass stopped stretching and dropped his arms down to look over at Tavros, turning back to face him. "Want me to get you some water? And... I might have fibbed about crushing on everybody." He knew from a troll perspective, he was a pale slut, but that was nothing, really.

"Nnnno I think you need to stay here ok? Stay with the lightweight. So he doesn't fall off the couch or something." Tavros reached out at that, his lips pressed into a thin line as he tried to gesture Cass over to him. "I'm just, really bad at the whole feelings thing, and the having thereof. So quiet time now, water and whatever else later. Ok?"

With a gentle nod, Cass slipped closer and wrapped his arms around Tavros, giving him a warm, grounding hug, smiling a little. "Poor little lightweight, that wasn't even a quarter of a brownie," he teased. "It'll take about an hour and you'll sober up. Swears." He rested his cheek against the buzzed side of Tavros' head, just in front of his horn. Tavros just let his head fall to rest against Cass' shoulder, his arms wrapped around the other's middle loosely. He breathed in quietly, then let out a soft huff of a laugh.

"Probably think I'm kinda pathetic now, huh..."

"What? No," Cass huffed, chuckling a little as he kept his arms around Tavros. "Not everybody has the same tolerance for pot I do. And mine is a hard-won buildup of years of being stoned. Nothing here is a bad thing." He chuckled a little. "Just remind me next time that you're not allowed the highly potent brownies, and I'll get you something else instead." He couldn't figure out why Tavros would think he'd think less of him for something as silly and trifling as this.

"It was good at least. But maybe next time just a regular brownie would be better, and then, and then I could actually say things that make more sense. Talking is kind of weird right now." It was certainly easier to think things than it was to get them out into the open. He was pouting about not being able to handle himself though, especially around someone that had only really seemed to become more mellow rather than actively grow unsteady.

Rubbing Tavros' back gently, Cass murmured, "You don't need to talk. I can hear you just as well otherwise. Reason I even get high is to slow my brain down. Otherwise I become nervous and start picking and fussing, and I felt myself getting there, hence, brownie. You'll get the regular brownies next time, promise." He rested his forehead against Tavros' horn momentarily, eyes closed and mind blissfully quiet for the moment. "Could always nap it off?" He suggested.

Tavros just fell silent and scooted a little closer to Cass as he leaned against him, letting his thoughts do the speaking for him. They were slightly muddled, but warm and nervous. He admitted not-so privately to a crush he'd been harboring on his friend since before he and his girlfriend had broken up, and to feeling ridiculous for it because really, why would someone like Cass have any feelings besides pale for him? He grumbled a little under his breath and pressed his cheek against Cass' shoulder, dozing a little on the spot. Cass' cheeks went red at the thought of Tavros having a crush on him, and he hugged more firmly, smiling as he continued to rub Tavros' back. As he shifted away, he helped Tavros to lay back onto the couch, his head up on the arm rest, where there was clearance for his horns.

"We'll talk about that once you're up and ready to, Tavros." He smiled sheepishly as he slipped away, to go get himself a lot of water. He had severe cottonmouth. With his arm slung up over his eyes, Tavros let himself drop into his thoughts in his not-quite-nap, wondering vaguely how this would go. Relationships weren't his forte, and had he not been high as the average kite, he might have thought much more seriously and critically about his decision to return Cass' affections. He could hear his friend moving in the kitchen and simply listened to him for a little while before reaching out and touching Corny's mind instead, asking permission to come more often and keep Cass company. After all, if the pets didn't like him, it wouldn't be nearly as peaceful for the rest of them.

Slipping back into the living room with a tall glass of water and a couple hard candies, Cass settled on the opposite side of the couch with his phone, playing a game. He wasn't going to disturb Tavros while he had some heavy shit to think about. Meanwhile, Corny seemed indifferent to if Tavros came back -- he liked the guy well enough, but was more or less apathetic about who came to the house. Just so long as they didn't try to pick him up, he was all right. Indifference was better than outright disdain. He'd take it. He pulled his feet up some when Cass sat down at the other end of the couch, lifting his arm up off of his eyes to look down at him, frowning softly. He kicked his foot out gently for Cass' attention, then grabbed at the water glass without sitting up, his tongue feeling too big for his mouth. He complained mentally that he felt like he'd been sucking on a Q-tip.

Cass' smile spread over his face once again and he handed over the tumbler of water, which had a silly straw in it. "Cottonmouth's a bitch." He mused that Tavros was cute when he complained, but stayed quiet about it, handing over a lifesaver as well. "These help too," he said in favor of the hard candy. He preferred the pineapple ones, so that was the flavor he had on hand. Tavros pushed himself up with his weight supported mostly on one arm, reaching for the glass then piloting it very carefully toward his face to catch the straw. He slouched forward with the tumbler in hand, sucking thoughtfully and letting out a quiet breath of relief. He turned over the candy then popped it into his mouth once he'd finished off about a third of the water then handed it back, laying back on the couch again with his head up on the arm of it. After a while, he peeked back down at Cass with an arched brow.

"Hey, you said Bill was really old, at least by human standards...so how old are you?" You never could tell anyone's age for sure.

"Turning 24 in May, and he's a special case. He's a vampire. He's not _actually_ my grandpa, but rather my," and here he started counting off on his fingers, "great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpa. On my father's side. It's easier just to say grandpa Bill." He smiled. "Direct ancestor, though if you went that far up my mum's side, you'd wind up with muppets. I wish I was joking."

"...That explains the hairiness," Tavros teased, grinning as he nudged Cass' knee with his foot. He turned the candy over on his tongue then stuck it out with the little half-dissolved circle sitting in the middle of it, his arm tucked up under the back of his head. "Well, I'm the product of a whole lot of incest so I suppose I don't have a lot of room to talk."

Cass laughed outright about that and shrugged, "Actually, the hairiness is completely my father's fault. The streak's the fault of felt genes. And the rogue blue hairs everywhere else. You should have seen my uncle, he was a big terror of bright red." He poked his tongue out at Tavros in turn for the foot nudge. "See, but that's normal for your species. If we did that, humans would wind up with like. Extra nipples and severe retardation and all that fun stuff."

"You know, there are theories that we had nipples once? Like way back when Alternia was still young in planetary terms. I don't know how that would work, since we have the equivalent of earth insectile traits, but evolution does funny things sometimes." Tavros shrugged and pulled his foot back, crunching the lifesaver then sitting up again and holding his hand out for another.

Cass handed over another lifesaver and set his phone down to sneak closer, grabbing the water. "I always wondered what the hell was up with troll tits, I mean, it's not as if they're there for reproduction purposes. Erm. Spheres, I suppose they're called. Still though." He shrugged and took a long sip of the water.

After tucking the lifesaver into his cheek, Tavros replied, "Well have you ever felt a troll female's spheres? They're not soft like a human's, really. The glands that are in there are tough and the tissue around them is tough. Troll biology really isn't my strong suit, you'd have to ask Eridan about it, but my best guess is that since trolls are built from a matriarchy, with the females being a lot tougher and a lot more dominant and more violent, the spheres function as something of a fleshy chestplate. Our sternums aren't exactly the strongest part of our bodies, y'know? So developing that padding was probably fast and it stuck. Imagine...imagine the highbloods ok? The ones that spill the most blood, get in the most fights, have the most violent encounters. Highblood females tended to have much larger spheres than, say, the Condesce, since even though she was vicious and all that, she stayed largely out of harm's way and had legions at her command."

As he listened, Cass chuckled a little, "I can't say I've had the chance to feel spheres for myself. I'm not attracted to those of the female persuasion as much as I am to guys. It's erm. just a preference, really." He shrugged a bit, before bowing his head with a sweet smile. "So, since you decided to call me out on it, what's the verdict, Tavros?"

"Understandable. I don't really think I have much of a preference, except maybe to the color blue?" Tavros snorted quietly and sat up, turning some in his seat then scooting a little closer and reaching a hand to snag his friend's fingers, just trying to get used to a more casual touch. Cass eased his own half-gloved hand to lace his fingers between Tavros', easy and casual and assuring that any touch was just fine.

"I'm not gonna snip at you if you want to touch me, you know. The only things I don't like being touched are my palms. That's why I wear the gloves." He smiled a little and slipped closer to lean on Tavros. "I'm weird and my hands are sensitive, and even if you touched my palms somehow, I'd just whine instead of have any violent response."

"Sensitive how?" If it would end up hurting Cass somehow, he wasn't sure that he wanted to do much more than this. Nonetheless, he squeezed back on the other's hand and let their hands rest atop his knee. "I know Dave's fingers are kind of sensitive, if his reaction to Karkat touching them is anything to judge by."

Cass laughed at that and shook his head, "Boy that was awkward when I found that out, but no, not like that. More to the tune of uncomfortable sensitivity. It doesn't hurt, but it...freaks me out. I dunno how to describe it. It's like the tactile version of nails on a chalkboard." He couldn't really explain why it made him cringe and set his hair on end, other than it simply did. "That's been a problem my whole life. I have weird brain fucky bits, but you already know most of them, since you work with me." He looked into Tavros' eyes and smiled. "Would you freak out and feel weird if I kissed you?"

"Dog whistles do that to me," Tavros admitted, shuddering a little at the thought of the nearly supersonic sound. He was distracted by the question though and he looked back up at Cass, the bronze tint that had come to rest along the tops of his ears creeping over his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. "Uh... Well, weird and uncomfortable is...how I generally operate anyway, so I don't think it would hurt anything," he replied, giving Cass a small, crooked smile.

Cass had to tilt his head in fond amusement at the way that Tavros' blush was somehow one of the warmest blushes he'd ever seen. It was really very cute. He slipped closer and didn't make much of a deal out of it, stealing a kiss that wasn't even more than a shade past chaste, squeezing Tavros' hand firmly as he did. Tavros sucked in a breath reflexively then let it out in a quiet, nervous little laugh, his hand coming up over his mouth until he forced it back down into his lap. The blush had gotten worse and he knew he was probably acting ridiculous, but he couldn't help himself as the giggle only returned with a vengeance. He tried to silence it nonetheless, his face shoved against Cass' shoulder briefly until he could look back up at him.

"Uh...sorry...I won't do that every time, I promise..."

"Are you sure? Because that was fucking cute as hell, dude." Cass giggled a bit, himself and wrapped his arms tight around Tavros. "You know what I like about what we could have? It'll be easy for us. Well, for me. Everything you do needs to be fretted over or else it's just not you doing it." He smiled. As opposed to Vriska, when he pointed it out, it didn't sound like an insult, but rather, a warm, fond reminder of Tavros' uniqueness. When he slipped out of the hug, he looked back into Tavros' eyes again. "We're gaining new things, and losing nothing for this. We'll always be friends, we just...get to snog occasionally as well."

Tavros couldn't help a louder, more genuine laugh at that, butting his head against Cass' then draping an arm around his shoulder. "I think I'm perfectly ok with this arrangement then," he replied, then bit his lip, wiggling a little in place then pressing a fast kiss to the other's cheek before standing up, wobbling briefly on one foot until he found his equilibrium again. "Ok I'm hungry. What do you have along the line of sweets?"

"Sugar cookies, white chocolate macadamia cookies, ooh, and there's these nutella cookies I just made, they're really great!" He stood as well and bounced over to the kitchen, beaming when he waved vaguely in the direction of the several cookie jars. "Take your pick. I've also got soda and some several varieties of gummy whatevers, and a box of thin mints, but those are mine, no touchy." He beamed.

"Nutella cookies?" Tavros followed after him, looking fascinated by the idea. He headed for the jars, lifting the lids off of each of them then glancing inside and sniffing tentatively, picking a couple from each, content to munch on them as he bobbed a little in place, feeling much better about life in general, even with the added risks now that he could remember his life. He nibbled on one of the white chocolate cookies, watching Cass move around the kitchen again. "Should we start having the games here? I mean it's bigger than my place, but I don't know the situation with your roommate at the moment."

"I'll ask him, but I'm _pretty_ sure Alex is cool with having my friends over," Cass said, with his head ducked into the fridge. "I'm okay with it if you are, and I'm sure nobody will dislike the decor." Cass' idea of decorating implemented gratuitous fantasy elements throughout the living room, including a side table that was really just a sculpture of a goblin holding up a glass tabletop. He came back up from the fridge with some fruit leather and a strawberry soda.

"It would lend a better ambiance to the game than my apartment, and I could probably bring Tink so that she wouldn't be left home alone for too long. Who knows, she might get along with Corny." Tavros got a glass of milk for himself and settled back down on the floor in front of the couch, bringing his notepad up onto his knee to try and add to what he had so far for the game concept. He was still buzzed, but keeping himself busy seemed to be helping more than just sitting still did. "Ok so I have a growing list of the occupations, weapons, powers, creatures, the regions...I'll have to draw out the map. I wonder if that philosophical society would have books from Alternian authors? I mean I kind of doubt it, since there were only twelve of us from the original Alternia and as far as I know, the other offshoot timelines didn't make it here, or else there would be a few doubles running around at least, but some of us read quite a bit even before the game, so...it's possible, right?"

"Dave told me that when he emptied out his sylladex, there was all sorts of shit from before the game still in there, so who knows? Maybe somebody still has stuff from then in theirs. You could ask around. Who was the biggest bookworm in your session?" Cass sipped his soda after opening it, pouting a little about the lost knowledge of so many worlds. It kind of stung a little to know that there was so much lost wisdom.

"It's a tossup between Karkat and Eridan but the last I heard, Karkat didn't have his sylladex anymore. I think Eridan might? He's probably already emptied it by now, knowing him. But that just makes it worse because now all we'd have to go on is ten year old memories of another planet. I mean I'm sure that collectively we'd be able to remember a lot, but it's not the same as having the real documentation and things. I can still write in Alternian and a couple of the dialects, and I know the others can too, so...maybe we can work something out. I don't know..." Tavros pouted a little, taking a large bite of his cookie then looking back up at Cass. "At least for the purposes of the game, not everything has to be a hundred percent perfectly accurate, right?"

"It doesn't have to be accurate," Cass said with a shake of his head, bouncing a little, still feeling jazzed from the kiss. "But I don't know. It wouldn't hurt to check with Gamzee to see if Eridan kept any of his books. Dave kept precisely squat, his words, except for a couple dead things in jars and that huge fuckoff sword." He took a bite of the fruit leather and shrugged. "I really hope that someone makes sylladexes a thing here. I really want one. It seems like they'd be majorly useful."

"They really are extremely handy, depending on the type of modus you use. I think Dave still has his hashmap thing that launches his stuff everywhere if he's not careful. Gamzee's seems like it would be the way to go, as long as your reflexes are quick." Tavros turned in place to put his chin up on the edge of the couch, his stack of cookies resting on the corner of his notepad as he chewed the one he had in hand. He rested his elbow on top of Cass' knee, jiggled by the bouncing of his leg. "We could ask if Mom Lalonde would do that. She's good with weird tech like that."

"Oh! I completely forgot about her," Cass said, settling down some and smiling sheepishly in lieu of an apology. "I wonder if I could design my own modus. Something that makes sense to me intuitively without the clumsiness of being overbearingly complex. Maybe something along the lines of sequences. Primes and Fibonacci, stuff like that. I could definitely deal with a filing system along those lines." He slid a few inches closer and offered up some of his own snack. "Dehydrated smashed raspberries, would you like some?"

"That sounds incredibly appetizing," Tavros replied sarcastically, pushing enough of the tone to make it glaringly obvious that he was, in fact, being sarcastic without having to announce it. Regardless, he took the leather and eyed it, biting off a corner and chewing it with an arched eyebrow. It reminded him of a fruit roll-up, complete with tendency to get mired in between his teeth in a way that guaranteed he would still be tasting it for the rest of the night. At least it tasted pretty good. He handed it back. "I'm good with my cookies, thanks. As far as the software goes, you could ask Sollux? I don't think he would mind doing something like that for you, since you're a friend."

"I'm his friend? My goodness, how thrilling. He regards me in much the same way Corny does everybody that isn't me." Cass said with a lopsided smile.

"I'd say he regards you the same way he does the rest of the people he actually gives half a crap about. He's got like...three tiers of interaction with the world. There's Bro, then there's the rest of us, then the world at large that he would be perfectly content to keep a mile away from him at all times."

"Good fucking lord, I wonder if Robbie and Sollux ever crossed paths yet. They've probably been doing that Lemongrab poke thing with each other, I can only imagine." Cass took another bite of the fruit leather as he hiked his feet back up to rest against the edge of the sofa, resting himself back over his legs again. "Robbie was the Sollux of our reality. There were other hackers, but none better than him. I'm sure when he's not busy yanking the bubble around the Void, he's using it to keep himself from getting rusty."

Listening to Cass talk about Robbie, Tavros tucked his arm under his chin with the remainder of his cookie in his hand. He wrinkled his nose and laughed quietly. "Oh great, we have two realities' worth of Sollux."

"Yes we do. And Robbie maintained one of the superpowers he got during one of those Things I was talking about. Get this, he can actually make physical contact with people through the internet. You know how some people wish they could just slap someone over the internet sometimes? He can. That's his mystical superpower. I never got anything nearly as interesting. My aunt had the best one though; she was able to fuse things to other things on the molecular level. She fused hundreds of googly eyes to my uncle's desk." He smiled and leaned against Tavros, feeling more at ease about being close now, and took a sip of his soda. "But yeah. Once Robbie comes around again, I'm sure he and Sollux will become quick friends."

"If he's done that to Sollux by now I have no doubt that Sollux will have been expending a lot of energy trying to figure out how to do it right back. He's probably tried to blow up Robbie's phone or whatever he'd be using to stay in contact by now." Tavros laughed quietly and reached for Cass' hand again, still being overly careful as he gripped down on the other's fingers. "I'll be excited to meet the rest of your session when the time comes," he murmured, smiling up at Cass sweetly.

"I'm looking forward to introducing everybody to everybody," Cass said with a fond smile, bringing Tavros' hand up to press his lips up to the brown-tinted knuckles. "You don't need to worry about holding my hand when I've got my gloves on," which was most of the time - Cass only took them off just before bed, and put them on just after taking a shower in the morning. He put Tavros' hand up to his cheek and smiled a little at how warm the other was. Warmer than human, but only a little. He'd noticed the heat discrepancy on Karkat even more, but he figured it was because Karkat was redblooded, and thus some kind of living space heater.

Tavros' hand rested there against Cass' cheek for a moment before falling away, taking his friend's hand and holding it loosely. "Sorry, I'm just kind of nervous about it, mostly because I'm not used to it at all. I've never had much of a physical affection sort of relationship and all. I like this though." He smiled shyly, picking a little along the seam of the glove then simply letting his palm rest flat against Cass'. "How does that work if you want to...y'know, touch someone?" he asked with slightly furrowed brow. If his hands coming into contact with anything was that uncomfortable, he couldn't imagine what it must have been like when Cass was in his previous relationships.

"It..." Cass said as he squirmed a little, uncomfortable about trying to put it to words that made sense, "I can? But it takes a lot of trust. It ties into...brain things. My mind convinces me that if I do certain things, or _don't_ do certain things, something bad will happen, and I know it's bullshit, logically, but I go into panic mode. It's just my palms, at least. It used to be I wore full gloves all the time. I'm getting better." He sighed and bowed his head. "I know it's fucked up, s'probably not something you wanted to know, now that you know. I could lie and say I really like lookin' like a badass from an 80s movie but... yeah, no."

"That'd be kind of stupid as far as lies go anyway," Tavros chuckled, looking down at Cass' hand held loosely in his own, paying attention to the glove itself for the first time that he could recall. "Maybe eventually you'll be comfortable enough not to need it. I can't really imagine what it would be like to have a _thing_ about having things touch your hands."

"It's been a thing my whole life," Cass murmured, wrapping his fingers tight around Tavros' in turn, looking down at the other's hand with a small smile. "I backslid when I was in the game; for a while I didn't need them, but..." He shrugged, "I'll get there again. I just need to find myself comfortable again." He nudged Tavros' shoulder with his own and caught his lower lip between his teeth, grinning. A sudden idea came to him and he looked over to the other with glint in his eye. "Hey, want to get outta here for a bit? I'm in the mood for a film. Maybe some ice cream." It may have been chilly, but ice cream was a year 'round obsession.

The sudden invitation out made him pause a moment to consider, then Tavros nodded. He didn't really need to be home just yet, and he doubted anyone else would need him for anything just now. "That sounds good. I haven't been able to really sit and enjoy a movie with anyone in a while. I have ice cream at home too, unless you want to go to Cold Stone? Since they have the really big cones like that." He grinned at the idea; this was starting to sound more and more like a date in his mind, and he always enjoyed himself in Cass' company. This would be no exception.

"I was thinking less Cold Stone - though they are rather nice - but actually Menchies. Froyo, but still really good. And they've got pretty much every topping in history. Fruity pebbles!" He laughed as he stood, offering a hand up for his friend. Boyfriend? Well, maybe in time he could see them as that, but for now, friend was comfortable. 

The film was predictably fantasy in flavor, but was no less fantastic and fun, and while Cass insisted on paying for the movie and snacks therein, he conceded that Tavros could get the frozen yogurt. Once he got Tavros back to his apartment, they were fed, and happy, and he was sheepish as he stood at the door. "We should do this a lot more often, mate. I haven't had this kind of fun in ages."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Tavros agreed, his hands stuffed into his pockets. He'd obviously enjoyed the movie and their time out in general and he saw absolutely no reason they couldn't do this again, especially after everything that had happened. He grinned rather bashfully then glanced around them at the deserted walkway in front of his apartment, just hoping that he wouldn't be spotted and later bugged by one of his neighbors; he got along with all of them and they were friendly enough but they seemed just a little too interested in his love life even when he'd still been with his girlfriend. When he'd confirmed that it was deserted he leaned up to steal a quick kiss then immediately hunkered down a little as the blush already settled across his cheeks from the cold deepened. "Hopefully you can come to the Christmas thing Dave's throwing. He mentioned that he'd be inviting everyone so I figure you might get to meet someone you haven't yet."

Cass smiled into the kiss and then left a light peck on Tavros' nose before stepping back, pulling the collar of his coat up to block the frigid breeze. "Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to it. Parties with your group are always an adventure," he said with a chuckle. "I'll let you know if anything comes up, but I'm making plans to go at least. Oof, what to get some of you, though... I'm terrible with gifts." He'd probably wind up handing off half a dozen gift cards at the very least. He shifted his weight a little, reluctant to go, but finally resolved that it was time to be heading home once another chilly wind came up. "Right. I'll see you tomorrow then. Try to get some more rest." He snuck one more brief kiss, then stepped back, to make his way to his car, smiling up a storm. Tavros stood outside for a few moments, first just waving Cass off then basking for a bit in the glowing feeling that had settled over him over the course of the day. He went inside finally as Cass reached his car, to promptly be harassed by his cat until he'd refilled her food that was starting to run low and regale her with the tales of his day. While she was hyperactive and forgetful, she was attentive while they were in direct communion and always seemed much more content whenever he relayed good news to her. It helped that she liked Cass.

When he went to bed he was still thinking about what he and Cass had talked about and privately grinning to himself over how things seemed to be turning out alright for everyone they knew. He just wondered when the other shoe would drop.

\--

Weeks rolled by and with winter vacation just around the bend at school, Cass was happy to have a two week vacation scheduled at work as well. It gave him plenty of time to get some slope time in up in the mountains. The problem was, he'd gotten a call from Artan. The dumb dingus felt all sad and alone out there in California and had no way to leave because the busiest time at the shop was just between Christmas and new years, when people were spontaneously in need of something pretty and permanent on them. Cass sighed and told Artan he'd have to think about it. With his new boyfriend, and all his friends wanting to come to a huge party, it was unlikely he could make it, but he couldn't find room to forgive himself if he left Henn's dad hanging.

Goddamn, that was a rock and a hard place, if ever he'd been in one. 

He decided that he'd tell Tavros that day, before the game session started that evening, when they were setting up. As he got ready for the day, Cass cleaned up a little in preparation for Tavros - and later, the rest of the group - showing up. He pulled out the extra seating, which equated to a few beanbags and a few folding chairs, and cleared off the coffee table before he started to make a fresh playlist for the night. He found himself nervously chewing at the back of his glove as he waited for the doorbell to ring, dreading the discussion ahead of him, but eager to see Tavros. After all, he had been finding that taking things casually with him was like trying to take a hill slowly in neutral. Easy at first, but progressively necessary to hit the brakes before he found himself nestled snugly around a tree at the bottom of some analogous love ravine. 

He also had to stop picking up habits from Dave. Bloody infectious, those analogies.

Tavros, for what it was worth, had been trying to keep things steady as possible, hoping that if things stayed slow, neither of them would be spooked out of continuing to see one-another. It was getting a little harder to do, the more they came to associate outside of work and between game nights. But all in all, he found their situation comfortable, flirting quietly when the mood struck or simple hanging out together on the couch and just generally keeping one-another company. He had been looking forward to this game night, as it would end up being the last one with the full group before some of the others went to visit friends or family elsewhere.

When he arrived at the door, it was with an armload of things to help set up for the session before the others showed up, held in one arm as he knocked before simply letting himself in to get out of the cold a little quicker. He had to use the end of his scarf to try and wipe the snow off that had somehow managed to gather on top of his horns in the short walk from the bus stop to the house. After shedding his coat he put down his belongings beside the seating arrangement then went to find his boyfriend (as odd as it felt to him to use the term) wherever he was lurking. It turned out that Cass had tucked himself into one of the beanbags, but as soon as he spotted Tavros he was up and walking towards the door.

"Hey!" He said, smiling as he bounced over to get some of the load up and out of Tavros' arm. "S'really coming down today, isn't it?" He wrinkled his nose a little at the snow. He loved the stuff, but not when it was being a burdensome little shit. "Want some cocoa? I've got some of the instant stuff in the cupboard if you want."

"That sounds amazing right now actually," Tavros replied, shaking himself a little once he'd warmed up then heading toward the kitchen. He figured they could make some for the others as well as they showed up, knowing they were likely to want some as well to try and fend off the cold. He stood back against the wall to watch Cass prepare it, his hands together and sandwiched between the wall and his back. "I have to wonder how everyone else is going to make it if it's falling as heavy up around Bro and Sollux's place. Traffic is probably going to be a nightmare just because of the roads."

Cass winced a little at the subject coming up so fast, and then gave a sheepish smile as he turned on the electric kettle, which still had hot water in it from this morning's tea. "It's usually not so bad from DIA to here, but...yeah, s'gonna be a pain, I'm sure. I'm also sure Bro's got some backup plan should it get that bad. But, erm...about the party. One of our Guardians lives in California, and he's stuck there for the holiday. Henn's dad's asked I come there for the same week as the party. I'd love to do both, really. I want to go to the party so much, but..." His brow furrowed as he pouted, picking a little at the frayed wrist of a glove. "Might just try and bribe him into getting out here instead, meeting up with some of your sesh. He'd probably like Kanaya."

As Cass talked, Tavros' smile faded until he could simply nod in understanding. "It's fine, really, you should be there with him especially if he asked you to in the first place. Since he's basically family and all, I mean. I know the other guys wouldn't really mind. Might miss you though." He smiled sheepishly at that, personally hoping that Cass could get this Guardian to come and introduce himself to the rest of their friends instead. Cass nodded and slipped closer, taking Tavros' hand and pressing his lips against his knuckles, needing the closeness momentarily.

"I'll try. But if it doesn't work out that way, I'll keep in touch while I'm there. My phone won't leave my person, so you can text me at any time." He nodded reassuringly and looked into Tavros' eyes with a small smile. "I just don't want to leave you there with a few of them . Well. Just the one." He shook his head. "If I was just a little more greedy, I'd ask you to come with me."

"I really do wish you could come, you'd probably like Jade," Tavros sighed and took his hand back, letting it rest on Cass' side instead. He looked up at the other with a soft pout, but shrugged it off and pointed out, "even if I did go with you there probably wouldn't be much for me to do besides stick to your side. You might get tired of having me in your space after a couple of days."

Cass laughed at that and shook his head. "Honestly? I'd like it more than I care to admit. And you'd probably like it there. Venice is a great city, it's not too far from the mountains, it's right there on the ocean, too. Not big on huge bodies of water, myself, but it smells nice!" He shrugged and slipped closer. "But like I said, I'll try to con the conman, see if I can't weasel him into buying a ticket out here. He's a brash little lawn gnome, but I like him well enough."

Tavros took the chance when Cass got closer to him to take his hand, swinging them a bit between them as he shrugged. "Well, we still have time before the party so we'll just have to see what happens between now and then, right? Maybe if you went and picked him up and then came back it could work. Whatever you think is good for that."

"Oh, good point. I could physically remove him from the place, take him here." He smirked at that and leaned in to kiss Tavros' cheek. "Brill. I'll kidnap him. Perhaps if I go a couple days prior to the party, I can bring him here, and we can all be there." He turned when the kettle beeped at him and he slipped away to go make some cocoa for Tavros. 

As he poured the powder into a mug, his head tilted. "Mm, though I do want to pull you with me, just for the fun." Maybe it was just because he wanted to show off his cute boyfriend, or maybe it was because he wanted to spend more time with Tavros, but he just wanted Tavros with him. He shrugged after stirring the cocoa up and then handed it over to him. "I'll try to ask Bill to swing that many plane tickets. I'm sure he could."

"What about driving? Since the weather's probably not going to be that bad after we get out of the state and all. It could be good to take the road trip out to see him and be able to hang around in the warm for a while and I know we both have vacation time coming up then anyway so..." Tavros grinned as he took the cocoa and sipped at it, his eyes falling closed briefly. "We could come back in time for the party and drag your Guardian along with us!"

"That sounds amazing! Oh man, are you sure you wouldn't mind going on a road trip with me? My reputation as a reckless hooligan behind the wheel hasn't scared you off yet?" He bumped his hip against Tavros' lightly, careful not to jostle the other enough to spill, before he walked back to the living room with half of the supplies for the game in his arms. Tavros held his mug out a little from his body in case it did spill, leaning back against Cass briefly then following him back into the living room just as the first knock came at the door. He put his drink down on the table in front of his seat then went to let the others in, letting them settle themselves in before sinking back into place at Cass' side.

"Alright so last time we'd actually managed to find a village to try and trade in but _someone_ decided it was abandoned and haunted," one of their older players teased, giving Tavros a look when the troll stuck his tongue out.

"Well the last five were completely uneventful except for the stabbing during that bar fight that nearly killed you before you could get to anyone with the right healing spell," Tavros argued. "You just had to piss off one of the Undead."

"Dude, you're the DM, you're the one that made him undead in the first place."

"Yes, and?"

Cass laughed and shook his head. "So what we ought to do is get in, rest up, get out, and get back to the task at hand. It's not like the mountain is going to stroll into town and set itself there, going 'Hey yo, loot me, adventurers'." He grabbed his character sheet from his folder and set it down in front of him so he could figure out what he could buy with the money he had. "Though we might need to get better information than there's a cave that leads straight to an abandoned dwarf fortress. It'd be nice to know what kind of hell we'll be getting into." He stood to grab himself something to drink, and grab the snack platter he made the night before for everyone.

"Maybe it'll be a not-abandoned dwarf fortress. Possibly with something that will destroy the last of your reserves?" Tavros suggested with a slight smirk, grinning as he went to get the door for the last arrivals then officially start setting up his things so that they could start the session. He could gather ideas enough to get them through the start of this game until they made it through to the next stop to stretch out and eat and unwind a little before dropping themselves back into it. He explained what the groaning was about as he helped the last member of their group inside and into her seat. After the two of them had broken up, Tavros had been keeping close to his ex-girlfriend, remaining friends with her and continuing to care for her when she came up pregnant. She still attended the games and had promised she would right up until she had to go to the hospital. Tavros was looking forward to seeing Leslie's child when it was born, and had said as much several times to both her and Cass when it came up in conversation. He just hoped that the world would be stable by then.

When the snacks were put out and the rest of them had finally calmed enough to get back into the game, Tavros' direction for it had the rest of them actively discussing their tactics, as they often did when they were working their way toward something big that they knew they were about to fall into. He was an unforgiving DM, but at least he didn't spring unnecessary mobs on them or deplete them so much that they wouldn't be able to survive long enough to find somewhere to recuperate, unless they had been incredibly stupid in how they went about their battles. He was fast on the uptake and tended to be fair enough on judgments, occasionally looking to Cass on something that he wasn't entirely sure about when it came to weapons' damage and the stat reduction associated with it. He really felt he should try to sit down and go over all of this himself, but weaponry didn't hold his attention as much as everything else in the game did.

By the time one of the group spoke up to announce that he had to go for the night, the game was slowed down and drawn to a close when they found something close to a peaceful place to rest. Tavros slumped back into his seat and yawned widely, his arms stretching up over his head then falling back behind him as his head fell onto Cass' shoulder. "It feels really late," he murmured, looking up at the clock with a soft frown. It only showed a quarter of eight.

Cass checked the time as well and then sighed a little, smiling sweetly. "Could go lay down and veg for a bit, watch some tv in my room now that everybody's off. It's poor enough out there roads-wise I wouldn't really trust myself driving in it." He squinted out the window, and then wrinkled his nose. "I'll bring you home tomorrow, unless you just want to catch the bus."

Tavros nodded, watching as the last of their friends headed out then struggling out of his seat and stretching his arms up over his head, standing up on tiptoe and reaching straight up. He wasn't nearly tall enough to reach the ceiling, but it was good to pretend he could when he had to try and get the blood flowing again. He glanced back at Cass then headed toward his friend's room to flop down on the foot of the bed, his arm over his eyes as he yawned again. Cass' bed was ungodly comfortable and before he knew it, Tavros had started to doze. Cass smiled and sprawled out with his feet at the head of the bed and his head resting against Tavros' back as he switched the TV on. It only took him a couple minutes to notice the slowed breathing and disjointed, half-dreaming thoughts, and he smiled a little, sitting up to kiss Tavros' cheek. "I'll be a moment," he quietly announced. "Feel free to take over the actual bed." He slipped away and went to the bathroom and nearly made to take out his contacts, until he reminded himself that he no longer needed to bother, then to wash off his eyeliner and put his hair up, putting on his glasses. His hair was pulled into a half-loop bun when he walked back in, and sprawled back onto the bed, immediately half-sprawled against Tavros' side. That was much better. More comfortable, at least.

Tavros woke back up at the sound of his voice and the movement of him leaving and then returning, turning over and looking back at Cass with a half-smile. "You look good in glasses," he commented absently and reached over to tuck a stray lock back away from Cass' face.

"I hear that a lot when I wear them," Cass said with a smile, shaking his head, "But I prefer contacts, only because then, I don't have the blind spots and the distraction of the outline of them in my view all the time." His smile turned sheepish and he slipped his hand into Tavros', glad that he could have him right there with him, glad that for the moment, they were so close. "But I can't deny that I look rather nice with the right pair on."

"Maybe thinner frames? Or maybe the frameless kind so all you really have to worry about is the ear pieces." Tavros shrugged then sat up some, enough to be able to lean against Cass more heavily with one arm slung over his middle. His fingers laced between Cass' and he squeezed down on the other's hand then brought it up to his lips, just letting them rest against the knuckles. Cass smiled at the thought of a new pair of frames, then leaned down to press a kiss to Tavros' forehead.

"I'll look into it, but I'm terrible with choosing what looks good on me. Why anybody allows me to dress myself in the morning is a mystery for the ages." He slipped one leg between Tavros' in turn, bringing himself just that much closer. Tavros fitted himself comfortably against Cass' side, butting his head gently against the other's then kissing the end of his nose and pecking his lips.

"I don't know about that. I think you do pretty well."

"Know what I think?" Cass murmured as he stole another kiss, smirking faintly as he put one hand on the small of Tavros' back, idly resting it there, "I think you might be just a little biased in this subject." He smiled just before he pressed a more lingering kiss to his boyfriend's lips, dipping his long fingers down to trace just along the peak of Tavros' ass, simply teasing for the moment.

"Is that a bad thing?" Tavros grinned and turned a little dark along the tops of his cheeks. He pressed back into the kiss a little more firmly them smiled into it and let his forehead rest against Cass'.

"No, not really," Cass murmured into the kiss, though once he parted from it with a nibble to Tavros' lower lip, his breath had gone shallow and shivered. He wasn't the type to blush at contact, but his skin felt electric and he didn't want to stop at just kissing and it was fairly obvious by his body language, arching into every subtle touch and movement. What held him back, though, was the hesitation of not knowing exactly what to expect from Tavros. His generally nervous boyfriend seemed to be pretty content not to get that far into things.

Tavros' lip caught between his teeth and he glanced first up at Cass, then down between them, his nerves starting to bubble up in the form of a quiet, helpless sort of giggle that he quickly stifled against Cass' lips. He buried his face agains the side of Cass' neck with a quick apology. "I swear I'm not laughing at you, it's a reflex," he murmured, peeking back up and trying to catch Cass' eye through his glasses.

Cass nodded with a little of a chuckle, himself. "S'alright, I understand." He kissed Tavros' temple, "If you're uncomfortable or something..." He let the sentence taper off, slipping his hand away back to the small of Tavros' back instead, looking into Tavros' eyes again, then appreciating his lovely brown blush. He kissed the other's nose then leaned back to take him in fully. "But at the risk of sounding rather guilt-trippy, which is not my intention, I just want to say it's been increasingly hard to not want to go that route."

Tavros just nodded at that, looking back at him with a soft, anxious little smile that he tried to make a little more confident. "It's not that I'm uncomfortable or anything. Kind of far from it. Just...a little nervous. You're not doing anything wrong or anything, just...um. Ignore me, I'm not used to all of this." He let his head fall back down against Cass' shoulder, laughing a little at himself.

"To be wholly fair, I'm not sure what I'm expecting once we do get that far, myself. It's not as though we had trolls where I'm from, and really, you're...the first person I've been with since I got here," which settled all unanswered questions in that regard. He fussed a bit with the strand of blue that came free from his ponytail, tucking back in with the rest. "But erm, if you want, I'll just..." he slipped his hand back down again and pressed another kiss to Tavros' lips again, more gently this time.

"Well I guess this is gonna end up being a lot of firsts for everyone." Smiling warmly, Tavros dragged his fingers back through Cass' hair to pull it up out of his face and hold it back as he returned the kiss then pecked down along the front of his throat to nuzzle against the base of it near his clavicle. His legs curled up around the other's and drew them up, inadvertently pressing a little harder against his thigh in the process and letting out a quiet, slightly startled gasp. Cass' eyes widened a little with the sound, but he dismissed it as simple surprise; he'd be surprised by an erection too, frankly, had he never had contact with one. He chuckled at his own line of thought, before dipping his head down to press kisses and nibbles against Tavros' neck. It was only then that he started to wonder where exactly that sweet cinnamon scent was coming from and he drew away to look into Tavros' eyes once again.

"S'that you?" he asked quietly, his smile gone from fond to just the slightest bit impish.

Tavros' blush flared and he pursed his lips before replying, "I thought it was you," in the most sarcastic voice he could muster. He relaxed though and rearranged himself a little to be able to lie more comfortably between Cass' legs with his arms wrapped loosely around the other's neck.

Cass stuck his tongue out at the sass, but then murmured, "You smell lovely though. Warm and spicy."

"That's uh...one of those things you learn about trolls, I guess," Tavros replied. "We tend to uh. Smell a little different. From humans, I mean."

Cass kissed him gently and shook his head. "S'not what I'm used to, but it's nice. Better than human scent, really. I'm just lucky not to smell awful, but there are some." With a wrinkle of his nose, he leaned back in to nibble Tavros' neck again, murmuring pleasantly at the scent building between them. His mouth was starting to water, and he was growing increasingly aware of the slight dampness seeping through both Tavros' jeans and his own. "Should take those off before you get 'em ruined," he suggested in a purring tone. Again the helpless giggling welled up and Tavros had to stifle himself, his nose pressed against the side of Cass' head. He sat back up nonetheless and crawled off the bed in order to do just that. He was obviously self-conscious about doing so, but he trusted Cass, and when he stripped out of the rest of his clothes save for his undershorts, he was acutely aware that he was giving his boyfriend an eyeful. There were small scars around the upper parts of his thighs where the prosthetics had once been connected, but the massive circular scar that had once rested over the center of his chest and was mirrored on his back had been erased. He ran his hand over the smooth skin, his head tilting just a bit.

"You should probably do the same," he suggested, glancing back up with a small, lopsided grin, the blush extending across his ears and over the bridge of his nose.

Cass watched momentarily, if only to take a good look at Tavros removing his shirt and watch his arms and shoulders flex, the corner of his lower lip caught between his teeth. When Tavros suggested he do the same, he stayed on the bed as he unzipped his own pants, shucking them down with a slow roll of his hips, then tossed them aside, and sat up smoothly to slip out of his sweater. The last things to come off were his gloves, removed slowly and set aside on the bedside table. If he panicked, he'd have them right there to pull right back on again, he assured himself mentally, but he figured he wouldn't have that kind of trouble. He stayed in his boxers, black and nondescript, before leaning over to pull Tavros back down onto the bed with him with a chuckled, "Come here, you."

Tavros stumbled a bit as he followed Cass back down and rolled over him, tangling their legs together as he went. He grinned and wrapped his arms around Cass' neck, pulling him down enough to kiss the corner of his mouth then move back to his lips. He was warmer, but at least the temperature difference wasn't drastic. It was getting hard to ignore the erection poking against him just as much as the moisture seeping into his boxers was growing more and more obvious. He was slightly embarrassed about how obvious he had to seem just then but Cass was unabashed, smiling faintly at the warmth, at the scent of him and the sensation of their skin brushing against each other.

He ran his fingertips down Tavros' shoulder and chest, murmuring, "I suppose it should be said I'm prepared. S'a bucket below the bed, when it's needed." Just within reach, too. He knew that much about troll sex, though not much else. He leaned up into the kiss then, his hand trailing back to its resting spot at the small of Tavros' back, and his other hand went up to brush his fingers through the other's thick mohawk, then over to run his nails lightly at the base of one horn. Tavros leaned into the touch reflexively, his eyes falling closed. He was just glad that he hadn't frozen up yet out of sheer nervousness.

"That's good," he replied lamely, running one hand down the side of Cass' neck and across his shoulder while he chanced a look downward at the hair-covered expanse of the other's chest. He sat up some to get a better look; he'd seen it every so often, the amount of body hair his boyfriend apparently had, but now he was seeing more of it than he knew what to think of. His ex had been covered in fine, near invisible hair, but he supposed that was one of those differences between human men and women. He wondered how it was even comfortable under clothes, then he simply figured that Cass was used to having it by now. "If you uh...have any more questions, I guess that now would be a good time to ask..."

Cass looked up at Tavros, then down at his chest, and laughed a little. "Oh, right. Body hair's odd, yeah? I'd like to blame da's side for that one." A few blue hairs peppered the otherwise dark blond hair that covered his forearms, chest, groin and legs, but it was obvious that he kept it well trimmed. He thought about the offer in earnest for a moment, then his brow quirked briefly and he shook his head. "Really, I'm not going to be weirded out or anything." He'd been told by Dave how troll anatomy was vastly different, and while he wasn't particularly sure what to expect in actuality, the small amount of what he did know kept him from being nervous. He leaned up to kiss Tavros again as he slipped his thumbs under the elastic of his own boxers, shimmying them down from his hips. Tavros lifted up to give him room, watching as his boxers were pushed down just enough to see what he had to actually think about for a moment before going _oh. That's a penis. Ok._ He scooted back a bit on Cass' lap and inched his fingers into his own shorts to push them down around his thighs. The smell intensified a bit and Tavros' lip pulled in between his teeth as he ran his fingers along the warm, moist skin just below his sheath then dragged them up over the tip of his bulge. He was surprised when it slid out smoothly and immediately wrapped around his fingers. Tavros glanced back up at Cass after a moment then untangled his fingers from his bulge and scooted back up enough to let it curl around the other's shaft and squeeze down.

Cass was fascinated and passively pleased that whatever it was he was expecting, it was more startling than what he got. He smiled as he brought his hands to Tavros' hips, and, although it was quiet enough to be a mere whisper, let out a soft moan at the new sensation of a bulge around him. He pressed a soft kiss to Tavros' cheek and rocked his hips at a particularly firm squeeze, jaw shivering a bit. "S'good," he managed to huff, lame though it was. Tavros just smiled back at that, his cheek coming to rest against Cass' shoulder as one hand wrapped around both of them tentatively.

"It wasn't this uh...this _strong_ , before," he murmured, "there used to be something wrong with the nerves there. Because of uh...because of the paralysis. I guess that's not the case now." Grinning at the idea, Tavros ran his fingers back down between the folds of his nook to test if that was more sensitive now as well. He tensed up with a soft, high sound and mentally nodded that yep, that was much better. Cass' eyes widened at the sound and he slipped his hand between them as well, brushing his fingertips against Tavros' hand, and then down to the other's nook, where he brushed his fingertips around the outside folds at first.

"S'good that you healed from that, then. It'd be a damned shame if you didn't get anything from this." He pressed a soft kiss to Tavros' neck again and slipped his fingers in, not quite used to this particular act at all.

"Well, I could do it before, it just wasn't..." Tavros shuddered at the longer fingers running over the slick skin and slipping up into him. His arm came up to wrap around Cass' neck and rest over his shoulder while the other hand guided the touch a little deeper, his hips moving with it. His bulge coiled and tightened down that much more, covering Cass' skin in a thin layer of fragrant fluid.

Cass' breath caught sharply and he slipped his fingers deeper, brushing his fingertips against the sensitive walls. "Hnn, I hear you. Not as pleasant or as strong. Glad it's changed for you," he murmured as he nipped Tavros' neck and down his shoulder, before he lightly sucked a spot into the other's skin, just at the curving corner of the other's neck.

"You did that," Tavros pointed out, his eyes closed as he pressed his forehead against Cass' cheek. The thought slipped away as the tips of those long fingers brushed up against a tender spot deep inside him, his breath catching then shuddering out accompanied by another, softer moan. "Faster. Please..."

Cass' blush finally arrived, at the realization that Tavros was right. That he was responsible for this change, even if in the smallest way. He just wanted to keep his friend alive, and was in go mode. He hadn't even been thinking about the potential for healing, and certainly not like this. But now, it was all he could do to keep a steady head as he sped his fingers' movements, and murmur into Tavros' ear, "Do a fair amount better with my dick, mate, just sayin'." He rolled his hips again, huffing a heavy breath at the slick and ridged tentacle around him and the unique pleasure it was presently giving him.

It took more than a little effort on Tavros' part not to start laughing at that, out of nerves and of how funny that had sounded for no discernible reason. He wiggled his fingers down between his bulge and Cass' dick to work them apart then scooted back just enough to be able to lie back and stretch out comfortably. "I'll just take your word for it," he commented, giving Cass a small, slightly nervous little smirk. Cass smirked in kind and pressed a kiss to Tavros' cheek. He never once claimed to be serious minded. It was nice knowing that Tavros understood that on some level, even though what he was noticing was less amusement and more nervousness. He tried to soothe that over mentally with sweet emotions and softly strung together visuals and words that were more intuitive than coherent and structured. As he did that, he rolled over as well, putting his hand down between them to let Tavros' bulge wrap around his hand while he got himself into position.

"I can't say I've done much of this at all," he mentioned. "Even when it comes to the comparable bits of human anatomy." He snuck a kiss to Tavros' lips before he pushed in slowly, savoring each inch and the hot, tingling sensation he got from it, letting out a low, profane groan. Tavros offered him a softer smile and laid a hand on his cheek, turning Cass' head enough to be able to catch his lips again.

"Then just go slow I guess," he murmured then held his breath for a moment while the other sunk into him. He let out a quiet, airy sigh and ran his hand down the back of Cass' neck to rest at his back. At first he didn't move much, simply trying to get used to the penetration deeper in than either of them had been able to reach, then his hips pushed up, the angle putting pressure on a spot that made his ears nearly glow bronze as he groaned deeply. With one hand dipping down to hold Tavros in place, Cass rolled his hips. While he wasn't used to penetration in much regard that didn't involve mouths, he had a grace about him that gave him a bit of a hand up. He leaned down to rest his head against Tavros' shoulder, taking a deep, shuddered breath at the feeling of the other around him. He held back wanting to spill out a million desiring and loving words, instead groaning more loudly than before, his fingers flexing against the small of Tavros' back.

Over time, Tavros was able to relax again and simply move with Cass' thrusts, his voice quiet and sweet and increasingly breathless. He opened his eyes to watch Cass' expression, or at least what he could see of it from his angle. His legs pulled up and wrapped loosely around the other's thighs, tightening down whenever one of them moved just right and he had to shoved his face against Cass' shoulder to keep himself from getting any louder. His own thoughts were a blur of soft, warm colors and sweet nothings, spread out openly in the forefront of his mind. Cass' own vocalizations weren't very loud, but they were nowhere near subtle, either; his moans against Tavros' shoulder and neck were drawn out and silken while he continued to move, his hand moving and pumping Tavros' bulge. He pressed his lips against Tavros' neck as he tried to hold back from getting off too soon. He wanted all of this to last, but after so long of not getting any, and the unique, new sensations overwhelming him, it was a losing battle and he knew it. Tavros didn't seem to be holding back much at all, personally, besides his volume. He held onto Cass' shoulders and the back of his neck and pulled him into a slightly haphazard kiss, moving slowly with each thrust. He tensed up and gave a soft sound of warning into Cass' ear as his nerves started to light up, his pulse thudding in his ears accompanied by the sound of his boyfriend's breathing.

Cass leaned into the kiss with a gruff little grunt, tightening his free arm around Tavros and pulling himself close. When that little warning caught his ear though, he slowed up and sat back, smiling down at Tavros before moving to reach for the bucket, setting it beside Tavros' arm. He wasn't personally certain how things would go at this point, but he was accommodating as best he could, and this first time would give him enough insight to know what to do next time. When Cass handed the bucket over to him to do with what he needed, Tavros offered a soft, slightly anxious smile, one hand wrapping around his bulge and squeezing down and manipulating it while he pushed down a little more insistently onto the other's cock. If he could possibly help it he would try to be the one to get him off, rather than leaving him with just his hand. He'd slowed down, just drawing it out until he could feel the tension and need to release. He pulled up and turned as he sat up with his weight propped on the other hand, holding his bulge steady as the deluge of material finally hit the bottom of the pail, bathing the room in the scent of sugar and cinnamon. He put it back down out of the way once it was done, turning back to Cass with a slightly bashful expression, the blush still resting all the way across his cheeks. Cass kissed him to silence his much louder sound that came up just before Tavros had to slip away to finish up as well, then wrapped his arms around Tavros' shoulders as he came down from the high of orgasm, huffing a soft chuckle against the back of his boyfriend's neck.

"You smell so good," he said with an amused smile. "Like a cookie or..." he couldn't help but hold back a full out laugh at a more fitting comparison. Tavros laughed into the side of Cass' neck, lightheaded and tingling faintly all over. He wrapped his arms loosely around the other's middle, hands resting against the small of his back. It figured that Cass would say something like that. Tavros almost didn't want to know what was on the tail end of that thought.

"You don't smell like much of anything," he replied, though it obviously wasn't a bad thing, nor was it unusual as far as humans were concerned, it seemed.

"Mm, no, guess I don't," Cass said, still amused, "But I suppose I can be envious of a person who personally smells like the least offensive pop tart, that's a lovely thing to smell like when turned on." his smile was sly as he pressed a quick, teasing kiss to Tavros' lips and slipped away to take the bucket towards the bathroom. "Would you like some water?"

Tavros groaned loudly at that comparison and let his head fall back, nose wrinkled as he gave Cass a huffy little smile. He was tempted to grab Cass' sides in a dick revenge move but let it go, instead simply nodding and standing up at the bedside to stretch and scratch a little here and there. A shower would certainly not go amiss, and he announced as much as he headed for the kitchen to draw a glass of water while Cass was preoccupied with the bucket. "What if I ban you from cinnamon poptarts for that?" he called over his shoulder, sipping at the glass as he leaned up against the counter still completely naked.

"I'll switch over to the oatmeal!" came the reply over Cass' shoulder as he rinsed out the bucket in the bathroom, having a seat on the edge of the tub. He observed with faint amusement the viscosity and scent of the fluid, impressed by the vivid color of it. He felt taken by troll biology, wanting to know more about the whys of the fluid. It reminded him of syrup. He stood once the bucket was cleaned out, and rinsed off his thighs and hand, and slipped back to Tavros' side, kissing the other's shoulder before nudging him faintly. "Have a shower, mate, I'll be in bed."

"You might want to at least rinse off a little better," Tavros pointed out, glancing down with an arched brow at the blotch of color that looked as if Cass had been spritzed in the crotch by a spray tanner. He made a face and leaned up to kiss his boyfriend's cheek, then finished his water and shooed Cass off toward the bathroom. At least they could linger a bit then sleep in, or at least he could now that he had a day off.

"Got the most of it, actually," Cass said, wrinkling his own nose at the brown discoloration. "Rather like it, you know, the whole marking of territory passively thing. Shame we don't have something like that. It would've made a few of my prior relationships go much less sideways." He grinned and shrugged, slipping into the tub and turning the water on again. "You know, you should really come with me to California to pick Artan up. Get us both out of the house for a bit, give us something to do. I'd love the company, and I have the impression it'd be enjoyable for you, too."

"I think I would like that," Tavros agreed, stepping into the shower after him and letting his chin rest on Cass' shoulder with his arms resting around his substantially thinner lover's waist. "I might even be able to sit for longer than I used to without having to stop and walk around, since the nerves aren't all messed up anymore." He grinned at the idea and pressed his nose into the crook of Cass' neck, a quiet laugh leaving him muffled by the other's skin. Life was getting better by the day and he couldn't help but bask in the very idea of it.

"That's the plan, then. We'll go, try to convince Artan to leave the lovely coast for a bit, come back and go to the party together." He beamed at the idea of having some simple alone time with Tavros; he liked spending time with the whole group, of course, but there really wasn't a substitute for alone time with his boyfriend. "Strange question, though. Would you prefer I call you my matesprit or is boyfriend just fine? I'm oafish as hell for assuming."

Tavros had to actually think about that one for a moment. He leaned his cheek against Cass' shoulder, frowning thoughtfully at the wall then simply shrugging. "Well, I'll probably call you my matesprit since it's more familiar to me and all, but I don't really care what you go with, since I'm pretty sure you'd feel the same either way right?" He looked up at Cass with a small smile, then stepped around him, his head tilted at an angle to keep his horns from whacking the other in the back of the head. He moved gingerly until he was standing directly in the shower spray, running his hands over the last residual stickiness on his stomach and thighs to wash it away.

"'Course, the terminology doesn't change the emotions behind it, but if you prefer one term over the other, I'm not going to argue it," Cass said with a grin. "So long as it isn't overly trite like lover or whatever. Ugh, I had one, he wouldn't stand for anything but lover. Gross all around." He shuddered, then grinned and kissed Tavros' forehead. "Glad we agree on that, though. It's really just easier to go with what comes naturally, honestly." He grabbed the soap and sponge, going to work to try and scrub the brown away from his legs, to little avail. "Looks like I'm stuck being of a somewhat natural skintone for once."

"Oh no, how tragic," Tavros snorted then dragged his fingers back through his mohawk, slicking it up out of his face as he lifted up to peck Cass' lips before turning the water off and reaching for a towel. "I'll change the sheets if you want. That way nobody has to sleep on a wet spot." There would almost certainly be one, and even if there wasn't he still liked fresh bedding anyway, especially when he was as drowsy as he was starting to get just then.

"You can help me with that, then," Cass said with a smile after leaning into the kiss. Each kiss, he realized, was really something he'd been craving. He slipped out as well, grabbing another towel to wrap around his hips. His hair hadn't gotten very wet except at the very end of his ponytail, and he could handle that well enough. 

Once they'd gotten the fresh bedding on and put the dirtied blankets in a pile near the door, Cass slipped into the clean, cool sheets with a murmur of pleasure, getting comfy and keeping Tavros' horns in mind as he slunk a little deeper into the covers. It had been a rather productive day, despite it being rather slackery for him, and he felt ready to tip off into sleep at any moment. "Thanks for staying the night. It's been lonely. I missed having someone beside me, selfish as it is."

"It doesn't sound selfish to me," Tavros murmured as he turned as much as he could manage onto his side, his arm tucking up under his cheek. He let the other arm rest over Cass' shoulder, the tips of his claws dragging lightly over the nape of his neck. "I'm pretty glad I stayed, myself. It's definitely not something I would pass up if I could do it again some time soon."

Cass' eyes fluttered closed as he rested his own arm under his head, and his other hand on Tavros' hip. "Consider this your open invite to stay the night whenever you wish." He crept his leg closer to Tavros' and smiled at the heat of the other, sneaking just the tiniest bit closer as he drifted off. He was so damn lucky, and he knew it.

In the night, Tavros slept deeply, mind blank into the wee hours. When he startled awake in the morning it took him a moment to figure out that he was awake at all, as heavy as his limbs felt. When he realized that he couldn't move them, he started to panic until he'd reminded himself that he'd woken up too soon. That was why there was a vague sort of squirming unpleasantness around the edges of his vision, surely. He was simply still half-dreaming, obviously. He was still slightly uneasy nonetheless as he tried to go back to sleep. It was either that, or lay awake until he could will his body awake again. Cass, in the meanwhile, had no such misfortune, though his own dreams were laced and lined with the thoughts of his boyfriend, and it took a darker turn for only a few moments until his own mind reached out to gently calm Tavros, even in his unconsciousness. He had, in the time of being asleep, pulled the blanket over his ear and tucked himself around Tavros in the most comfortable way, lightly snoring away. Tavros breathed deeply as he took hold of the sleeping thoughts, curling up against Cass and going back to sleep.

The next time he woke up he was vaguely aware of the room being lighter than it had been, as well as the quiet rumbling of his stomach as he sat up, stretching his arms up over his head. Cass had already gotten up and showered and dressed, and was presently working on breakfast, he could hear him moving around the kitchen. He crossed his legs in front of him as he sat on the edge of the bed, scratching absently at one of the scars that was the only physical remnant of his prosthetics. He entertained the thought for a moment that now there was a pair of disembodied robotic legs simply floating out in the void, for lack of anywhere else to go, and the image amused him just a little bit.

For the first time in a long time, Cass was almost a morning person in demeanor. No, he didn't quite have the energy and peppy attitude one would have with that, but he had a calm, comfortable smile as he cooked himself and Tavros a hot breakfast, while sending brief texts back and forth with a few people who somehow were either still awake, or had woken up just as early as he did. Karkat, being awake at the moment as he prepared for class, had been on the receiving end of one of those texts, and was muttering in caps lock about the cold when Tavros finally happened into the kitchen in yesterday's pants, nose up as if following the scent of breakfast. He stopped at the counter, leaning his elbows against it as he watched Cass cook with a serene smile.

"Isn't it kind of early for you to be mobile?" he asked teasingly then went for the fridge to grab a carton of orange juice as well as a glass from the cabinet.

"I know, it's weird. But then again, I wasn't up 'til four in the morning, so eight is a perfectly reasonable time of morning to be mobile." He smiled at Tavros and leaned over to kiss Tavros' cheek. "So guess who just found out that we're dating, as if I hadn't previously hinted at it extremely heavily the past three times I've been over there."

Meanwhile, Dave was sprawled on the couch, refusing to move from under a thick blanket, pouting at his laptop. "I don't wanna and you can't make me," he complained directly at the schedule on his screen. His class had been bumped back from eleven to two, but that didn't mean he wanted to go any more. "Vantas, make the bullshit end. They moved my class up a couple hours instead of canceling like they're civilized."

"Quiet or I'll make you come to class with me," Karkat muttered as he tied his boots, clomping into the kitchen to grab a thermos full of hot coffee to take with him to class. He pulled his phone out of his pocket again and scanned over the latest message, rolling his eyes. "So did Cass tell you he made his move finally? I mean fucking christ it was obvious he was pale-flushed for Tavros for a long fucking time but now they're actually a _thing_." He shook his head and headed toward the couch, knocking the blanket that had been draped over the back of it over Dave then leaning over it himself.

"They've _been_ a thing, dude. For like, three weeks now," Dave pointed out with a smirk. "How are you suddenly the tail end of the rumor mill? You're basically the gossip king, you should have known this." Dave raised his eyebrows to that, then smiled faintly. "Yeah, that's pretty cool for them though. Like, dumbass was pining for his dude in the sky this whole time, he deserves something a little more terrestrial." He smiled. "Dunno about Nitram, but I know fuzzy's been needing something. They still coming to the party?"

"Yeah, at least that's what Cass was saying. Apparently he's got a relative in California he wants to try and drag along so they're going to make a trip there to grab him." Karkat reached down and ruffled Dave's hair, making a complete mess of it then straightening back up to collect his things to head to class. "I gossip with Eridan and the last people he gives a shit about are Cass and Tavros, regardless of what they're doing. He'd probably say he saw it coming from a mile away anyway. I bet that Gamzee knows by now though, as much as he likes talking with Tavros whenever he gets the chance. Gotta wonder how he feels about all this, after how fucking flushed he was for the guy."

"I'll ask him," Dave said with a small smile. He had a feeling Gamzee would just be happy that Tavros found a niche of happiness for himself. He slid his laptop off his legs and slicked his hair back with both hands as he stood up and went to see Karkat off while on his way to the kitchen to find some food. "You never know, dude, this actually might be good for everyone. I'll come pick you up from class, so you don't get that grouchy bullshit attitude about the cold."

"Dude do you even see me right now? That is my entire outlook, grouchy bullshit attitude about the cold." Shaking his head, Karkat stopped a moment to give Dave a quick kiss goodbye before darting out the door. At least with Terezi still asleep, Dave could have a little bit of time to himself to talk to Cass himself until they all had life-related things to catch up with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanna apologize for how long it's taken to get this up, and how little connectivity it really has with everything else thus far. It's mostly an aside like the encounters between Equius and Vriska, just a fluffy little thing for our peeps that aren't the main peeps. This is almost as out-of-nowhere as Brollux was, but hey, it still works.
> 
> For more information about Cass and his history, you'll have to hit up [1stbornextreme](http://1stbornextreme.dreamwidth.org/), Cass' dreamwidth journal that's comprised of his stuff pre-Asylum.

**Author's Note:**

> It's a little bit shaky starting off, but this is also when CH and I first started writing together. We'd barely spoken beforehand, and they only started chatting at me because of a couple of sketches I'd posted to y!gallery. We were just like "Yooo let's do a Davekat thing" and then it turned into...this monster of a thing. We've developed some new ships over the course of this project, got some real strong attachments to all our muses here.
> 
> This is gonna get long, so fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a hell of a ride.
> 
> Just wish it hadn't killed the little bit of formatting (text color, etc)


End file.
